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I had pretty serious musical training that lasted for a few years. Anyways, my teachers were crazy imaginative. They would also build stuff from what looked lik

I had pretty serious musical training that lasted for a few years. Anyways, my teachers were crazy imaginative. They would also build stuff from what looked like scraps - insulated and strengthened jacks, book shelves, studio monitor stands, etc, etc. I wonder what makes them tick like this!

jwmc 13y ago
I've never had serious musical training, but I've spent a lot of time picking tunes with old folkies. A lot of those guys are absolutely the same when it comes to this sort of creativity, and I picked up a lot of advice that I like to think has stuck with me ever since. I remember I was nervous as hell when I'd just started heading along to jams - here was me, having learned a bit about scales and a few chords, yet wondering how I could ever contribute to the wonderful sounds this group was creating. It was an old gentleman in his 70s who just turned around, saw me sat there overwhelmed, trying to figure out what was going on, and said "We've got seven notes in a scale, and most of these tunes'll barely use half of 'em!". Music, at its heart, is the ultimate in making do with what you have - I just think that folkies are more likely to admit it!
- agumonkey 13y ago
  Completely agree with the last sentence.
ctdonath 13y ago
Before the days of time-sucking TVs and you-need-this prolific advertising and anything-anywhere-now product availability, people spent a lot of their time doing what they could with what they had. Radios out of scrap wire & fragmentary parts, goofy vehicles from whatever rods & panels available, toys from broken widgets, etc. "Lifehacking" was the norm. "Recycling" wasn't a different-colored trash bin, it was repurposing every part of everything conceivable; even food waste was turned into quality dirt. When a plane crashed near my great-grandparent's farm, they hauled the whole thing back to the farm and used every part of it. Partly out of frugal economic necessity, partly out of limited product availability, partly out of sheer raging boredom. It's not so much that your teachers were crazy imaginative, it's that most people today are so freaking lazy and rich (while claiming overwork & poverty).

jwmc 13y ago

I've never had serious musical training, but I've spent a lot of time picking tunes with old folkies. A lot of those guys are absolutely the same when it comes to this sort of creativity, and I picked up a lot of advice that I like to think has stuck with me ever since. I remember I was nervous as hell when I'd just started heading along to jams - here was me, having learned a bit about scales and a few chords, yet wondering how I could ever contribute to the wonderful sounds this group was creating. It was an old gentleman in his 70s who just turned around, saw me sat there overwhelmed, trying to figure out what was going on, and said "We've got seven notes in a scale, and most of these tunes'll barely use half of 'em!". Music, at its heart, is the ultimate in making do with what you have - I just think that folkies are more likely to admit it!

agumonkey 13y ago
Completely agree with the last sentence.

ctdonath 13y ago

Before the days of time-sucking TVs and you-need-this prolific advertising and anything-anywhere-now product availability, people spent a lot of their time doing what they could with what they had. Radios out of scrap wire & fragmentary parts, goofy vehicles from whatever rods & panels available, toys from broken widgets, etc. "Lifehacking" was the norm. "Recycling" wasn't a different-colored trash bin, it was repurposing every part of everything conceivable; even food waste was turned into quality dirt. When a plane crashed near my great-grandparent's farm, they hauled the whole thing back to the farm and used every part of it. Partly out of frugal economic necessity, partly out of limited product availability, partly out of sheer raging boredom. It's not so much that your teachers were crazy imaginative, it's that most people today are so freaking lazy and rich (while claiming overwork & poverty).