(Was)Re: "Watching the World" by Triple Play

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark;
          I think your post is relevant to almost all players in one way or another.
In the admittedly small pond that I splash around in (Southern Hemisphere, Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, Brunswick
(East) Lomond Hotel, front bar ,2nd stool, NW corner, my own brain) I think a lot of people consider me to be a pretty
knowledgable, proficient player.
         When I started playing, my entire knowledge was based on my cousin saying "you should play something" giving
me a 'G' harp, and playing some piano for me (didn't even know what I was doing) plus, a little later, a handful of
blues records, a copy of Tony Glover's book and the opinion of the old codgers down at the Victorian Railways goodsyards
where I worked, who reckoned you were no bloody good unless you could play 'Irish Washerwoman' (I learned it)
          Now I can tounge-block, tongue-switch, overblow, play proficiently in a half- dozen keys (or perhaps I should
say 'modes') and badly in a few more; play the chromatic badly enough to enjoy myself and have some hope for the future
- - and yet, when I get onto the net, I begin to feel hopelessly inadequate.
          You just have to keep in mind what you are doing all this for. The idea is to express yourself, and that
means saying what you have to say as clearly and succinctly as you can without using any big words for effect that you
don't fully understand the meaning of (OK; I'm using spoken language as an analogy for music here)
                    I know players who have greater technique than mine, but who leave me cold after a couple of
choruses, because all they are doing is showing off and saying nothing that communicates any human feeling. As a  good
friend  once pointed out, super- technique is often used like the inflatable head-gear of the frill-neck lizard: ie to
repel perceived enemies.
          Recently I dropped into a blues jam, had a play, then sat back and listened to the others. Unlike me, most of
them had no 'professional' track record; but I must say I was a little humbled by what I heard. Not by technique, but by
good, honest unpretentious playing that often included many well-worn licks, but that sounded fresh and good to my ears,
because the player was playing for the right reasons; to enjoy themselves and unselfishly and unreservedly share their
enjoyment with the rest of us.
           The information available to us via the WWW etc. is so vast that it is easy to become intimidated by it.
            I try to be aware of it, yet ignore it and get on with my own little game.  If this fails, I simply ignore
it.
            It's not a race or a competition.
Have fun!
Rick Dempster   
PS. Hope to meet up at the Sydney Harmonica Fest. in June       

Quote from M.Crowley's post:
<<us beginners have seen the highjumpbar raised incredibly above the rooftops with recent talk of JI, then there was
the discussion of being in/out of tune.... and the possibility of spending yr entire life being ignorantly out of
tune...
now a player like Robert Bonfiglio muses on somebody else's "weird time signatures"....
ulp.... (what the @#%^?)
i don't know about 'rage' but there's precious little 'bliss' at the low rungs of the ladder.
does 'stupefaction' provide you a gate pass to the zone?? i doubt it.

these tin lids in my tackle box could well be headed for the bottom of the river if this keeps up.
crowley>>