[thechat] playing games

[Morgan Kelsey]

I feel the need to confess that I might possibly believe at this point that
Rock Band has the potential to develop some level of musicianship in
children. Santa brought it to my house (because I found rock band 1 was only
$100). Wifey wanted to get Rock Band 2 for $200. Then I started shopping for
drum kits on Craigs list and discovered for $200 we could get a REAL DRUM
SET.

Wouldn't ya know it, rock band 1 arrived the very next day (if I didn't have
a job to go to....I would soooo have a drum kit right now)

But anyway, the thing Rock Band makes the little buggers do is LISTEN. When
they start getting screwed up I say, "hey you, yeah you! no Sun Ra solos til
you can get through Mississippi Queen! LISTEN!"
And they lock right back in. (though I think a Sun Ra edition of rock band
would be killer)

I have no interest in the guitar thing, but the drum kit is really a lot of
fun.

Daddy got a theramin for xmas. I am determined to do the vocal tracks on
theramin. So far it has a proved to be the most effective method for getting
the kids to *stop* playing rock band :-(

nagrom

On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Judah McAuley <judah at wiredotter.com> wrote:

> Hey, speaking of which, you want a side gig being my guitar teacher Erika?
> :)
>
> I got myself a acoustic Fender for Fathers Day and have been working
> my way through chords and fingering and fiddling about. The hard part
> is finding time to practice when my little one isn't around as she has
> to help Papa play guitar too. Sometimes I can convince her to play one
> of her instruments, like the xylophone, drum or kazoo (kid plays a
> mean kazoo) but its just not the same as playing Papa's guitar.
>
> And I gotta say, its weird playing an instrument after being a
> vocalist for song long. I have no real problems with rhythm or hearing
> the music and I can even read music, but I have no real understanding
> of keys or chords. I always just got a first, third and fifth to know
> where I am and then everything else is intervals.
>
> Judah
>
> On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Erika Meyer <ekm at seastorm.com> wrote:
> > Martin Burns wrote:
> >> (who can play guitar along with pretty much any Scottish or Irish
> >> tune, and know where it's going in the next 8 bars, whether or not
> >> he's heard it before)
> >
> > here's how I like write songs: set up this kind of expectation, make
> > sure you've established it, then defy it (melodic or rhythmically)...
> > just long enough... then fall back into it.  To keep people from getting
> > too smug. ;)  (side effect: exasperates rhythm players.)
> >
> > I think that folk songs are predictable in part because they were
> > communications (news/stories/commentaries) set to music, and the
> > relative predictability of a ballad form making them easy to remember
> > and pass along.
> >
> > Erika
> > (who is currently amusing herself by blowing on thechat threads as if
> > they were spiderwebs, aloft)
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