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29 Dec 99 - 09:22 PM (#155428) Subject: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Joan It's always been a theory of mine that what people do for a living connects with the kind of music they play. For instance, seems that lots of instrumentalists do precision things: mechanics, mathematicians--in other words, more kinda left-brained things. What do the writers, psychologists, artists sing? Probably more interested in ballads, songs with good words--the right-brained word people. Care to comment? What do you do, and what sort of music appeals most to you? I've been dying to do some kind of survey about this for age |
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29 Dec 99 - 09:29 PM (#155430) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: kendall I'm retired from the US Fish & Wildlife service, conservation officer, so, I dont do much. I'm not interested in learning to "pick" because I am a "word" person. (Also a storyteller) this seems to support your theory as far as I'm concerned. Dont get me wrong, I love good picking..but, I am content to leave it to more talented musicians such as, Rick, you Joan (I'm impressed with anyone who can pick guitar in E without a capo) and I like Sandy Patons guitar playing. He never burys a song with a lot of fast fancy picking. |
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29 Dec 99 - 09:37 PM (#155434) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: _gargoyle Within the academic field of "recreation studies" there is the "compensatory theory."
Essentially, it boils down to..."opposites attract." The person with a physically strenuous occuptation is more likely to seek passive recreation....the creative person in a repetitive environment seeks out avenues of expression....the individual bombarded by human contact all day, seeks out isolation
As the "soap-opera-lives of the MC's" have played out....(over my four year's observations) this holds true.... |
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29 Dec 99 - 09:40 PM (#155438) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: MK I plan and book corporate special events, and the entertainment required for them. Before getting into this line of work, I was a gigging musician and band leader for many years. I can't carry a tune (vocally) if it had handles on it....so I lean towards playing instrumentals, or accompanying vocalists who CAN sing. Given that I am a perfectionist by nature, somewhat of a control freak, and mildy obessive compulsive (ie: if I walk into someone's home and see a picture on the wall that isn't quite straight - regardless of by how little it's off, I'll straighten it -ie: and I eat the red Smarties last, and ie: I peel every shrimp on my plate before eating it.) ........Fingerstyle and fingerpicking appeal to me enormously....the busier my fingers are, the happier I am....but I try to be tasty, and as Rick is fond of saying ''Don't show them every lick you know, in one solo or tune." I enjoy creating order from chaos. |
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29 Dec 99 - 09:43 PM (#155439) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Susan A-R Ah, but Gargoyle, you are not just an observer. I'll think on your theory though. As for me, I used to work directly with people a lot, supervising, teaching, lobbying. Now I work with things a lot (potatoes, tofu, beans, spices) I am still in the business of feeding, encouraging growth, sending something good out there, and have always loved both the melody and the words of music and songs. I dunno. Susan A-R |
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29 Dec 99 - 09:49 PM (#155444) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Pete Peterson As the old lawyer joke goes, and who created the chaos? PhD. Physical Chemistry, but the son of a PhD. organic chemist and a professional musician (piano teacher, accompanist, soloist and sightreading ten fingers at once!) Fell in love with old time music (with the aid of the New Lost City Ramblers) and never got over it. Worked backwards till I saw Paul Cadwell and learned about Vess Ossman and classical banjo. Then there's all those Stephen Foster songs. . . On one level, old time music is not creative-- on the deper level it is VERY creative because it's so hard to make any changes in keeping with the tradition. Singer-songwriters are things i can usually do without; there are just so many good songs! Then somebody like J.U. Lee comes along and he writes songs so good that I have learned them without trying to.
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29 Dec 99 - 10:06 PM (#155453) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: _gargoyle Susan A-R....
You .... precisely.... fit the definition.....(of compensatory recreation) Your first love....your "passion" is "feeding neaurturing".....and therefore, in your "new-metamorphasis" you continue in a similar patern...one is not "compensating" for another...you are only fulfulling your innate chemestry.
As the definition of "RE-Creation" implies.....what do "YOU" do...(in the compensatory theory)to balance out your "Ying" with your "Yang?" |
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29 Dec 99 - 10:10 PM (#155457) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: lloyd61 I have spend the past forty years teaching and Business Computer consulting. During this time I have had a passion to write music. How that I am retired I am just starting to put my music on paper. As I have said before, the biggest mistake was not developing technical skills on my Guitar or Mandolin. My work and family have taken all my time and strength. My priorities were in the right place, but now I have a little for me. |
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29 Dec 99 - 10:11 PM (#155458) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: _gargoyle Dear PETE....
