So Much Educating, So Little Time

[Rhomylly]

My co-worker just this minute told me she'd heard some guy on the local radio station this morning wanting to know if anyone gave dulcimer lessons (hammered or mountain, I have NO idea. At the moment I'm listening to my Noel Hill CD, not the radio).

 

Then she says, "Isn't that that thing you play? A dulcimer?"

 

"No, I play a concertina."

 

"Oh, I thought it was a dulcimer. What's a dulcimer?"

 

Taking into consideration my co-worker's general musical knowledge or lack thereof, I said, "It has strings."

 

Am now banging head on desk repeatedly.

[Peter Brook]

Am now banging head on desk repeatedly.

 

So you can play dulcimer then!?

 

However many times you tell people they hear what they want to. My non musical friends always ask me how my accordian playing is going.

[Rhomylly]

actually, I used to play mountain dulcimer when I was a kid. Could play a mean "Go Tell Aunt Rhody"

[JimLucas]

actually, I used to play mountain dulcimer when I was a kid. Could play a mean "Go Tell Aunt Rhody"

Closest I've come to playing dulcimer -- either kind -- is experimenting with a few belonging to others. Never had one at home.

 

Did have an Aunt Rhoda, though.

[Helen]

Oh gee no, Rhomylly, now you are listening to a Noell Hill CD. You are gonna be so far ahead of me at boot camp. Oh no, it's okay. You're banging your head. That'll level the playing field. (HOW'S THAT FOR A DOUBLE LAYER PUN, JIM L.?) hee hee hee.

 

Well I'll just run right over and show your coworker how to play either dulcimer.

I love the strings comment.

 

My coworkers all think I am nuts. Well, um, yeah, I am; but they REALLY don't get the music thing.

 

Helen

[Unseen122]

How could anyone "not get the music thing" whatever I get the same thing at school yeah I am 15 it says so on my you know that thing with all someone's info. If that makes any sense

[Animaterra]

Oh, yes! I teach music at an elementary school, and it's amazing how to some it seems I'm the Keeper of the Mystic Lore, accessible to a chosen few, incomprehensible to most. I'm NOT talking about the children- they love my concertina, have handled a few odd dulcimers in their time, can figure out how to make most any instrument clunk or toot out a tune- but there's several generations of grownups out there who really don't know a thing about music and want to tell you so at every opportunity.

 

It's why I do what I do the way I do it- my main goal is to graduate children who may not be fluently literate music readers, but who know that music is something they can do, understand, enjoy, and create!

[Helen]

Ah well, bless you Allison. Maybe you could do in-services in our workplaces and explain "the music thing" to our coworkers.

 

At least Rhomylly could quit banging her head. I've given up on my coworkers. I just smile at them. Except that just makes them nervous. They kind of back up and shy away when I say anything "musical".

 

Helen

[Guest]

I have a picture on my hard drive at work which shows three gentlemen playing together, one with a piano accordion, one with a button box, and one with a concertina. No matter how many times I send it to my sister she always asks me "How is the accordion playing coming along" *sigh*

 

[if anyone wants a copy, let me know ]

 

(Warning - ranting to follow)

 

What frustrates me is the number of adults who whisfully bleat "I always wanted to learn music as a child", and who always have some excuse when I suggest that it's not too late to learn.

 

Something often encountered in my harping days are people who want to "live the life" but not actually do any of the hard work invloved in the learning.

 

"Oh but you have the knack for music"

"Oh but I don't have the talent like you"

 

Well thank you very much for immediately discounting the hours of hard work and practice that I put it. No, I did NOT wake up one morning and magically discover that I could play music.

 

My other pet hate were the people that always tried to sweet talk me into a playing a gig for nothing.

 

"Oh but it would be great exposure"

Maybe, but you can die from too much exposure

 

Ok, I'll step down from my soap box now... but it is darn frustrating

 

Which is one of the reasons I really appreciate you all - cos you understand

 

Cheers

Morgana

 

*Slips a pillow under Helen's head*

Edited April 30, 2004 by Morgana

[JimLucas]

"Oh but it would be great exposure"

Maybe, but you can die from too much exposure

Well said.

And "exposure" is a form of advertising, but who needs advertising that says, "I'm not worth paying for"?

 

I do lots of music just for fun, and some of it in public, but if anyone tries to convince me that my performing for free is a favor from them to me, and not the other way around, then I'm gone.

 

I've developed one firm rule: If anyone gets paid, then I get paid. And I don't mean only the folks on stage. If the sound man gets paid and I don't, then he can mix silence.

