Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (condensed)

[Kim Flint <kflint@chromatic.com>]

Yet more proof that guitarists are the most arrogant people on earth....

Could we please broaden our minds a little bit and stop trying to prove 
that
one approach to music is oh so much more special than another? There's no
need to be threatened by someone who's a bit different from you. Learn from
the differences, you might grow a little bit. 

kim

(and next time you want to make gross generalities about some group or
another, recall that you live in texas and there's no shortage of good
redneck jokes! :-) )



At 07:12 PM 8/11/97 -0500, Mikell D. Nelson wrote:
>Ian///Shakespace wrote:
>> A DJ's abilities as a DJ are just as inate as a guitarist's abilities 
>as a
>> guitarist... you're born with a certain amount of talent that you hone
>> through practice. ... I really don't see a difference between a 
>guitarist
practicing his
>> craft and a DJ practicing his. ... a DJ is grafting, adding elements and
>> removing, much the same way as a guitarists picking or strumming may 
>add or
>> take away notes from a riff.
>
>  Creativity can be brought to almost any human endeaver, but that
>doesn't make two activities equal in a more important sense. A jock can
>pick the sample, playback rate, & what context he drops the sample into.
>But a guitarist can do equivalent things AND choose tone, phrasing, &
>attack; he can bend notes, add vibrato, & play harmonics. The number of
>options available for expression affects the power and expressiveness of
>the instrument or method. A 7 note thumb piano is not as capable of
>expressing human emotion as a tenor saxophone.
>  Another way to say this is that if you don't play guitar but want to
>play like Alan Holdsworth, then you had better get started; it'll be a
>10 or 20 year journey if it's even attainable for you. However, becoming
>a great DJ might take a few months to a year and a half; again, if you
>have it in you. So... is there a difference in the activities because
>one is more difficult. Certainly. If you master a more powerful,
>expressive medium you can create more emotional, evocative music.
>  Another angle is that the DJ chooses a piece of music (sound), *that
>someone else created*, to add to his mix. The guitarist makes the same
>choice but uses his own pallet, his own voice.
>
>  On another, somewhat related, note I have always thought that some
>instruments are more expressive than others, and wondered why. Why are
>there more sax, guitar, trumpet or violin solos than other instruments?
>The best answer I've come up with so far seems to be the point I was
>making above about the options. The number of ways an instruments can
>shape a note is directly related to it's expressive power. There is a
>reason sax is more popular than French horn; or guitar more popular than
>banjo. I believe great players can touch us more deeply with these
>instruments.
>
>Look out... incoming...
>
>Motley
>
>
>
________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                      408-752-9284
Mpact System Engineering       kflint@chromatic.com
Chromatic Research             http://www.chromatic.com