Conference napalm::guitar

    As the average guitarist is usually not musically literate...at least
    they don't seem to be, a great deal of the discussion on technique,
    theory etc. seems to die due to lack of understanding on the part of
    those of us who haven't been to school...perhaps I'm just speaking for
    myself. When you don't speak the same language it's difficult to
    communicate. The average VT in use doesn't lend itself to drawing
    pictures to illustrate either....not to mention the lack of decent
    graphics software to the average noter...
    
    Equipment reviews are very important to those of us who try to get the
    best bang for the buck out of our purchases. I wish that COMMUSIC
    had been more active around the time I bought my synth, I wouldn't
    have spent $1K on an obsolete synth. Also it is valuable to have
    info like mail order dealers that give us a great deal, mostly this
    has been confined to COMMUSIC but I've mentioned a few here that
    I thought were worth giving a call. And finally being as I am at
    a remote site, not only in terms of the Corporation but Augusta
    is kinda remote in terms of music stores that are well stocked,
    again the reviews are helpful in getting a feel for things I can't
    get out to touch without a long drive.
    
    If you feel that discussions of other things are in order then by
    all means enter them and start the ball rolling. So far this file
    has met my needs and my expectations. 
    
    dave
    
    
    Methinks this might have been spurred on by the similar discussion
    in COMMUSIC?

	Gee Dave?!! I was always harrased at school that Rock musicians
always talk hardware and Jazz musicians talk theory and music. :^)

	If the general concensus want's this,so be it! But,it would be
much better if someone who knows starts with some basics so even the
beginners can plug along and learn from all the old timers and educated
bunch. What's the sense of talking about lydian modal scales or indian raga's 
over Maj7 chords when you can't read the text(yet you speak the language) :^) 

I'm all for it! And I'm sure there are some people who would love to get there
guitar/music lessons from the notes. Who want's to start the basic's? 

	Volunteers?


Comment:
	The notesfile suit's my needs which are more inclined towards
info and discussions on hardware,but I'm more than willing to contribute
to theoretical discussions when I have the time.....

							Rick

    No, you guys misunderstand.
    
    I'm not questioning the importance of discussions of equipment.
    
    I guess you could summarize my original note as asking the question
    "Doesn't anyone want to talk about anything else?"
    
    Dave Bottom pointed out that there are some limitations imposed
    by the medium, so I might rephrase my question to be "Isn't there
    anything else we can talk about."
    
    There have been some non-equipment related notes but there doesn't
    seem to be much enthusiasm for them.
    
    	db

    First of all I'd like to say that this is my favorite notes conference.
    It's helped me to get access a lot of information and opinions (yes,
    they help too) that I'd never have gotten otherwise.
    
    My reaction to this note is that music is to be played, not talked
    about. Like cars are to be driven, sailboats are to be sailed, etc.
    A certain amount of understanding the theory behind what you do
    can be useful (I've had my share), but personally I find too much
    to be boring. Hardware, on the other hand, is a reality that we
    all have to live with, and it's worth hearing other peoples'
    experiences in that regard.
    
    Not to come down too hard on theory and technique. If somebody knows
    something that has worked for them, let's hear about it. I've just
    found that I get a lot more out of listening and watching somebody
    play for 5 minutes than I could get out of years of talking about
    it.
    
    - Ram

    Congratulation Dave! You have us talking about something  other
    then equipment. I think this note file is great! There is a lot
    of good information here about equipment and theory.
    
    Yes, I will agree that some of the notes are long and boring, but
    it who knows if the information would be of value some day.
    

    Well I think I misunderstood a bit anyway..I'd love to have a
    discussion that started with basic scales ie: major/minor and worked
    it way through modes etc...another one on chord theory would be
    nice also...I'm intent on teaching myself to sight read and have
    begun putting a bit of time into it...technically in terms of reading
    I'm woefully ignorant. I can't begin it but I could ask questions
    once it began.
    
    dae
    
    

    
    GUITAR seems good to me - if nothing else, I know what topic I
    *should* be talking about.  Nothing against the equipment side
    of things.  I play, but I'm not real strong on theory - so it's
    hard for me to start something along those lines.
    
    I do like reading about it though.  It gives me a chance to 'pick
    up' on things that I'd, otherwise, not find out about.

    							Rich

        Those of  us who play only or primarily acoustic guitar have only
        limited interest in  the  many  notes on amps and accessories and
        effects, etc.  I  think about the differnce between Guitar Player
        Magazine and Frets Magazine, and  wonder how many people might be
        interested  in  having their own notesfile  for  acoustic  string
        musicians.  A "Frets" style notesfile would  reduce the amount of
        topics  on  amps  and  effects,  etc,  but would  also  open  the
        discussion  to  people  who  may  play  other  acoustic  stringed
        instuments like mandolin, banjo, etc.  They have no conference to
        turn to  for their musical interests.  Perhaps in this confernce,
        since there is  a  narrower  range  of  "hardware" other than the
        instruments themselves, more discussion would center on technique
        and music.
        
