response 1 of 97:

Jun 29 13:50 UTC 1997

Well, I've never taught music, but I've run across a wide variety of music
teachers, both good and bad.  
If you're looking for helpful advice, I'd have to say the most important thing
is to let people follow their own interests and ideas as much as possible.
When I was taking classical piano lessons, for instance, I really hated it
when teachers took the attitude that 'You have to be playing something by
Bach, you have to be playing something by Mozart", etcetera.  OTOH, when I
had more choice in what I was learning I usually ended up playing some of the
'classics' anyway, and enjoying it a lot more.
Hmm...don't know how much that helps...

response 3 of 97:

Jul 15 21:17 UTC 1997

Your responses have been helpful.  Myself, I think I made it through 11 years
of private piano lessons by being able to play what I wanted to.  I'd have
my teacher play a number of pieces, and then I'd choose what moved me.  I
suppose that's what fueled my talent for expression.  However, teachers have
to each enough fundamentals so students can play with others, and have a basis
to work from.  I'm surprised that the role of a music teacher isn't thought
of more often like that of a coach or personal trainer.  My last teacher was
really good about that.  I decided to study a variety of musical eras, and
she just helped me on my weak areas.  More things were turned over to me--
I was told that I was at a point that I needed to choose my own fingerings.

However, I found classical studies severly lacking in functional playing. 
I studied some improvisation and accompaniment patterns as a music major, but
I was impatient to have those skills catch up to my classical ones.  Some of
it I studied in a jazz forum, which is difficult because so many more  chords
are involved.  I started out improv with picking out notes from the scales
that correspond to the chord changes.  Then I was moved to comp playing rather
quickly, and found I needed to know chord inversions so I could make the chord
changes as close as possible.  I struggled with that difficult task, along
with the often quick tempos of jazz music.  I quickly lost interest in
studying jazz improv anymore.

Learning folk guitar was so different.  Because the approach is so
chord-based, I could play more spontaneously, and without standard notation.
Not surprisingly, my classical guitar skills are lacking since I've memorized
more fingerings as chords than fingerings as individual notes.  It's easier
since guitar chords have more of a shape to them than piano ones do (fretboard
as opposed to a keyboard).

Because guitarists and pianists come from such diametrically different
backgrounds, their attitudes are different, too.  I've heard of guys like
Steve-- most guitarists learn on their own or learn jamming.  I haven't met
many self-taught pianists.  Most of us start at a very early age (I started
at 8) and are exposed to an almost elitist, performance-driven world.  But
the structure is good.  We learn to read standard notation by sight and by
practice, and their is a better emphasis on technique.

Somehow, I wish I could merge the two schools of thought.

And then there are the differences between instrumental and vocal music.  Each
has their own advantages and disadvantages regarding ease to perform, compose,
or to improvise upon.  but I'll save it for another time.

response 5 of 97:

Jul 24 06:22 UTC 1997

One more thing I've *GOT* to ask about.  How do I teach kids to appreciate
the instrumental side of music, and not just the lyrics?  I know of a number
of people who have _no_ skill in music whatsoever, and yet appreciate
instrumental music.  More often, I have found people with some skill, but I
do find these exceptions.

One of my biggest complaints about Generation X is that they don't really
listen to music; they listen to lyrics.  It seems very noticable among my age
group, and seems to get progressively worse the younger the kids are.  Please,
someone tell me I'm wrong!  I've seen so much crap in the music industry these
days that is mostly that-- a lot of lyrics, and very little instrumental
talent.

response 7 of 97:

Jul 24 21:57 UTC 1997

I listen to a lot of stuff because it sounds cool, not because of the
profoundness of the lyrics.  I actually do tend to pick apart the pieces of
music I listen to.

response 9 of 97:

Jul 25 07:33 UTC 1997

I'm sure Daniel is right.  A dearth of activity (I think consensus put it
somewhere between the late 60's and early 70's) in pop music would create an
affinity for lyrics.  (See item #58.)  I should have phrased it that the
masses respond hugely to lyrics, but less to instrumentals.  Remember the
linked item on favorite lines from songs?  There was a lot of participation
there.  I also do sense the tide turning as I find more and more popular songs
I like, however, so I see a changing point.

