Dr. JT

Sometimes I make a playlist of all the songs that I don’t like by a specific artist…

…and then I discover my newest favorite song.

I go to quite a few concerts.  Rock, Metal, broadway shows, the occasional symphony, local groups and huge acts.

Anything that sounds appealing.

As often as possible I get tickets in a way that will give me an actual ticket, not a printed piece of paper with a scan image on it.

I save the tickets…and use them as bookmarks.

My concert going history is scattered across a bookshelf.

I just picked up “Shadow Moon” by George Lucas and Chris Claremont and was reminded that I went to Warped Tour in 2004.

ourpresidents:

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie

October 21, 1917 - January 6, 1993

It’s the birthday of jazz giant Dizzy Gillespie.  What better occasion to put on some bebop and look at a very cool picture of Dizzy blowing his horn at the White House.  June 8, 1979, Jazz Concert on the South Lawn with President Jimmy Carter.

 Reblog for the phrase “blowing his horn at the White House.”

I’m so immature.

Via The Thoughts of StephenPhilip

evanescenceconfessions:

“I truly believe that any so called “fan” of Evanescence; who’s been done nothing but criticize the new album or their new sound, clearly doesn’t know the band to begin with. They’re much stronger than ever, and their sound is solid! There is plenty of intricate piano riffs, and she’s even thrown in the Harp! Her voice may sound tired live now, which musician is perfect? She has a talent that is beyond the music scene these days, and anyone of her “fans” who can’t realize that is 1. NOT A TRUE FAN, and 2. A SILLY GOOSE! :-/”

 Or MAYBE, just MAYBE, they don’t like the direction that Evanescence is going in.

Let’s face it, they’ve done a good bit of changing since Fallen, and even more since Origin for those familiar with it.

 If you don’t like it, then you don’t like it.

In my not so humble opinion I think My Chemical Romance had two seriously great albums.

“I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love”, though not nearly the great studio mixing and editing quality, was a solid and entertaining album.
“Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” is an incredible album.
Only 3 songs on it that don’t make me go “YES, this is a great song!”

“The Black Parade”?    It’s such a terrifyingly huge pile of garbage I can smell it from here, and I don’t own a copy of it.

“Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” is even worse.   It sucks an almost unimaginable amount of male extremities.

I can’t stand the direction they went.

Is that to say that I’m not a fan of the band?   I absolutely respect what they are capable of.  They were a great live show both times I’ve seen them.

I just don’t like their musical direction.  

I know who the band is, I am well aware of what they do and how they operate.  The music they make.

Some people would argue that “They’re much stronger than ever, and their sound is solid!” but that’s irrelevant.

I hate the sound.

Guns N’ Roses disapeared for longer than any current fan would like to admit.
We all know that Axl is pretty much out of his mind.

Many people hate Chinese Democracy.
It’s a huge step away from the Blues-based Arena Rock that made them famous in the 80’s.
Many people hate the new line-up sans Slash, Duff, and Izzy.

I personally think it’s their best album.  Hands down.

I love the direction they took.    I think the heavier, more contemporary Hard Rock/Metal sound suits Axl so well.   I think “Street of Dreams” is their best ballad, following the “Don’t Cry” format but with the feel of “November Rain”.

As for Evanescence.

People who don’t like the new album very simply might just dislike the album.
They might hate the lyrics, which are less symbolic as sometimes seen on previous albums.   Maybe they hate the heavier direction the band is going.

Maybe they’re just pissed off it took so long for a new album.

It doesn’t matter.

They don’t like it and, as fans of the band, have every right to say “Hey, what are you doing?  You’re going the wrong way!”

If they didn’t care so much, they wouldn’t be this upset and they wouldn’t be this vocal about it.

That being said, I freaking LOVE the new Evanescence album.

Via Not Another Book Blog

With as absolutely beautiful as that is, and I’d still kill to have one…

It doesn’t top half the violins at Wood Violins

Designed by Mark Wood, former lead violin player for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (among many other projects).