Thank heavens there is a LLLOOOONNNNNNGGGGG weekend coming up......You have expressed things I never could say...and I sincerely hope the long-weekend is enough to experience them in.
AMEN BROTHER!!!! |
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29 Dec 99 - 10:12 PM (#155459) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Susan A-R Hmmm, I eat. I eat food, gobble books, ingest music, self-indulge in harmony, melody, swimming, friendships, but then the eating and the feeding blur, that's the best stuff when the music/food/friendships feed and are fed by me. Thanks Gargoyle. |
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29 Dec 99 - 10:20 PM (#155465) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: _gargoyle Dear P.P.
NEVER !!!regret that your priorities were "in the right place".....
Anyone, that has placed family....second....and not first .....has severly missed the meaning of life.
If your great-grand-father, THAT HAD a family, did NOT have a family, neither of us would be discussing this today....
As far as I am concerned, the GREATEST of all.... God-the-Almighty's....admonition's was "Be Fruitful And Multiply" .....you completed your part.
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29 Dec 99 - 10:22 PM (#155467) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Barbara Shaw I don't think there's a connection between occupation/interests and musical taste, for me at least. I've been doing the same type work for almost 30 years (information systems), and my music has changed dramatically. There were years when all I played was classical music on the piano. Nowadays I do mostly bluegrass on guitar and fiddle, with vocals. Sometimes mindless traditional tunes, sometimes heavy lyrical messages. Most of the people I work with listen to pop radio. My husband is an engineer, but he's the only banjo player in his company. Maybe the more likely connection is between occupation (presuming certain skills and aptitudes) and musical aptitude rather than musical taste. |
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29 Dec 99 - 10:46 PM (#155482) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Rick Fielding Astonishing. Mr. Gargoyle can be so devastatingly hurtful and cruel to other human beings a few minutes ago on another thread ("Very much OS...") and here, he's just "one of the folks". I could lose my lunch! Rick Fielding |
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29 Dec 99 - 11:03 PM (#155488) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: sophocleese I stay at home, or have for the last few years. I sing ballad type songs and play recorder. I like melody first in any tune and then the words. Only recently have I started to play an accompanying instrument, guitar. I'm learning. Its opening a whole new area for me. I am married to a man with perfect pitch and a degree in music who can pick up any instrument and make a decent sound emerge from it. He exists within the landscape of music whereas I carefully follow paths through it. He sings cheerful songs and funny songs, because that's what his family sings. I sing solo laments, and have done since I was a teenager. I am prone to depression. Does this help? |
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29 Dec 99 - 11:04 PM (#155489) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Gary T I like to sing songs that grab me in some way (my musical mission--singing songs that don't get heard enough). I strum guitar chords for accompaniment, in fact was motivated to learn guitar because none of the other players I ran into knew the songs I wanted to sing. I have no interest in learning to pick. I occasionally learn a new chord to enlarge my capability to sing certain songs in certain keys. I don't consider myself a true guitarist, rather a singer who strums chords. My profession is auto repair (mechanical, not body). I can be very technical and precise in that. I'm afraid I don't fit the suggested profile. |
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29 Dec 99 - 11:04 PM (#155490) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Little Neophyte Joan, my work seems to be a blend of qualities. As a dietitian my work is technical. As a nutritionist my work is more like being a psychologist. My personality prefers to be the one listening rather than the one speaking. If I were part of a theatre group you would find me working on the costumes & props rather than being an actress on stage. As for the banjo, I am interested in developing my skills as an instrumentalist. In my heart, I feel being an instrumental player reflects my true nature. BB |
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30 Dec 99 - 12:19 AM (#155522) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Barry Finn Left side, right side or middle side, I've always worked with my back & hands (he's says as he crawls up the stairs to bed) in what's considered a fairly dangerous trade & always play hard (until I got the sickness - old age) at things just as dangerous & the songs I love the most are the rough & tumble, roaring till the morning comes songs, of hard working poor people & poor hard work, like most of the people I knew in my youth. I think it makes me much more the gentleman that I am today, I also play the Bodhran in the same fashion, simple, primitive & warring (forgive me, ha ha, I couldn't resist). Barry |
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30 Dec 99 - 01:11 AM (#155533) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jon Freeman I am unemployed but my main ouccapational interests lie in computers and admin with some degree of computer orientation. Musically I am far more into melodies than words and my biggest interest is in celtic dance music. I don't know what is left brained or right brained but for usless information, I am a left hander who plays right handed. Jon |
