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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 23:20:30 -0600
From: Jon Gindick
Subject: Re: Standard, vs. new notation

Oh please. This horse is dead. If you want to sell books you don't make 'em
hard to understand. If you want to get good, choose the tools that will help
YOU reach your goals. If you want to promote a tab system, raise the flag
and see who salutes. Instead of all this arguing on harp-l, how about some
damned free tab? Me, I like to put out numbers above lyrics, curvey lines,
a little theory, and a CD that inspires as it instructs and gets you
jamming. Seems to work, yet thank God Glenn, Barret ,Harp, Hunter, Myquill,
Winslow, Mikalak, Gage, Filisko,Tulsa, Phil, Pat and McKelvy and the others
(sorry if I haven't mentioned you) are there to fill in the gaps I miss and
conceivably take you higher, cause I ain't changing what works for me and
neither should they and neither should you. But please, If you want to argue
about music or instruction, take a pill, lie down and try to remember why
you started playing/teaching in the first place. I'll never understand the
instinct that reigns among some to make everything the same. (And I don't
mean you, G major, I mean this thread) It's the music, people. It's the art.
It's the damned tone. Choose YOUR tool and get good. There's a billion ways
to get there. A good place to start is my books, cds in your hands, and your
check in my account. What are you waiting for? My website says hello, let's
jam.
Intuitively yours,
Jon Gindick

Jon Gindick
Cross Harp Press/Harmonica Central.com
Books, Tapes, Videos Teaching Blues & Country Harmonica
http://www.gindick.com
http://harptunes.com
"Surf the harp on the web"
800-646-9245

> From: "G maj"
> Reply-To: "G maj"
> Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 18:52:43 +1300
> To: "Glenn Weiser" ,
> Subject: Re: Standard, vs. new notation
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Glenn Weiser
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 3:50 PM
> Subject: Re: Standard, vs. new notation
>
>
>>
>> No battle; they compliment each other.
>> Let me say I can read in all keys and that I believe in the value of
> reading,
>
> I know.
>
>> but if you're going to put harmonica music in writing and expect most
> people to have a chance
>> at understanding it, you must have both tab and notation for the player.
>
> Not at all.
> A literate musician whatever their instrument can make sense of Standard
> Notation without tablature.
>
> Tab with standard notation can explain certain effects and so forth, it
can
> teach a beginner and get them started on standard notation, but depending
on
> what the music is and what you are trying to achieve, it isn't essential
or
> neccessary for the tab to be there for the musician to understand it.
>
>> One isn't much good without the other, either.
>
> Not at all on both counts.
>
> I have learnt songs from Tab alone.
> I have started learning a number of Jazz standards in standard notation
with
> no tablature and have no problem understanding them too.
>
> I know you can do this better than me, so you know that tab is not
essential
> to understand standard notation to play on harmonica .... which begs the
> question ... why on earth did you say that?
>
>> One has to accomodate the reader, that's all, and most players only read
> music mimimally, if at all.
>
> I assume you are referring to Harmonica? You forgot to list where you
got
> the statistic "99%" from.... what was your source for that percentage?
What
> is your source for this information Glen? How were the numbers collected?
> What demographs were covered? Was it just in the USA or did you include
> Europe, Russian & China in this count?
>
> Regardless I can only refer you to my last response on this point.
>
> We don't have to accomadate some people's inability to read standard
> notation, especially if we choose to offer better and better education
> opportunities and raise the expectations for the community.
>
> Accomadating illiteracy only helps propogate it.
> Pandering to illiteratacy is a good strategy if you are trying to sell
your
> books, and I'm wondering if this is colouring your view.
>
> But it does absolutely no good for raising the standards of the harmonica
> community which is what I said before. Pandering to illiterates is a
short
> term fix and does nothing for the long term good of harmonica players in
> general and nothing for the quality of our musician's musical careers.
>
> Point in case: what I'm seeing increasingly with the beginner chromatic
> harmonica players online these days. ~Many~ ask if there is tablature
sites
> or books for chromatic harmonica.
> Simply, there are very few and usually are provided combined with standard
> notation .... end result... most if not all the newbie chromatic
harmonica
> players are learning to read music.... and do. They find out its
expected
> of them to learn to read music, they learn to read music... they are
> literate and have a whole world of music available to them they wouldn't
> have if they only could read tablature. And guess what .... none of that
> music has a single stroke of chromatic harmonica tab. They seem to do
> okay... regardless of the tuning of their chromatic.
>
> The only reason I can see that a big proportion of Diatonic players may
> decide not to is because there is so much published tab out there that
they
> see no point... its easier just to think "if its not broke don't fix it".
> Problem is when they come into a serious professional situation in a
studio,
> or a decent position where they are required to play & learn parts from
> standard charts they're basically screwed from the word go.
>
> That does nothing for the image of the harmonica community, and so forth
> which I've already expressed in the previous post to you.
>
> Paul Farmer recently posted a not so new view about harmonica players
> becoming an integrated part of ensembles.... problem is there aren't that
> many cats out there who have both the chops and the literacy to become and
> integrated part of an ensemble and weave a thread into a tapestry of
> harmonies.
>
> And the terrible tragedy is it doesn't have to be that way.
>
> If the educators, promoters and caretakers of the harmonica communty set
> expectations to a competitive level, ensure education is available and
bring
> about a social expectation of what it is to be a harmonica performer,
> whatever your choice of axe .... well....
> I think the potential of our musicians is amazing ... yet as you point
out,
> the majority are held back by a simple thing like they can't read standard
> notation.
>
>> Sorry if you got a different impression.
>
> No I didn't, I simply have a different point of view of how to resolve
this.
> I don't believe in pandering to the lowest common denominator, whether its
> the majority or not.
>
> I think it is much better to raise people's expectations of themselves and
> give them a bigger vision of what they can become.
>
> Good luck with your books.
>
>
>
>