        

    
    Those of you who play acoustic instruments, and non-guitar acoustic
    stuff may want to know about ESPN::FOLK_MUSIC.
    
    That conference is much less musician oriented but a lot of acoustic
    players can be found there.
    

    I have to agree that before I got back into playing electric I didn't
    find this conference to be very interesting. Also, as Brian said,
    the FOLK_MUSIC conference is not very musician oriented, and is
    heavily weighted towards 'traditional' folk music, as opposed to
    contemporary acoustic music. I could go for a separate conference
    on acoustic instruments.
    
    Again, I feel like there are plenty of books and instruction available
    on music theory, so I don't really feel it needs to be discussed in the
    notesfile, unless someone has specific questions that they can't readily
    find the answers to. 

    - Ram

        The Folk_Music notesfile  is primarily LISTENER oriented.  I read
        that conference daily.  However, as others have stated, it is not
        a  file  aimed  primarily  at    the    interests  of  MUSICIANS,
        (performers.)  although many musicians participate.
        

    Theory and technique aren't the only alternatives to talking about
    equipment.

    re: .12 Say some more about this please
                                  
    dave

    re: .13
    
    See my latest notes.  I think these are interesting topics.

    I think it would help if we came up with a standard way of 
    illustrating chords. Even without graphics capability, we
    should be able to get our point across. For example
    
    	Cmajor
    	======
    	    1
    	------ first fret
    	  2
    	------
    	 3
    	------
                         
    
    	If we could do something along these lines, we could communicate
    our musical thoughts through this file. Plenty of times I have
    wanted to share some of my favorite jams with noters, so that I
    could share what I know as well as solicate ideas someone may have
    for chord changes, soloing scales, techniques, etc. I can't speak
    for anyone else, but I know that my ear is decent enough that if
    someone described a tune with chords, and a basic idea of melody
    I can pretty much hear it in my head. 
    
    	Another idea is to start a chord library somewhere is this notes
    file, where people could enter some of the more basic, as well as
    the more obscure chord diagrams. Then if someone wanted to describe
    how a tune sounds they could refer to note xx, reply yy, chord position
    zz.
    
    							Mark Jacques
    
    

RE:   < Note 417.6 by MTBLUE::BOTTOM_DAVID "Not so famous rock star" >
    Also .14

    >Well I think I misunderstood a bit anyway..I'd love to have a
    >discussion that started with basic scales ie: major/minor and worked
    >it way through modes etc...another one on chord theory would be
    >nice also...I'm intent on teaching myself to sight read and have
    >begun putting a bit of time into it...technically in terms of reading
    >I'm woefully ignorant. I can't begin it but I could ask questions
    >once it began.
    
    
    I'm also in this same position.  Would like to see some information
    on this.  I know that I can find this in many books on the subject,
    but I don't know which ones are good (but that's another note subject)
    and many times don't have time to read them (I know...that's my
    problem).  
    
    I think that note #380 was a plea along the same lines, requesting
    some theory and technique information.
    
    Also, I'm not knocking the discussion of equipment, the information
    found here is the best I know of.  I don't trust the reviews in
    magazines, too easy for them to be biased and/or "influenced".
    
    I'm also in Dave's position, would like to see it, but don't know
    enough to begin the discussion.  Perhaps part of the basic problem
    here is the different levels (both current and desired) of knowledge
    and experience among the noters.
    
    RE: .0 (I think) where Dave B. said something about theory discussions
         not going anywhere.
    
    It seems to me (perhaps my ignorance) that theory questions have
    a definative answer and therefore require no discussion once that
    answer has been presented...
    
    Just a few cents worth,
    Greg

    re: -2.  An alternative?
    
    ====== nut
    ||||o|         I always let whoever wants to play the chord figure
    ++++++         out what fingers they want to use.
    ||o|||
    ++++++
    oo||||
    ++++++
      C

    bye the way dave, i'm very much into theory, notation, transcription,
    etc.  i'm working on a program which will allow you to set up a
    sequence of notes in a file and then perform some standard and not
    so standard transformations on them.  i think i'll start a new note
    about it....
    
    -max-

    re .17: This has already been done. Check out note 174. You can
    enter any sequence of notes relative to any key and have them
    printed up and down the neck. All the instructions are there.
    
    -Dave