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30 Dec 99 - 01:21 AM (#155540) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: El Jefe In my former life I was a corporate clone...coast to coast commuter...Auto industry..factory rep( High Line European Manufacturers and Japanese) and management training at the national level...23 years..... since 90 making unusual and obscure painted funiture and folk art from immigrants to the US and Canada...ie Doukhobor, Ukrainian, Shaker, Quebequois..etc.. Play guitar and mando a bit..been messing about with button accordians (diatonics) for a couple years,,, Jefe |
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30 Dec 99 - 01:25 AM (#155542) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: JenEllen I'm a lefty that plays right handed, just how I was taught. For me, the question is fairly oppositional. My work is scientific. I deal with blood, guts, lives, microscopes, smears of things that would make your socks roll up and down....and I love it. Helping animals get back to their thing is what I do every day, and with a smile. The fact that perfection and repetition is demanded is part of what makes the work so enjoyable, you know when you've got it right. I am exactly the opposite musically. I cannot bear to play the same piece, exactly the same way, over and over. I like to hear the goofs and stories, and I feel that music allows others to express the same feelings. Don't say it's a repressed desire to see things spread their shimmering wings and fly away, I'll vomit, and then I'll have to get the microscope out... |
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30 Dec 99 - 05:37 AM (#155580) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Llanfair In my experience, it has nothing to do with occupation or which side of the brain you use most. People who sing tend to concentrate on the words, with enough instrument playing to accompay themselves. People who do not consider themselves good singers, right or wrong, concentrate on becoming good musicians. There are exceptions, of course. I'm a retired Social Worker, left handed, but play the guitar right handed. Can do everything except write with both hands equally. |
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30 Dec 99 - 06:28 AM (#155583) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: kendall I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous |
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30 Dec 99 - 09:34 AM (#155624) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: WyoWoman Cute, Kendall. I'm an editor and writer. I love songs that tell a great story. I especially am drawn to stories of courage and valiant people standing up against the "machine." Sometimes I find I just need a heart-breaker of a love song, but mostly I'm more attracted to political or sociological songs. However, I like listening to just about any kind of music at least a little, and have extremely varied tastes. I have a real passion for people and am almost always interested in how people do things, or how they have done things, and in the amazing collaborative process music and community represent. (Choral singing is my favorite team sport.) WyoWoman
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30 Dec 99 - 09:49 AM (#155629) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Mudjack Industrial Maintenance Electrician..... Sing first, secondly play instuments to accompany the singing. I don't try and annalyze what it is I'm doing, Just do it for the love of doing it. Fixing industrial breakdowns and playing a breakdown. Oh! I guess there is a relation Mudjack |
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30 Dec 99 - 10:01 AM (#155633) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Dave (the ancient mariner) I cannot play an instrument,or read music, but do love listening to people play; my brother plays viola, recorder and piano (where I get my love of classical music from) And (no surprise to anyone)I love sea shanties and folk music. I did sing in choir, and do love comic opera but not a lot of the serious stuff. The best memories I have of England are the times I spent in local pubs listening to people play, and singing with them. I saw John Renbourn and people like Archie Fisher and John Tams, when they were much less famous than they are now..... Yours, Aye. Dave |
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30 Dec 99 - 10:29 AM (#155641) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Pete Peterson Gargoyle, your compliments addressed to me, I suspect, were meant for Lloyd61. I accept them warmly because i too have done my best to raise a family (three daughters) and the last woman-semester of college is about to be PAID FOR and I can rearrange my priorities to do more for myself. On the musical side, while one of my friends has divided musicians into the "stringers" and the "singers" I find myself not wanting to choose, but more on the side of the singers. I CAN play tunes for 4 hours and have done so, but the more memorable sessions are the ones with good stories told or re-told. |
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30 Dec 99 - 10:48 AM (#155650) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Sean Ruprecht-Belt Joan, et al. Over the years my occupation has swung from one extreme to the other. I've been a working musician, an actor, a retail worker, and am currently a business analyst for a large IS department at a big corporation. My musical style and taste, however, has remained pretty much constant for three decades (Yikes!). I play a lot of old time music on banjo, guitar and dulcimer with a healthy dose of Delta and Piedmont-style blues thrown into the mix. The only significant change over the years has been that the balance started out heavier on the blues side and has lately leaned more to the old time side. I'm not sure what conclusions (if any) may be drawn from this, but would be interested in hearing any and all theories. - SRB |
