> [Krimel] > I think Case is, in fact cutting off his nose to spite his face. I think > he is being stubborn and frivolous. But I don't play guitar or study music > theory so he never listens to me.
[John] Well I do, so maybe he'll "listen" to me. Case? Just keep on keepin' on. I have three cousins who's dad is in a band and a retired high school music teacher. They all grew up learning theory and practicing a mandated 1 1/2 hours per day. They were all talented and really good at their instruments when they were kids. Since they became adults, not one of them has picked up an instrument. They've forgotten everything they learned. They hated music. [Case] I never listen to Krimel. We all have our reason but is seems like nobody does. In my case it is definitely a case of familiarity breading contempt. [John] I, on the other hand, have simply plunked along for pleasure my whole life and still enjoy playing guitar. Those that listen to me enjoy my guitar playing also. I will say tho, that my pleasure is increased when somebody teaches me a new trick, or I add some knowledge and it was a great deal of improvement to learn to read music and gain some theory - it helps tremendously to have some intellectual knowledge in hand when you go experimenting. But you do have to find the right sort of teacher - one that takes you where you are and boosts you up. [Case] Despite what Krimel said, the truth is I am too stupid to learn to read sheet music. I can just manage to figure out tabs sometimes but all that effort just takes time away from banging on the damn thing which is all I really care about doing. Here is something I wrote a long, long time ago but Here is something I wrote a long, long time ago but you know, some things never change: I play on my guitar I don't play it very well I ask no one to listen They can all go straight to hell The tunes I play aren't organized The words I sing don't rhyme But it's still the best that I can do In such chaotic times So if you want to gather 'round And hear this noise I play You can bring your own opinions But I'm giving mine away I'm sure I'd try to sell them If they'd opened any doors But so far they've been useless And I don't need them anymore. Come to think of it, I guess the last part was for Krimel. [John] I can also say, that guitar saved my life. I had an accident 8 years ago that severed my median nerve at the elbow, the left elbow. According to the doctor, such damage is irreversible. Nerves don't regenerate past a certain point. However, an interesting phenemona of music is that over the years your neural pathways do this "left brain/right brain" cross development and because of the guitar playing and the odd musically generated neural development in my left hand, my nerves rebuilt the motor connections that enable me to work today, even though I still have no feeling in my thumb or fingers. Doctor is amazed and I? I-I-I believe in music, I-I-I believe in Love. [Case] Congratulations on beating the odds. I lost the ability to play last year as the result of a neurological condition and had to just about start from scratch. I saw Platt's comments on this and just want to say the Quality of thinking around here is really tanking. Somehow, you being able to recover from an injury means we should toss out medicine and all of science. Nobody ever accused me of being and expert on anything so here's an article on brain plasticity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity Basically the nerves are among the only cells in our bodies that do not replace themselves or regrow. However, often we can retrain other nerves or other parts of the brain to pick up the slack when some parts are damaged. There is a guy named Taub who developed a program to help stroke victims recover function of their limbs years after a stroke. The conventional wisdom had been that after a year stroke victim should have recovered all of the function they were ever going to. Oddly, Taub did not recommend abandoning science over this. Like Platt, I applaud your persistence. I have pretty good idea of how hard it is to play when you can't rely on sensation from your hands. On the other hand I don't plan to scrap my computer over it. Let me ask you this, did your doctor tell you that you *would* lose function in your hand or that you would probably lose function in you hand. Did he pronounce your recovery a miracle and turn to faith healing or tell you that you had beaten the odds? 'Cause my doctor usually just tells me what the range of probability is that this or that will happen. He doesn't make promises. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
