WTF-Beta

@Bernard said:

perhaps listening to "album-length" music is an anomaly?

All good points, very interesting to think about! What about the fact that people would go to live orchestral concerts? (with no video presentation in the background!)

Somehow, I still suspect people had longer attention spans for music than they do now... but maybe that's just my bias!

@mary-anna that was all super interesting, thank you! I wonder how it is in Japan, where literacy and reading measures (like newspaper subscriptions, book sales etc) have been consistently higher than in the US. And publishing traditions are different (e.g., short story collections and essay books).... otoh, cell phone reading is also huge so....

Bringing it back to the original topic, there are probably a lot of parallels here between reading and music, because people have said that younger generations don’t listen to “album-length” music any more, in favor of picking and listening to only specific (individual) songs. And the way popular music is being written reflects listening tendencies as well, with intros being shorter and the music quickly getting to the hook. To say nothing of the fact that are fewer and fewer classical music listeners as well.

The common thread is a lack of attention span, whether it’s a book-length work of fiction or an extended work of music.

@RealPlayer said:

Just an aside on games, which Mary Anna brought up. The musical backdrop of games is itself becoming a musical genre of its own, with recognized composers, some of whom have gained reputations as serious composers.

Absolutely. And Japanese game music in particular tends to be very piano-centric, with Nobuo Uematsu probably being the most famous. He did the music for the Final Fantasy games. I have never played any of those games, which is probably for the best because then I would have wanted to play his music, and everything I’ve looked at is all very hard!
(Although now that I say that, I should look again and see how difficult it looks to me now.)

It sort of echoes what happened in the previous generation with film composers like Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrmann and Ryuji Sakamoto, who now see big orchestra concerts devoted to their film music.

Yes, I think this is a good comparison. We recently had a big discussion at the Piano Tell forum about whether to group film music, anime music, and “post classical” piano together or not.

It’s difficult because some composers (like Joe Hisaishi) compose for film, anime, and also do compositions that are just stand-alones as well. And there are people like Ryuichi Sakamoto who compose for film but not anime or games, and also do a lot of non-film compositions.

And the other issue is stylistic similarity, and because of that, I personally think it makes sense to have a “parent genre” (like “post-classical”) within that, sub-genres like film music, anime music, game music, and maybe solo piano. But not everyone agrees with me.

Sorry for the thread drift!!

@Rontuner said:
(When every Midwesterner knows that's the time to go out or up on the roof and see how bad it really is outside!!)

Glad you guys are all ok!

I don't see it to the extent that "students can't read." But I also rarely teach lower level classes, and the one 200-level class I teach is specialized enough that it usually enrolls students with a specific interest in the subject matter. I think in upper level classes, a lot of weeding out has happened and also when teaching majors, there's a different level of engagement from the students.

And most of my grad students received their BAs in Japan, so totally different kind of preparation.

So on the one hand, I don't experience this to the degree that other faculty do.

On the other hand, I can tell that students increasingly seem less academically prepared than in pre-pandemic, and I do feel that the negative influence of AI is starting to creep in.

@AndyD Interesting! That looks somewhat similar.

The cool thing about the kendama is that one goal is to rotate around the device, so that each time, you catch the ball with a different part of it (big cup, small cup, bottom cup, spike).

I'm really good a rotating between big cup and bottom cup, but less so at going back and forth between all four.

Here are some photos.

@AndyD those are very pretty!

I once decided that I wanted to learn how to juggle, and Mr SK and I actually took a juggling class together. That was fun, but I never really got consistently good at juggling three, whereas for Mr SK is easy as pie. Ah well. Maybe I’ll pick it up and give it again some day.

Do you know what a Kendama is? We can both do that, although he’s better than I am.

@Mary-Anna said:

Oh, and the choir rehearses at a church right across the street from my house. I can walk out my front door five minutes before rehearsal and be there with time to spare.

That's great!!

@RealPlayer said:

I wonder if a Bluetooth signal is what tells a thief there’s a device inside.

I never thought of that, but it seems possible. Probably need to completely power things down as well....

@Mary-Anna said:

It's really extraordinary to hold something made by someone who's been gone so long and think of them cutting the fabric, stitching it together, and doing all the creative work it takes to complete a big project.

Yes it certainly is!

@Bernard said:
crumhorn

I had to google that!

@Mark wow!!!

@Mary-Anna beautiful!

I have an afghan my grandma made and one made by a great aunt, and my mother has a few more of her aunts.

I love them all!!

@mary-anna ️️️

Of course me with piano. But also my mother (age 82). She moved here last June and has recently joined a choir. She loves it. Sometimes I help her prep, she comes to my house and we sit at the piano so I can play her notes, that kind of thing. It’s really nice

It also raises the question: What other Bluetooth devices open users to the same attacks?

Yeah, like my bluetooth foot pedal that I use to turn pages on my iPad while playing piano!

@AndyD said:.
there's a lot of pleasure to be had wheeling through shortwave static to find some remote radio station.

Radio! Radio (back in the day) was magical wasn’t it. I still listen to Internet radio (if that’s even what it’s called anymore, Pandora, Spotify). But it’s not the same. For one thing, there’s no DJ and you can skip a song if you don’t like it.

I can remember listening to the radio in the car with my mom… or going to stay at my grandma’s house when I was in JH and HS, I slept in a room on the second floor and she had a radio in there. At night, I would listen to different stations. Because it was a completely different state, I always had to search around on the dial before I found a station I liked, and even then it seemed like the music and the person talking were quite different from home. It was both a little bit exciting and a little bit disconcerting.

Sorry @steve-miller this thread somehow keeps making me feel very nostalgic!

@AdagioM said:
I sold my digital piano several years ago. Roland FP something or other. I like the way sound runs through me from my acoustic piano way better.

Same!

When we moved from Japan back to the U.S., for a long time (7 years?) a digital was all I had (apartment life). After I finished grad school, I kept the digital even though I had two different uprights (not at the same time), both were kind of crummy, but I always played the acoustic pianos, even though they were not the greatest instruments.

But when I bought my grand, I finally sold the digital. I knew I would never play it.

By the way, i I checked the photos I have but I couldn’t find a photo of my grandma’s basement kitchen. I’m going to ask my aunt. If nothing else I’d like to confirm my memory of it.

@AndyD said:
You don't have to like it, just play it better than Ax & Jon

Not likely!!

@Bernard that’s lovely, thank you for posting it!

@CHAS said:
I don't like it very much. Will see.

The funny thing is, a lot of pianists at PT don’t rally like it either. I’m kind of blah about it myself

But nevertheless I plan to polish it (mostly) and upload a recording next month.