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30 Dec 99 - 11:41 AM (#155673) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: SpitWhistle Skipper of a nuclear submarine... pennywhistle player in Irish band... the crew really wonders about that sometimes! |
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30 Dec 99 - 11:46 AM (#155674) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: MMario so you can pipe yourself on board? |
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30 Dec 99 - 12:07 PM (#155682) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: JedMarum I am very aware of how my musical efforts have enhanced my other professional endeavors ... and vice versa. As a young man, I worked a variety of day jobs and spent my real energies pursuing my musical works. In those days I learned, in addition to developing my music and performance craft, Sound Reinforcement equipment, band or people 'management', and some level of business skills. When I moved into the corporate world these valuable skills helped me manage big projects, large teams of people, nerve racking problems and creative solutions. Even big, complex computer systems (my professional area) are not much different from large complex sound systems. Computer programs are very much like songs or musical scores. Programming staffs are very much like a group of talented musicains trying work together as a band. To me, many of the lessons learned in one area are directly applicable in the other. |
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30 Dec 99 - 12:20 PM (#155690) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Joan Interesting input. Guess none of us are entirely one-sided in the ways we approach music. Just seemed to me that analytical thinkers tend to gravitate toward tunes that require precision and technical proficiency, and others of us are drawn toward ideas and words. I'm definitely a word and story person...I also write. But in the car, I get so distracted by words, I always put fiddle tunes in the tape deck--makes the car go better than gasoline. Joan |
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30 Dec 99 - 12:27 PM (#155692) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Hasek Dear Rick, Don't lose your lunch............it will end up on our Lake Ontario shores...................however,my occupation is a Financial Sales Manager and I love Contemporary folk of Bruce Cockburn, Utah Phillips story and history folk , The Weavers content and vocals and the all rolled into one walking troubador folk of his own : Rick Fielding . Mike S. |
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30 Dec 99 - 03:44 PM (#155771) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Easy Rider I'm a software engineer, and I play fingerstyle country blues and folk guitar. Programming languages and music are both "Formal" languages, according to the Chomsky hierarchy. It seems that musicians make good programmers. |
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30 Dec 99 - 03:54 PM (#155774) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: InOBU For your survey: Ex sailor, ex boat builder, ex photo journalist, ex lawyer, current judge in an American Indian court, play the Uilleann pipes in an Irish/Celtic band. Larry |
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30 Dec 99 - 04:18 PM (#155784) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: lamarca I am a scientist - I do very exacting work in molecular genetics that involves both hand-eye coordination and the ability to think logically and make connections between bits of data. I can't play an instrument to save my life - at least not any better than picking out a simple melody line. No chords, no moving left-hand accompaniment to a right hand melody, nada. However, I can memorize and sing long ballads, and absolutely delight in doing so. I remember absolutely useless bits of trivia, characters' names from novels, who I heard sing a particular song, what book was on the coffeetable last week (and why isn't it still there? Where did I set it down 5 minutes ago?) My musical "style" is singing songs with a melody that grabs me, and that have interesting, non-repetitive lyrics. I don't learn a lot of chorus songs, so I'm always at a loss in group sing-alongs where the emphasis is on communal singing. I don't know how this fits in with your theory, Joan - I do precision stuff at work, but my "precision" music involves wordplay rather than instrument play... |
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30 Dec 99 - 05:10 PM (#155808) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Mbo Well, I don't have a job exactly...I'm a college student studying Art--Communications Art--in the subfield of Graphic Design. With this I'd like to do more computer art than anything else. I also have a work-study job at the university as a "computer lab monitor," but have eclipsed that, and now have become a computer technician of sorts. I've always been good with computers, but still have a ton to learn in that field. I play guitar most of all, and some years of classical guitar training, but also do folk stuff; I've played violin for 4 years now, and am OK I guess, I make less mistakes if I can play slow airs; and now I've taken up the beginning stages of the bagpipes. I write music mostly: tunes, and music for song lyrics (I am "lyrically impaired"). I'm not sure if there is a direct connection between my "job" and my music. Art is creative, and so is music--but it's also very technical at times, as too is computers, and I did rather well in music theory classes. However, I am not very good at math. In fact, I hate it! The most technical subject of all, I cannot master! Very strange. --Mbo |
