source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 22:58:31 -0800 Subject: more microdoodling From: bq912@freenet.uchsc.edu (Neil G. Haverstick) Haverstick again...sorry for the rapid departure...I want to finish my train of thought. It's important to say that this commentary is not meant to hurt or offend...hopefully, it's seen how I intend it, as a call to action on the part of those who wish to see this move- ment spread and become successful. My feeling is this...if you want to bridge the gap between music theorist and musician, than more attention needs to be given to the physical/creative demands of actually putting one's ideas across in the real world...there's a lot of great 12 tone musicians out there, and very few great non 12 players...I think this is fact, and I hate to say it. One of the qualities of a great artist, I feel, is the capacity to absorb constructive criticism and profit from it...I know my teachers were very tough on me, and gave no quarter...I personally prefer that way of learning. Well, I think it's time for us microtonal folks to make a strong atatement to the world at large that we have a valid thing going here that is worthy of serious attention...unfortunately, I don't think we have a lot of musical firepower at this point to get the job done. So, again, I suggest a simple solution: practice and study, and get those choppos up to the level of the best 12 tone players, so we CAN be taken seriously...theory is wonderful, but MUSIC is the goal, for me, at least, and I WANT to hear my fellow microdudes doing some scary stuff...alas, as I said, a lot of the music in the field is only fit, I think, for demonstrating theories of tunings, and will not impress folks who could give a poot about anything but the final result, which, again, is music... I recall seeing my teacher, George Keith, at a jazz jam one night, and he did one of the greatest solos I've ever heard...in Kansas City, Ed Toler used to make me shit on a regular basis...Buzz Evans about blew me off the stage once at a country bar, and my friend Bobby Hornbuckle here in Denver is a scary bluesman, one of the best I've heard...I used to practice 8-12 hours a day to get it going, and I don't think that is a bad idea for anyone, especially for those who may think that they are doing something cool by doodling on a non 12 scale for a few moments and thinking they are making a pro- found statement...I am not impressed by this school of music, and as I said, I can't even play a lot of this stuff for people because it isn't happening...and believe me, my teachers were a lot more blunt than this when they were trying to help me develop as a player. I hope to hear non 12 music which makes my hairs stand up...come on, guys...Hstick Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 2 Dec 1996 11:00 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA14248; Mon, 2 Dec 1996 11:02:14 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA13043 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id CAA06260; Mon, 2 Dec 1996 02:02:12 -0800 Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 02:02:12 -0800 Message-Id: <961202100050_71670.2576_HHB27-3@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu