HEllo Ardith,   
      
   On Sat 2039-May-14 23:32, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
      
      
      
   AH>           Uh-huh.  And if a student asks you to help him tune his   
   AH> drones you do *not* want to do it in a small practice room.  I made   
   AH> that mistake once, when I was young & foolish.  I won't do it   
   AH> again....  :-)))   
      
     INdeed.  Still remember working in the studio, guy   
   brought in his own drum kit.  AS I'm wrapping some hardware   
   to silence its rattles he hits a rack tom right next to my   
   right ear.     
      
      
   RW>  GOod plan.  Makes the parents feel better too when they   
   RW>  hear something they recognize .   
      
      
   AH>           Agreed.  I imagine you've used the same principle in your   
   AH> own work... and I've noticed the conductor of our community band   
   AH> doing it as well.  We play at a lot of nursing homes where the age   
   AH> of the audience is fairly predictable & we use a book of folk songs,   
   AH> hymns, light classics etc. in our warmup.  Chances are the "older"   
   AH> crowd will recognize at least one of any three numbers....  :-)    
      
   I do that often, try to give any audience a little something for everybody.    
   Whether it's a prog rock band adapting a   
   familiar folk tune, or playing a prog number at the jazz   
   lounge piano gig, much to the chagrin of a restaurant   
   manager in NEw ORleans where I played their nice STeinway 6   
   days a week for awhile.  ABout the time he and I went round   
   about that one I was talking to one of his waitstaff one day about some   
   customers who sat for quite a long time without   
   waiter trying to sell them desserts or drinks.  Mr. Manager   
   and I had a couple of discussions, and he found out that my   
   study in college was hotel restaurant management.  HE asked   
   me why I didn't work in the industry, and I told him that   
   when I did I found out I didn't like 7 day weeks, sometimes   
   12 hour days.  tHen I pointed it out to him as I'm selling   
   his cashier  $100 worth of small bills one night during   
   Mardi Gras, which came from my tip jug .   
      
   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>           Ah... thanks for the clarification!  I wasn't sure in   
   AH> which order you attended which school because I've known various   
   AH> people who for various reasons transferred to a more specialized   
   AH> environment later.  At residential school you would indeed encounter   
   AH> a variety of kids, and you'd also have an opportunity to get to know   
   AH> them in a way you wouldn't if everyone was returning home at night.   
   AH> One of the things I appreciate about the schools I went to is the   
   AH> socioeconomic mix I found there.  Although I didn't have the same   
   AH> opportunity you did to join ad hoc combos, I learned to get along   
   AH> with people from various walks of life... and I learned that they   
   AH> tend to have different tastes in music.  My only regret is that   
   AH> figuring out what works for me took so many years because the   
   AH> classical snobs & those of decidedly more plebian tastes occupied so   
   AH> much bandwidth.  :-/    
      
   Indeed.  I found there was something from all of it I liked. YEs, being born   
   blind my parents wanted me to get literacy   
   and other skills that I'd truly need my entire life, and did it, in spite of   
   the system I hate to say.  This is because   
   at the period of time I began my education there was a lot   
   of experimentation going on, not all of it for the better   
   for the children.  That's another story, and another thread   
   if anybody's interested >    A lot of opportunities to learn about   
   various styles of music, and good ear training.   
      
      
   RW>  now in middle age I find myself reluctant often to explore   
   RW>  the unfamiliar, being just what I criticized my parents for   
   RW>  being in fact.   
      
   AH>           The upside of middle age is that we already know what   
   AH> suits us & have the gumption to be who we are regardless of whether   
   AH> or not others approve.  The downside is that we can easily become   
   AH> set in our ways to such an extent that we resist trying something   
   AH> new.  As I grow older, I find myself becoming more like my mother.    
   AH> But FWIW I also understand more about what made her tick... [grin].    
      
   INdeed this is true.  A little over a decade ago I remember   
   being invited by a dj friend over to audition some not   
   mainstream rock music he'd acquired from somewhere.  A   
   friend of mine and I sat there and listened with him to one   
   or two cuts from each album, and after about an hour of   
   listening to our commentary he left the stereo silent,   
   looked at us and chided us about being hypercritical.   
      
      
   But then, a couple of weeks later, I came back to him and   
   told him about which groups he'd played that stuck in my   
   memory, one or two with the good old fashioned brain worm of the song he'd   
   played that evening.  YEs, I made notes of   
   which groups he'd played, and which songs.   
   And now, before the rain guess I'd better go outside and see if I can get my   
   new (to me) van organized so that we can   
   load and unload Kathy's wheelchair easier.  SHe's still got   
   to wait to carry her more comfortable one until the bench   
   seat/bed in the rear comes out and goes into storage, which   
   can't happen for a few days yet until a friend of mine meets me there to get   
   the section of radio tower I'm giving him   
   out of there, so that the seat will fit .   
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)