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30 Dec 99 - 05:41 PM (#155824) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Pete Peterson This is fascinating! Thanks, Joan for starting this. BTW I am one more lefthanded person who plays right handed; this seems more common than I had realized! |
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30 Dec 99 - 06:45 PM (#155842) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Helen Hi, Joan, I think you are on to an interesting theory but I think that a person's occupation is not a very precise link, unless the person is well-matched in his/her occupation. I also think that your loose definition of right-brained people is not quite on the mark. You said: Probably more interested in ballads, songs with good words--the right-brained word people. I think that the words (i.e. labels for things, people, ideas, etc) are more left-brained but concepts, intuition, visual stuff etc are more right brained. I'll find the internet site which has a quick test for right & left brain focus and post it here. What I have been thinking about, though, is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, which is a test which gives insight into personality types. There are four elements each with a scale of two (presumably) opposing factors. Introvert/extravert, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. I won't go into the definitions here, I'll find a site which explains it and also an on-line test for it. It would be interesting to see how everyone's profile comes out & then compare it with interests in music. I know that I have a problem memorising words to songs. I can read it over & over, practise it over & over & look at the words as if I have never seen them before. I don't know why, except that I am a visual/conceptual type of person, even though I am analytical, rather than a word type of person. It may have something to do with my dyslexia where I have trouble remembering what I call *labels* i.e words & names, but I can visualise things really easily. (See the recent thread on dyslexia) Helen |
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30 Dec 99 - 06:56 PM (#155851) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Mbo BTW I am right-handed and play right-handed. Shock horror!:) --Mbo
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30 Dec 99 - 07:01 PM (#155855) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Gary T Re lefties playing right-handed: I'm a lefty, with a very strong sense of my left-handedness, and holding a guitar in the normal right-handed position felt very awkward to me. I play lefty guitar, which suits me fine but limits my choice of instruments noticeably. When I was first looking for a lefty guitar, I went into a music store and asked if they had any. The clerk said "No, but it's easier for you to learn right-handed because your left hand will form the chords". My (unspoken, sadly) reply: "Well, then why don't all the stores carry mostly left-handed guitars so that all the right-handers can have that advantage?" |
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30 Dec 99 - 07:20 PM (#155864) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Mbo I'm not sure I could ever play the other way. My left hand does all the work on both guitar and violin, while the right hand does the dopey work, except when I do classical guitar, they become equal. Though I am right-handed and write right-handed (no pun intended), I am obviously more dexterous with my left hand. If this was the case, then lefties should probably play left-handed, to strenghten the right hand. If not, you're left hand would be agile, but your right hand would go to pot. --Mbo |
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30 Dec 99 - 08:39 PM (#155896) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Mary in Kentucky Helen--I think you're on the right track with the Myers-Briggs Personality type as opposed to occupation as related to musical tastes. In one of my downsizing/outplacement sessions, there were eight of us, seven chemists or chemical managers and one salesman...BUT we were all the same (or close to it) Myers-Briggs type! The salesman was considered one of us, if you know what I mean. From what I've studied of right brain/left brain...that seems to be a subcategory within the Myers-Briggs. As best I understand it, music, poetry and art are right brain activities. (grossly oversimplified) I really hate any kind of classification or stereotyping, but the Myers-Briggs sure does lend insight into understanding people. In our session we concluded that opposites (I forget the MB types that are opposites) are always married to each other! I had a good link to an online MB test, but for some reason tonight it just won't connect. here 'tis Mary |
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30 Dec 99 - 09:04 PM (#155907) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jon Freeman Just tried one of those tests. I'm not don't agree with everything that the text said about me but for what its worth, I came out as being ESTP. Jon |
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30 Dec 99 - 09:18 PM (#155909) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jeri I can't get to the website, but I'll try later. I'm afraid the test will probably tell me I'm neither right nor left brained, but no-brained. Jon, what is "ESTP?" I also noticed earlier in this thread you said you were lefthanded, but played righthanded. Me too. (I think that means we're ambidextrous.) |
