[Harp-L] Ignorance of theory

["Dave Murray" <dmurray777@xxxxxxx>]

> I may be ignorant in your opinion but I'm going to keep listening to the 
> music I love. Without discrimination for or against what the musician 
> knows about theory. --Harri

Harri, ignorance is nothing more than not knowing about something. All of us 
don't know something about something, nobody knows everything so we are all 
ignorant of something. Personally, I don't think that being ignorant of 
things in areas that I'm interested in could be considered a good thing. I 
want to know all about things that I'm interested in. But I'm a geek, people 
are not all the same.

My daughter gets upset that her husband isn't mechanically inclined. Growing 
up in my home she got the idea that it was a guy thing to be able to fix 
things. It isn't, lots of guys are mechanically hopeless. Lots of people in 
general don't understand things, mostly because they don't care to. My wife 
doesn't care how her car works, only that it does work. She is not the least 
bit ashamed of being ignorant of how her car works.

If you don't know music theory you are not ignorant "in anyone's opinion", 
you are ignorant (of music theory), not to be confused with stupidity or any 
other inflammatory thing. To me, people not knowing, or wanting to know 
about the theory of things that they are interested in is completely 
unfathomable. But I grew up making go-carts out of scrap wood, discarded 
lawnmower engines, and wagon, or buggy, wheels. Knowing about how things 
work (theory) is essential to me. It isn't some dry useless thing for people 
like me, it suits how our minds work. I am well aware that many people do 
not consider ignorance to be a sin, and go through life just fine that way.

After having said all that, I'll admit that I'm ignorant of how to overblow 
on a diatonic harp. I'm not ashamed of it because life is too short and I 
have other activities that I place a higher priority on. We all have stuff 
like that. The wording of your reply leads me to believe that you were 
offended. Don't be. I don't presume to speak for Richard, but it is clear 
that for him to be ignorant of something that he is acutely interested would 
suck bad for him. We all have to decide what is important to us. Since this 
is a discussion list about the harmonica, it is probably safe to assume that 
all of us wish to eliminate some area of our ignorance, so we're all cool.

Peace and music,
Dave