Thought for the Day - April 4

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Apr 00 - 09:12 AM

Sorry, "Mystic Cowgirls." And let us not forget k.d. lang. What is with these crazy Canucks, anyway?
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Apr 00 - 09:09 AM

I am not sure what you mean by your being Joe Hall's alter ego, Rick, but is "Mystic Cowboys" recorded?
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Apr 00 - 12:17 AM

Love that one, Rick!! My kinda wimmin!**BG**

We're going to have a vegetarian rodeo one of these days, so practice up on roping them celery stalks!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 09:50 PM

The best "fake" cowboy song I know was written by my friend and alter-ego Joe Hall. Called "Mystic Cowgirls of the Prairie", it tells the chilling story of a posse of Lesbian Feminist vegetarian hard-ridin' Extra-terrestrial babes crossin' the prairies of the "new" west, lookin' fer "little dogies" to set free. (not sure where they go once they're free..maybe into a UFO.

Joe is the finest musical humourist (IMO) since Tom Lehrer. Since his work is REALLY good, he's viewed with suspicion and anger by both the Left AND the Right.

Now that's what I call REAL success!

Rick

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 09:43 PM

Peter? What have you learned from the heron? Nice country licks huh?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 09:24 PM

wWnderful inspiration abounds at the Mudcat, yourself included, Peter. I'd played violin from the time I was 8 years old, hadn't really picked it up in years. Heard Jeri and Sorcha, both, play their fiddles in HearMe and lo and behold I got that puppy out and started practising.

I am honoured that I have such a fiddle. It belonged to old man Tweedy (whose son is now and old man/fiddlemaker) who taught my dad to fiddle way back in the 1920's; it was Tweedy's favourite until the 1950's, when he found one he liked better and sold it to my dad.

When I came home at 8yrs old and told my parents I had signed up for orchestra, it is to my dad's credit that there was no hesitation on his part, in letting me take that violin back and forth to school, everyday on the schoolbus.

What a lot of trust with such a precious cargo. Its patina of over 100 years is beauitful and its tone is smooth and mellow when someone who has practised plays it. I am blessed to still have it and feel a responsibility to help it sing once again, in large part because of the Mudcat. Thank you all!

kat

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: BlueJay
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 02:48 PM

Night Owl- Leave it to a nightowl to notice such a typo. I meant "playing". Thanks

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Night Owl
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 02:13 PM

Obviously Peter....you DO set a good example in avoiding the "jokes"....unlike some of us!!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 02:08 PM

But you accomplished what you wanted despite the obstacles. You achieved the ability to read and play music. I'm impressed by the example.. Who knows perhaps my playing with Emma's new guitar will lead me to try. (Same 30 years you wasted Peter)Yours.Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Night Owl
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 02:07 PM

Peter.....I have been struggling for years off and on to understand "Modes" theories etc. etc. The only thing I had read, that entered my idle brain, was something written by Jean Ritchie.....twenty years ago.....while trying to learn a specific Dulcimer tune...(and that info has long since disappeared). UNTIL I kept up with reading your search for understanding the "stuff. Your "summary" of the info you received was exciting here....cause I UNDERSTOOD most of it. So, just want to say here, THANK YOU Peter...for having the energy to stick with it until you understood it; for having the skill with words you have for writing the "translation"; Thanks to RF for the motivation he brings out in you... and THANKS to the Mudcatters who PATIENTLY gave info and and advice in those threads until you said "I GOT IT"!!!!! BTW Blue Jay...your children see the grown-ups doing WHAT????? ;o)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 01:52 PM

I avoid the cheap joke in the typo of the last posting, and only remark that I am a lousy example, and my schools were lousy examples. I got no guidance and no hints of what was possible in all that time. I am not blaming anyone: I was a lazy bastard, and should have got off my a** and used my head. Stupid waste of about 30 years. If anything I understate what I owe to Mudcat: it pointed out that I knew a ton of what was going on here -- I just had no real way of getting it together (as we used to say in the 60's). yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: BlueJay
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 01:41 PM

Aye Double Aye! My kids just love any folk instrument they can get their hands on. Beaters, shakers, harps, ukeleles, kalimbas or whatever. I'm not trying to brag, but it must be partly that they see their grown-ups laying and enjoying music.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 01:28 PM

Very inspirational Peter T. Thank you for sharing that with us. Perhaps there are some young people who are inspired by the example you have shown; and will take up music with new heart. The way to keep folk music alive and vibrant, is to involve the young, and make the Mudcat a safe and pleasant place to learn. Yours, Aye. Dave

"Rhythm and melody enter into the soul of the well-instructed youth, and produce there a certain mental harmony hardly obtainable in any other way. ...thus music,too,is concerned with the principles of love in their application to harmony and rhythm". PLATO

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: BlueJay
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 01:13 PM

Annap- Better at least to nurture the SPARK of musical interest, than to remain in musical apathy-land. I admit that I don't play like I wish I had time for, butI do think I play a LITTLE more, thanks in part to the Mudcat Cafe. I also believe my musical interests have broadened somewhat: partly osmosis, partly re-awakening. This is all just insirational, not counting all the information I have been exposed to. I'm sure that if I had more time to devote to mudcatting, my gains would increase as well. If you take your gains, and my gains, and multiply by all the hundreds, possibly thousands of Mudcatters and seriously contributing guests, we could be on the verge of a musical Renaissance! Viva Le Mudcat!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: annamill
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 12:37 PM

I am so ashamed! Bill Sables made me a beautiful guitar strap, everyone has been so helpful in giving me tips about learning to play and "I've been too busy". After hearing what you've done I am so inspired! (not the first time by our Peter, I must say) I must learn!

Love, annap (congratulations on your accomplishment Peter)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: MMario
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 09:16 AM

"There is land, lots of land, with sunny skies above!"

Peter...a fitting tribute to the MudCat, the DT and those who have brought it to us.

Subject: Thought for the Day - April 4
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Apr 00 - 09:12 AM

(apr.4) - A more than usually autobiographical trespass on this space.

4 years ago, I stumbled onto the Mudcat gold mine. I have lots of music in my background, listen to everything, but have never been able to play an instrument and only a very sketchy music theory knowledge. So I began listening in to all these fine musicians talk about what they do. About 3 years ago, I picked up the best book on classical music ever written, Charles Rosen's The Classical Style, and suddenly realised that music theory made some sense. I continued mudcatting, thinking that one day I should do something about playing. 1 year ago, not quite today, thanks to Mudcat, I found a great teacher (R.F., yes!!). Then my life turned into a walking disaster: new teaching responsibilities, family illnesses, all kinds of things. Still, I plonked away when I found time, and stole a few hours here and there to do music theory (one memorable afternoon in an airport in Paraguay trying to figure out progressions while we were locked in due to a suspected bomb).

Recently I have become interested in fake cowboy songs, so this morning I went to a shelf and searched out Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In" (a jazzy fake). I sat down with my guitar, and strummed it straight out, knowing where the chords were going, formidable as they were (all the usual substitutions, etc.). Then I got up to go to work. And then it hit me. If someone had asked me a year ago to sit down and play a Cole Porter song from the sheet music (admittedly an easy one), I would have laughed at them.

There is no great thought here. I still play like a dog's breakfast: but what can I say, I am where I did not expect to be, thanks in large part to Mudcat, and the wise folks who have made it such a gold mine, and what can I say? --- don't fence me in!!!