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30 Dec 99 - 09:37 PM (#155911) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Joan Remember taking the Myers-Briggs in teacher training-- very revealing and fun to do. Some seem to be analytical and creative at the same time--others are really closer to one pole than the other. And of course science wouldn't have gotten very far if someone didn't say, "Gee, wonder what would happen if..." That takes a bit of imagination. I don't think I expected every technical person to be playing tunes, nor all the shrinks and English teachers to be singing ballads. Fun to try to figure out if there's some sort of correlation, though. Joan |
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30 Dec 99 - 09:48 PM (#155916) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: MMario Another computer techie here, food service for way too long before that, and agricultural dolt for years before THAT.....can't read music, despite decades of trying to learn, can barely keep a rhythm clapping, let alone play an instument, and my musical taste runs all OVER the place. A lefty. Can't remember what my myers-briggs ended up - but most of my friends disagreed with it. (I thought it had me pegged, myself) |
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30 Dec 99 - 11:03 PM (#155947) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Buttons Hi. I sell insurance and have various management duties in the office. I love to sing ballads and anything with beautiful harmonies. I took the Myers-Briggs years ago and really enjoyed it ... I remember extrovert, intuitive and feeling...(and I married my opposite). Also, when I was testing, I am right handed but in my right brain (cross dominant). Don't know if that contributes much to the thread but I have enjoyed reading it. |
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30 Dec 99 - 11:14 PM (#155948) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Malcolm Douglas I'm still very vague about the left/right brain business. I sing (though my voice is, albeit in tune, a bit of an acquired taste) and have always found it easy to learn lyrics and song melodies; if I accompany myself (cittern) I'm more comfortable with counter-melody and drones than with chords. I play fiddle, mostly, and can improvise a second part off the cuff if I can't quite pick the tune up; I'm less accurate, I think, with tunes that don't have words (tend to invert phrases). Can't read music. I work as an illustrator, though I trained as a linguist. I'm right-handed, but my mother and brother are both lefties.... Malcolm |
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30 Dec 99 - 11:22 PM (#155950) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jon Freeman Jeri, Helen describes Introvert/extravert, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. In one of her posts. ESTP is extravert, sensing, thinking, perceiving. I am not sure that I believe in these test but it is fun anyway. Pete P, it is also surprising me to find out how many lefties that play right handed that there are round here but there again, we left handers are a superior race and are pretty good at adapting to those primitive right handed ways ;-) Jon |
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31 Dec 99 - 12:28 AM (#155971) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jeri In that case - I just took one of those tests somewhere on the web (couldn't get to the above link) and came out as IITP - weakly I/moderatelyI/weakly T/moderately P. Since I didn't know the scoring was based on comparisons, I felt like a wimp with words like "weakly" and "moderately" being thrown around. I'm currently unemployed, but was in Public Health for 18 years and liked it. I'm a computer geek wannabe, though. I play fiddle (and mess around with other instruments) and sing. I'm good at language, horrible at math. |
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31 Dec 99 - 12:37 AM (#155976) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: sophocleese I stopped paying attention to the myers briggs test when it asked if you were inventive or practical. I always figured it was practical people that were inventors. The left/right brain thing seems still to be an interesting theory that needs a lot more exploring. |
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31 Dec 99 - 01:29 AM (#155998) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Helen Hi again, Here's a test called the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (where *do* they get these names from?) but the score is written the same as the Myers-Briggs 4-letter type. It's pretty quick to take, and then the explanations are very interesting. http://www.keirsey.com/cgi-bin/keirsey/newkts.cgi By the way I'm an ENTP (extravert, intuition, thinking, perceiving) whicht the Keirsey scoring refers to as an Inventor. I think it's pretty close towho I am. My musical interests, I mean for playing music, not listening, are mainly Celtic music, especially O'Carolan's melodies. I love good harmonies and interesting or different melodies, and I hate repetitive tunes with a passion. Barbara Allen (don't shoot me, I'm only telling the truth *BG*) falls into that category for me. Dada dada (high note), dada dada (low note), dada dada (high note) da da da, dada dada etc etc ad nauseum But then if someone sings it creatively and puts in variations and lots of interesting or intricate harmonies I could love it. Mary, I tried to connect to that site a couple of days ago and also today. It's not connecting for some reason. It used to be Barbarian's Test Page but the old site refers to the new site and won't connect from there either. I tried Cyberia Shrink's Queendom site - she usually has lots of good tests, but I don't think she had the right/left brain one. http://www.queendom.com/test_frm.html I did find a downloadable test for right/left brain focus in my search, but I'll have to back track to find it because my computer crashed taking my copied site link with it because I (stupidly) hadn't saved it. Helen |