(Source: seventhstring)

Via ♩☆

On Perfect Pitch, Musicianship, and other music related ramblings

That’s right.  This is going to be a Music post.

If you are not particularly musically inclined then you might want to skip this over.
If you are just interested then please just read away (and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you have any!)

A good friend of mine posted this earlier:

harmonicetoile:

According to a statistic, 1 in 10,000 people have perfect pitch

Iam that one person.

I thought I might as well research the ability that I have this morning.

 If you really want details please jut do a quick google search.  You will find tons of people explaining what Perfect Pitch is in very specific definitions.

Simply put, however, Perfect Pitch (or Absolute Pitch as I will be referring to it as) is the ability to name a pitch or sing a pitch without any reference points.

So imagine you’re driving down the highway and you get cut off.  You blare your horn.

What note was that?

If you have someone with you who says “oh, that was an F#!” then chances are they have Absolute Pitch.

 Absolute Pitch is something that you must be born with.
Professor Jenny Saffran from the University of Wisconsin (among many others) believes that everyone is born with Absolute Pitch but the ability is lost overtime when learning language.   This is partly based on the statistic that those who speak Eastern Asian languages are more likely to have Absolute Pitch.

Why?  Because many of those languages require a certain amount of pitch to get the meaning across.

The word “door” in English means the same thing regardless of how it is spoken (high pitch or low pitch, different tone quality of voice, etc).   This is not entirely the case in other languages (but I’m not expert on the subject, so I’m stopping there.)

In English and European languages if a child were to learn that a word only has meaning when said in the exact same manner… well, I”m sure you could imagine that would hold them back quite a bit.

The words are what is really important.  (Babies and dogs would argue with this, though.  Saying “I’m going to kill you.  Yes I am, going to run you over with my truck!  uh huH!” in a cutesy voice is going to get a positive reaction from a baby or dog…)

Why do I call it Absolute Pitch and not Perfect Pitch?

Because Perfect Pitch implies that the pitch is exactly where it needs to be.  Not sharp or flat at all.    Anyone can do this with practice, or, you know… a tuner.  Or an instrument that is in tune for those who are not vocalists…
Also the term “Perfect Pitch” implies that they are perfect musicians.  More from this later*

I could ramble on and on about people who have Absolute Pitch via Synesthesia but that’s a story for another day.  Google it.  You can figure it out on your own.

Onward.

I’m going to point out something very specific that my friend up there made.

She referred to it as “the ability that I have”.

In this case my favorite definition of “ability” is “talents; special skills or aptitudes”.

 The word I usually use to refer to Absolute Pitch is “gift”.

One of the defining factors of Absolute Pitch is that it is an ability that came naturally (albeit with practice and refining.  As mentioned above, many believe that everyone is born with it but few retain it because it’s essentially ignored.)

The other end of this would be what many refer to “Perfect Relative Pitch”.   Which really just means “damn good Relative Pitch”.

Relative Pitch?

Someone plays you a note and says “this is a (for example) C”.
With that being played recently one can have a mental “image” of that note and base following notes off of it.  This is a skill that can be practiced and learned.

(Again.  I’m not going to sit here and get into specifics.  You know how to look this stuff up.  We all use Wikipedia.)

Now this idea of Absolute Pitch.   It’s essentially the Holy Grail of many musicians.  Something they wish that had but were not “born with it” and know that they’ll never get it.
It would make everything so much easier!

If you have ever opened a music related magazine then you’ve probably seen an add for a program that helps you “learn perfect pitch!”

As I’ve stated before you can’t really learn Absolute Pitch.

But I know some people who have gotten damn close.

I also know people who don’t even claim to have the best relative pitch but just have “a good ear” and can work around what is going on around them.

For example.   Many singers will sing the same song but in different keys.

Let’s say I’m playing guitar for someone.  The song is usually in Eb.   What is the next day I decide to put the song in D (half a step lower).

Would the singer notice?

Maybe, maybe not.  
Let’s assume that this singer doesn’t quite catch it.

Does this mean that I’m completely screwing said singer over?

No.   Chances are, if you’re a singer, you are basing what you sing off of the accompaniment that you’re hearing.