[Robin Madge]

I find it frustrating that all four of our daughters, in their formative years, have had lessons on at least two instruments each, plus voice lessons, and all at their instigation, and now do not play at all. Admittedly one has given up clarinet because of a finger nerve injury and she does say she will start up something else when she has time!

 

OK, perhaps in years to come they'll restart and have a good grounding to start from. I suppose that I just have to accept that we have done our bit as parents in providing the opportunity. I admit that I wish I had been pushed just a bit when I was young then perhaps I would be able to read music to play from. I can manage to sight read to sing but not to play.

 

Robin Madge

[Steven]

You think it's tough to explain playing music to your coworkers? At least that's something they've heard of and knew that people do! Try explaining Scottish Country Dancing!! A lot of times when people ask what I'm doing over the weekend, even if I'm teaching a class that night and there's a big ball the next night, I just say "oh, nothing really" and don't even try. Some days it's just too hard to answer the same questions all over again for 20 minutes!

 

Steven

[JimLucas]

You think it's tough to explain playing music to your coworkers?  Try explaining Scottish Country Dancing!!

I've been lucky to have some contrary experiences. Like my first day on a Wall Street job:

 

Dressed in suit and tie, I got on the elevator to descend to the cafeteria for lunch, when who should I see next to me but a fellow English Country Dancer. It took him a moment to recognize me -- he'd never seen me in a suit, -- but then he quickly asked, "Where's your tin whistle?"

 

I just smiled, pulling open one side of my suit jacket to reveal, in an inside pocket....

[Rhomylly]

Something often encountered in my harping days are people who want to "live the life" but not actually do any of the hard work invloved in the learning.

 

"Oh but you have the knack for music"

"Oh but I don't have the talent like you"

 

Well thank you very much for immediately discounting the hours of hard work and practice that I put it. No, I did NOT wake up one morning and magically discover that I could play music.

Morgana, I get those comments too, and they drive me crazy!!!

 

I get them *again* when people find out I'm a writer.

 

Anyway, I've stopped banging my head on my desk and am now going to adopt Helen's technique of smiling mysteriously and scaring the hell out of my co-workers...oh wait, I already do that, for religious reasons

 

And I'm with Steven. When people ask me what I'm doing this weekend, my answer is almost always "nothing." Sure beats explaining.

[JimLucas]

...am now going to adopt Helen's technique of smiling mysteriously and scaring the hell out of my co-workers...oh wait, I already do that, for religious reasons 

Your religion teaches you to scare the hell out of your co-workers?

Isn't there a gentler way?

 

And I'm with Steven. When people ask me what I'm doing this weekend, my answer is almost always "nothing." Sure beats explaining.

Not me. "Shanty festival", "meeting of concertina players", "Morris dancing", or whatever it is. But I never "have time to explain".

 

That way, if they're actually sorry they asked, they'll hesitate to ask again, and I won't have wasted my time explaining.

But if they're interested enough to look me up on Monday and ask for more details, then I may have a new convert.

[Dan Madden]

Boy oh boy, does Morgana’s rant resonate with me. I am a mathematician in real life. Most of the time this comes up in conversation with someone new, the person proudly announces that they never could do mathematics.

 

On a trip across the Pacific a few years ago, I was seated next to a women who was meeting her husband in New Zealand to begin a concert tour, she was an pianist. She was unmathematical and very happy to begin her conversation with me explaining this in great detail. During her monolog, I hatched a plan to devote my turn to describing music as often inoffensive diversion that could effectively drown out more unpleasant noises.

 

In the end, I didn’t proceed. I realized that she would never get the connection with her point of view, and I would probably just end up as an uncultured scientist in one of her after-concert stories. Rather I told her that I played 3 (at the time) instruments and that, although I listen to all sorts of music, I play tradition American music. She asked about my formal training in music, but alas I have none. She then proceeded to tell me about the advantages of knowing music theory. Then I went to sleep.

 

At the end of the flight she took one last opportunity to proclaim her ignorance of mathematics, but to suggest that I could never really appreciate music until I studied the classical form more. In the end, I am sure that I became the uncultured scientist in her after-concert story.

 

Oh well....

 

Dan Madden

[Helen]

Hey Morgana,

 

I'd love a copy of that picture.

 

Rhomylly,

 

Really, do the smile and scare them silly routine. It's such fun. And sometimes you get asked less often to do the mundane stuff because everyone will be afraid to approach you. Try it. You might like it.

 

Helen

[RustyBits]

I get the same thing at school yeah I am 15

 

AWESOME! When I first started lurking here there was a young fellow, Chris Stevens, who was 17 I think. He must be 20 now and is an amazing player. I wish I had started at 15. I didn't get my Herrington until I was 35.