Hi, Richard!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   [re bagpipes]   
   RW>  [...]  not reconciling what you see with what's   
   RW>  happening is another part of what those things   
   RW>  do, always remember they were created as munitions.   
      
      
              Could be.  The war pipes... i.e. the kind others think of when they   
   think of bagpipes... were *supposed* to scare the heck out of the enemy.  They   
   sound nice from a few miles away, though, if one is not in any danger....  :-)   
      
      
      
   RW>  Entertainment wasn't their thing.   
      
      
              Yes.  I'm more likely to hear them at the local pub on Robbie Burns   
   Day... that's entertainment AFAIC, considering I won't be required to read ODE   
   TO A HAGGIS or something of the sort aloud (I taught English too).  I can just   
   relax & marvel at how well I understand strange accents these days, and wonder   
   why the piper decided to fill the bladder when s/he got to wherever I am.  :-)   
      
      
      
   AH>  I wonder if these suburban kids relate to rap music   
   AH>  because their parents don't... [BEG].   
      
   RW>  I think that's a big part of it with the young folks,   
   RW>  as it was with young folks of our generations too.   
      
      
              Things I've learned from hanging out with the neighbours... after I   
   had been listening to 1960's folk rock in a teenage girl's bedroom, her father   
   said to her "Why don't you listen to good music like [what I'm listening to at   
   the moment]?"  I realized immediately that for him good music = what he liked,   
   and I recognized the station as one which played a lot of "golden oldies".  So   
   as a band teacher I estimated the average age of the parents in the audience &   
   did a number at every concert which was popular when they were teenagers.  ;-)   
      
      
      
   RW>  ONe thing that helped me was the older kids at the   
   RW>  school for the blind, where ad hoc combos of musicians   
   RW>  were as ubiquitous as sandlot baseball among   
   RW>  neighborhood sighted kids.   
      
      
              Meanwhile Dallas & I... being, as it were, neither fish nor fowl...   
   spent much of our time soaking up anything we could find which had printing on   
   it.  Yet IMHO we were all honing the skills we'd need in our adult lives.  :-)   
      
      
      
   RW>  Also, I had an uncle who was heavily into older forms   
   RW>  of jazz.  HE could sit down with me as I was listening   
   RW>  to rock 'n roll, then put something else on the stereo   
   RW>  and show me how one lead to the other.   
      
      
              Good pedagogical technique!  I did much the same with my father one   
   day when I was alone at home with him.  By then I was in university, and I had   
   a recording of Wanda Landowska playing harpsichord with a bunch of stops which   
   I've never heard used anywhere else.  As usual my father was listening to hard   
   rock on the radio because he was accustomed to a noisy work environment & felt   
   uncomfortable without background noise... i.e. his preferred variety of noise.   
   He also liked honky-tonk piano, however.  I explained to him that the sound of   
   the harpsichord was similar & persuaded him to listen for a few moments.  When   
   the music ended I could have put on anything with a harpsichord in it.  And as   
   a band teacher I often demonstrated how something which was on the current hit   
   parade was an updated version of the music teens say they don't like....  :-))   
      
      
      
   RW>  [...] this was late '60's early '70's, and exploration   
   RW>  was the driving force, at least in my world.   
      
      
              Uh-huh.  In retrospect I'd say the music which grabbed my attention   
   at the same age differed a bit... but not too much... from what I was used to.   
      
              Exploration is a driving force with teens & young adults.  They are   
   learning by trial & error what works for them, and stimulating the development   
   of the appropriate brain cells.  If their parents weren't so incredibly boring   
   they probably wouldn't have the courage to leave home & take on that big scary   
   world outside.  Seems to me both of us were more or less on target there.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)