Edward- Correct. And I've heard most of these jokes with "Banjo" replaced by "Guitar", which is my torture device of choice. :) (I also started as a trumpet player- what my parents must have endured!) Tim
________________________________ From: Pollak, Edward [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 6:24 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Ethnomusicologists against torture Just FYI............... the ultimate compendium of music jokes is maintained by a guy at M.I.T. and may be found at http://www.mit.edu/people/jcb/jokes/ <http://www.mit.edu/people/jcb/jokes/> . Too many of these are simply recast versions of old lawyer and blond jokes. (The current banjoist in my band is delightful young woman with long blond hair. And her predecessor was a banjoist and a lawyer. These are people with difficult rows to hoe!) But there are a few jokes that are fairly unique to the banjo. My personal favorites are: Q. How can you tell when a banjo player is knocking at your front door? A. He keeps getting faster & faster & never knows when to come in. and Q. How do you tell if the stage is level at a bluegrass festival? A. The banjo player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth. For some reason, the violist is considered the banjoist of the classical music world. Psychology relevance: I often use examples from my fiddle plain to explain such concepts as a) declarative vs. procedural memory b) massed vs. distributed practice c) to illustrate the Jaynesian contention that consciousness actually interferes with skilled performance d) The Yerkes-Dodson law and the effect of beta blockers and the autonomic nervous system on the performances of concert violinists. And Chris, I too, started out as a trumpet player. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Department of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania West Chester, PA 19383 Office hours: Mon. 12-2 p.m. & 3-4 p.m.; Tues. & Thurs. 8- 9:15 a.m. & 11a.m. - 2 p.m. & by appt. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm <http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and herpetoculturist...... in approximate order of importance. --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang= english --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