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31 Dec 99 - 02:07 AM (#156003) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: tradsteve I sell Iced-cream for a living... didn't expect that did you? I play guitar and harmonica and play traditional music; mainly old ballads and acoustic blues. I also dabble in songwriting (though I have a ways to go). I have no idea how this theory applies to me. |
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31 Dec 99 - 03:55 AM (#156014) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Liz the Squeak My, what a lot of lefties there are out there - does this add to the theory that the left handers are the creative ones? - to whit: Leonardo Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Paul McCartney, John Lennon to name but a few. I only ever learned violin, and could never control the bow well enough to please my teacher, with my right hand (still has lingering weakness due to ripped cartiledge), guitar was hopeless, I wanted to pick with my left and do the chords as well..... and the hurdy gurdy is probably all that is left to me, as I find it practically impossible to do piano tunes with my right hand. I used to work in a library, and have always been involved with food, books and people. Oh, and chocolate. LTS |
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31 Dec 99 - 11:52 AM (#156100) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Little dorritt I'm a lefty too,currently a financial consultant but previously a systems analyst. I have a lot of co-ordination problems e.g.i cannot control both sides of my body when driving etc -(give me a wide berth chaps changing gear and steering at the same time is virtually impossible for me!) playing instruments such as guitar etc also presents problems as does anything which requires my hands to do different tasks.- - however I am an exhibited artist and poet and at my age I am past worrying about it. I do remember at school being told to write with my right hand and also being punished for being unable to knit. |
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31 Dec 99 - 01:04 PM (#156136) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: selby A very left handed Electrician in a Large Power Station who plays accordian. But only the right hand,as when I put the Bass hand in, the right hand feels bullied and stops. Keith |
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31 Dec 99 - 07:21 PM (#156276) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Helen Hi again, The only test I can find for right-left brain is a downloadable zip file here. I haven't tried it out yet. http://www.thezodiac.com/Bouncer.htm Helen |
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31 Dec 99 - 08:29 PM (#156316) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Richard Bridge Solicitor - English for attorney. I like traditional English vocal harmony. Surprise! Gargoyle I wish I understood you. Tradsteve I wish I knew more people careful enough to say "iced cream" |
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01 Jan 00 - 06:59 PM (#156751) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Guy Wolff Hi Gang, I'm a potter by day and play music whenever my kids let me or when I'm making some money doing it...I guess my life is mostly on the intuitive creating side... I'm starting to forget simple nouns and i'm 49 {Not a great indication of whats to come} What is interesting is that from the pottery my hands are pritty strong and because of that I realy hammer my strings..So my occupation dose phisicaly effect my music...I play a 018 martin because mahogony works beter for me hitting so hard...I kill a white lady but sound ok on a tubaphone.. All the best Guy |
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01 Jan 00 - 07:55 PM (#156766) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: wildlone tradsteve,I make ice cream for a living also frozen yogurt play guitar,bowed psaltery,auto harp mainly for my own amusement, but I have been a nurse, printer,weaver,manager in a print works,cnc turner/miller, I wonder what the psychologists would make of that. In a hospital that I worked in I had a young man on my ward who was autistic,he was a fantastic artist.One day we had a visit from some student psychologists and as they walked round they stoped to admire the drawing he was working on, it was of a big house well mansion really set in park land with a big drive and a gate lodge, "whats that he was asked", "its where I live" he replied" he went on to tell them about the famous people he had met when he went home at weekends By then you could see them shaking their heads and as They walked away one of them said loudly "its clearly delusional" and how if they were in this hospital they would cure him quickly but as it was pointed out to them he did live in a mansion but we were better equiped at dealing wuth the problems he had than were his parents. So I never take anything at face value. Sorry for taking up your time just wanted to say it. |
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01 Jan 00 - 09:44 PM (#156814) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: pelrad Words Words Words I always go for the ballads; it's a tie as to whether the lyrics or the melody catch my attention first, but I will listen to a piece ad nauseum until I know every single word. In learning a song, I tend to be very sure of the words, then perfect the tune later. I sing. I can pick out melodies by ear on nearly any instrument I pick up, but guitars and their ilk confuse the hell out of me; they are counterintuitive. (violin, keyboards, concertina, any wind instrument...no problem) I work in museums and libararies, and I am a voracious reader. I'm predominately right-handed (taught myself to be ambi when an injury put my right hand out of commmission for a year). INTJ and proud of it. |