This is part of dealing with relative pitch.   So maybe said singer can’t randomly stop and say “oh, I just sang a G!”.   But they could say “yeah, that’s the note that I sing on the word ‘blink’”.

(blink?  What the hell song am I accompanying?)

…what if I did this to a person with Absolute Pitch?

Every practice I’m playing in Eb.

The day of the performance I decide to play in D…just to be the prick that I am.

Chances are if a person has Absolute Pitch then they are well trained and would be able to compensate for my dickery and would just tell at me after.

They would yell at me because they would be pissed off that I did that to them.

They will notice.   It’s not even up for debate.   I couldn’t even possibly pass it off and just say “you’re crazy, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

They would know.

A con of Absolute Pitch?

Possibly.    Ask someone with it.  See what they say.

(Guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen has claimed to become very irritated when songs are played in non-traditional keys due to his Absolute Pitch.)

Speak onf Yngwie Malmsteen.  Let’s go back to my * comment.

Perfect Pitch implies Perfect Musicianship.

What is Musicianship?  Think of the term “sportsmanship”.  Relate it to Musicians.

Good job.  I am proud of you.

For those who are unaware of who Yngwie is…

If this does not scream “Ego maniac” then I don’t know what does.

Am I saying that “Absolute Pitch = Ego maniac”?

Not really.   My friend up there certainly is not a huge Ego Maniac (considering I’m a significantly larger one than her.  That being said.  I am incredibly attractive and absolutely brilliant).  But being in a minority and having a gift that many people covet… well, it certainly doesn’t hurt the ego.

It’s not exactly the equivalent of being a slightly overweight girl with a small bust on the Volleyball team.

On top of that. Some of the best musicians I have ever known and known of do not have Absolute Pitch.

An old friend who is a pianist that I could not even begin to describe never even claimed to have Absolute Pitch.

If he told me that he had I would have believed it without question.

We asked him to play “New York, New York.”  Being the sheltered and moderately odd young man that he is he said “I don’t know it.”
“You know… New York, New York?  Frank Sinatra?… *dun dun da da dun. dun dun da da dun.  Start Spreadin’ The News….*”

Hardly knowing the song and only basing this off of my poor attempt at singing the accompaniment and then singing the song… he played it.  In the key I was singing in.

(I later found out that I was NOT in the original key.   I have decent relative pitch but more so I have a pretty accurate sense of muscle memory.   AKA.  If I sing a song in the car enough I can generally sing it in the same key.  No idea what key it is.  But my vocal chords say ‘it’s not note, go!’)

Or how about this man, since you all probably know him.

Did not have Absolute Pitch.

If you dare tell me that he was not one of the best musicians in the past 50 years then I will dare to tell you where the best “jumping bridge” is.  (I’m from Pittsburgh.  We have plenty of bridges to pick from.)

So there we go.

Absolutely Pitch.

Why it’s awesome.

Why it’s not necessary.

And why many people who have it annoy the hell out of me.

(Except my friend up there and a couple others, obviously)

For the record.

It took me 15 minutes to figure out why my videos were not working…I forgot Tumblr had a specific “HTML” button.

I’m so good at this kind of thing…

Via ♩☆

 In their defense, it’s a stupid-ass name for a position. 
I mean sure, it’s kind of funny in the “aw how cute” way.

It’s a pretty honest mistake, though.

Via ♩☆

 Sorry, but WRONG.

This is so wrong I can’t even stand it.

The same way you think all pop music sound the same, maybe someone else gets something out of it?

This is all personal opinion, so get your damn heads out of your asses and consider that for a second.

Like all things, music is generally more accepted by people who are part of it.

As a guitar player I listen to a great deal of music centered around the guitar.  A great deal of this music is ONLY listened to by guitar players.

If you play Classical then chances are you’re more likely to listen to it.

I, personally, listen to very little classical.   I play a great deal of jazz so guess what I listen to a great deal of?!

No shit.

Move on, kids.  There is more to life than being pretentious.   I’m cutting this off here.

Via ♩☆