If I do understand it right, the Ann Arbor area is blessed musically.  I'm
fairly biased because the stereotypical Tri-Citian listens to stoner or hick
music (various grunge/punk and country genres).  And when I say hick, I'm
talking about the Mexicans, too.  No salsa, flamenco, or Mexican dance music
here.  it's mostly Tejano and banda music-- Mexican country.  It's fine for
a while, but it tends to grate on my nerves (they sing with a drawl, too, so
I have a hard time understanding them).

I have got to move..

response 11 of 97:

Jul 28 02:32 UTC 1997

(Besides, good lyrics are poetry, good in their own right, without the music,
but most likely enhanced by it. )

response 13 of 97:

Jul 29 05:51 UTC 1997

  Count me as one who doesn't "truly appreciate" John Williams.
  Perhaps I'm just insufficiently familiar with his work but my
  impression is that he's written the Star Wars soundtrack about
  60 or 70 times by now (i.e. everything he does winds up sounding
  alike to me (and it's not a style I particularly enjoyed to begin
  with, although it *is* well suited for certain movies..))

response 15 of 97:

Jul 30 09:09 UTC 1997

Williams has incredible diversity, when he needs to have it, and his scores
are popping up everywhere I look, even when I don't expect them.  It's a shame
that the classical music community doesn't recognize him for what he is more
and use him as a branch to bring more of the general public into classical
music.  

response 17 of 97:

Jul 31 07:41 UTC 1997

  It's a style of music that originated in Jamaica in the early 70s
  (or possibly late 60s)  Reggae songs from popular local artists were
  often produced as singles with the B side being the instrumental track
  with no vocals.  It soon became popular for local DJs to mess with the
  instrumental tracks (referred to as "versions") adding sound effects
  or toasting or messing with the speed of the recording.  Eventually
  the most creative practitioners turned there experimentation into a
  whole new art form.  Whenever a new reggae single came out the best
  dubbers would take the version side and alter it by remixing, adding
  and taking away, and generally doing strange things to the original
  recording until they'd turned it into something new.  It was not at
  all uncommon for the dubbed version to become more popular than the
  original track.

  Eventually dub music gained international popularity and the same
  process that the early practitioners had applied to those Jamaican
  reggae singles was applied to all sorts of other music -- today dub
  is no longer tied to its Jamaican roots.  Dub reggae probably still
  makes up the majority of the dub music produced, however, though ambient
  and electronic dub have decent-sized scenes in Europe and the influence
  of dub can be heard in some recent trends such as jungle and drum'n'bass.

  If you'd like to hear some dub the Mad Professor v. Massive Attack album
  I've mentioned is probably a good starting place for modern dub.  For
  really good original Jamaican dub I very strongly recommend the Augustus
  Pablo album "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown" or the collection "Dub Chill
  Out" which prominently features the work of King Tubby, the undoubted
  master of dub music, as well as tracks by other influential dub artists
  (Prince Jammy, Augustus Pablo, Scientist, etc..)

response 19 of 97:

Aug 1 06:25 UTC 1997

 !

response 21 of 97:

Aug 1 23:27 UTC 1997

Finally, I've found one well-known movie theme since 1975 that Williams
*hasn't written (Ghostbusters.  I posted something about this a few months
ago.)  Every time I hear a movie theme that I think is good and might have
a chance, John turns out to be the composer.  With Star Wars, Superman, the
Jurassic Park movies, Jaws, and a multitude of others, it's almost impossible
*not* to hear John Williams music at some point or another.  

response 23 of 97:

Aug 2 17:32 UTC 1997

I appreciate John Williams for his music, not for the movies.  I have several
of the soundtracks, and listen to them. 

BTW, for what it's worth, WQRS, the classical station here, gives Williams
equal air time with Bach and Mozart and the rest.