Swing city; waiting in line at MIT for "bad taste";

[gusl]

Friday:
Swing City with Scott, Danielle and Sarah. Barely danced. Wished I could dance solo, cause I really was groovin. I can't dance because my dancing is too unstructured. One's style can only be good if it follows rules. Improvisational styles such as jazz are probably good for dancing, because dancing is mostly improvisation. Does this make sense to you?

Drove them to MIT's building 10 to wait in line. After some hanging around, I went to get my fiddle from the car. I ended up jamming with these hard rockers, and I got the spotlight when I improvised over Glycerin. It happened totally spontaneously, at about 3:30am. They really praised my solo, and I felt really good because, being a beginning player, praise is hard to come by. This kind of hard rock has no melody, and it's such a simple harmony that I couldn't help but improvise over it. At MIT, one in five students plays violin, but not many people could have done what I did because I have such a good ear! :-) (unlike most music-reading classical players)

Comments

[neurogirl.livejournal.com]

Hey do you have something against music-reading classical players? :P

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Only most of them. How can you play these really difficult pieces with music and not be able to play a really simple one without music? If you can't remember how a tune goes, then you can't understand it. Am I making any sense?

Re:

[neurogirl.livejournal.com]

Remembering how a tune goes is not the problem. The problem is making up one of your own.

Re:

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I am not kidding when I say that most classical players (of any instrument) couldn't play (insert famous tune of moderate complexity, like The Star-Spangled Banner) by ear. Maybe I've had a bad sample.

Re:

[neurogirl.livejournal.com]

Well for some people it takes time to develop an ear. And when you grow up being taught to only play on the page that ear training is delayed. I know that I have a hard time playing by ear but I'm getting better at it as I practice it, or I'll sit and jam with a friend of mine who plays clarinet and sometimes we come out with decent stuff and other times it's a mess...but it takes time.

Re:

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

btw, did you witness my moment of glory?

Re:

[neurogirl.livejournal.com]

no i didn't.