Hello Ardith,   
      
   On Tue 2039-Apr-12 18:16, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   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.   
      
      
   AH>            Could be.  The war pipes... i.e. the kind others think of   
   AH> when they think of bagpipes... were *supposed* to scare the heck out   
   AH> of the enemy.  They sound nice from a few miles away, though, if one   
   AH> is not in any danger....  :-)    
      
   RIght, but when they're oming close they make quite a noise   
   .   
      
      
      
      
   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.   
      
      
   AH>            Things I've learned from hanging out with the   
   AH> neighbours... after I had been listening to 1960's folk rock in a   
   AH> teenage girl's bedroom, her father said to her "Why don't you listen   
   AH> to good music like [what I'm listening to at the moment]?"  I   
   AH> realized immediately that for him good music = what he liked, and I   
   AH> recognized the station as one which played a lot of "golden oldies".   
   AH> So as a band teacher I estimated the average age of the parents in   
   AH> the audience & did a number at every concert which was popular when   
   AH> they were teenagers.  ;-)    
      
   GOod plan.  Makes the parents feel better too when they hear something they   
   recognize .   
      
      
   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.   
      
   AH>            Meanwhile Dallas & I... being, as it were, neither fish   
   AH> nor fowl... spent much of our time soaking up anything we could find   
   AH> which had printing on it.  Yet IMHO we were all honing the skills   
   AH> we'd need in our adult lives.  :-)    
      
   YEp, hopefully will never quit "honing my skills."   
      
   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.   
      
   AH>            Good pedagogical technique!  I did much the same with my   
   AH> father one day when I was alone at home with him.  By then I was in   
   AH> university, and I had a recording of Wanda Landowska playing   
   AH> harpsichord with a bunch of stops which I've never heard used   
   AH> anywhere else.  As usual my father was listening to hard rock on the   
   AH> radio because he was accustomed to a noisy work environment & felt   
   AH> uncomfortable without background noise... i.e. his preferred variety   
   AH> of noise. He also liked honky-tonk piano, however.  I explained to   
   AH> him that the sound of the harpsichord was similar & persuaded him to   
   AH> listen for a few moments.  When the music ended I could have put on   
   AH> anything with a harpsichord in it.  And as a band teacher I often   
   AH> demonstrated how something which was on the current hit parade was   
   AH> an updated version of the music teens say they don't like....  :-))    
      
   INdeed, we find it easier to get behind the unfamiliar if   
   it's presented in a familiar context.   
      
   RW>  [...] this was late '60's early '70's, and exploration   
   RW>  was the driving force, at least in my world.   
      
   AH>            Uh-huh.  In retrospect I'd say the music which grabbed my   
   AH> attention at the same age differed a bit... but not too much... from   
   AH> what I was used to.    
      
   rIght, but there again my cultural frames of reference were   
   all over the map, thanks to residential school with kids   
   from all sorts of backgrounds.   
      
   AH>            Exploration is a driving force with teens & young adults.   
   AH> They are learning by trial & error what works for them, and   
   AH> stimulating the development of the appropriate brain cells.  If   
   AH> their parents weren't so incredibly boring they probably wouldn't   
   AH> have the courage to leave home & take on that big scary world   
   AH> outside.  Seems to me both of us were more or less on target there.    
   AH> :-)    
      
   INdeed, and now in middle age I find myself reluctant often   
   to explore the unfamiliar, being just waht I criticized my   
   parents for eing in fact.  THat's one thing i enjoyed about   
   living in NEw ORleans, it forced me to come out of the   
   cocoon of the familiar a bit once e in awhile, try a food   
   from somewhere else, check out some music that I normally   
   wouldn't encounter, etc.   
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   --- timEd 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)