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01 Jan 00 - 11:43 PM (#156865) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Malcolm Douglas The right-left brain test Helen mentioned was interesting; I came out 45.5% left, 54.5% right, and twice as visual as auditory, which is probably what I'd have expected. Strange business... Malcolm |
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02 Jan 00 - 02:19 PM (#157032) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: WyoWoman When I tried to link to the Kersey Temperament Sorter, it just took me back to the Mudcat Cafe home page. I thought THAT was the test... What's the URL, really? WW |
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02 Jan 00 - 08:55 PM (#157168) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Guy Wolff Interesting Malcomb Douglas, I've always told people that I think in pictures..I find that is exsteamly helpful in producing cds because you look at a peace as if it were a sculpture, that the music has form. Yours Guy |
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02 Jan 00 - 09:05 PM (#157172) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Helen Sorry Wyo Woman, I forgot to change the url from the template I keep to make blue clicky things. It's here: Keirsey Temperament Sorter http://www.keirsey.com/cgi-bin/keirsey/newkts.cgi Helen |
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02 Jan 00 - 09:54 PM (#157215) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Gorgeous Gary I'm a structural engineer. Now, the general reputation of civil/structural engineers is that they're traditional and slow to change, can't write coherent sentences to save their life, and are generally mundane in their interests. Meanwhile, **I'm** a science-fiction fan and filksinger and I've penned a bunch of songs. Including several where I mix structures and SF. Go figure... -- Gary
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02 Jan 00 - 10:20 PM (#157235) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: vikinglass I did the Myers-Briggs thing in grad school and I tested out as ENFP. If my memory is correct, that's a counselor type........good thing because my grad degree is in counseling. I'm a behavioral consultant and former special ed. teacher(EBD). My music preferences are diverse. I play mountain dulcimer, get cold chills to bagpipe music, thrive on regular doses of heavy metal, relax to Mozart, and love Bluegrass. Guess I'm a bit mixed up (or eclectic). My other hobbies include riding and showing horses, sewing, and dabbling in foreign languages. |
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02 Jan 00 - 10:24 PM (#157239) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: WyoWoman Well, a quick temperament test reveals that I'm on the cusp between being a teacher and a field marshall. So I think I need to take up instructing marching bands! Wyo/don't-wave-salute/Woman |
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02 Jan 00 - 10:58 PM (#157254) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Malcolm Douglas Guy: Yes; everything has a shape to it, doesn't it? Music and words just as much as pictures. Malcolm |
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03 Jan 00 - 12:38 AM (#157305) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: _gargoyle GG....it is very NICE to have another GG posting to the threads... |
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03 Jan 00 - 03:49 AM (#157332) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Grubby Richard whats there to understand about Gargoyle. He's just a Mud Catter that says what he thinks. At least you know where you stand with him in a forum discussion. Sure he's ruffled a few feathers from time to time, but if we all agreed all of the time there would be no discussion. If he does rip into you sometime it's no big deal,the sun will come up tomorrow, your arm or leg wont fall off or any thing like that because of it. I have been observing the Gargoyle mania for quite some time now and it has been a thouroughly enjoyable stouch.But we all need to put it into perspective and compare it with the big things going on in our lives, it's just a discussion forum on the net, thats all it is. As far as I'm concerned Gargoyle is one of the many MCs that has has given me heaps of interesting info, that has considerably improved my progress in this fantastic musical journey I have recently embarked on and for that I am grateful. Getting back to the original question. I don't think occupations matter much I play in a session every week with people from many varied jobs and it's never mentioned the music brings us all together and we have a bloody good time of it. Grubby |
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03 Jan 00 - 04:22 PM (#157497) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: JR Left handed, right playing (I can usually hit the strings with the pick)accountant/singer/songwriter(dreaded)photographer who really likes songs with good words best. |
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03 Jan 00 - 04:43 PM (#157506) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Peter T. Another leftie playing right. I am incapable of playing much of anything in part because the two different brain styles clash in my head. I can neither memorize by rote, nor by exercise: I can do both about halfway, but neither stick, very well. I have to know the structure logically before I can pick it up by ear, and not even then very well. I envy both the intuitive, and the readers: being neither. I have not found any method that works for me, except a sort of hodge-podge. There must be a rhythm of learning for muddlers, but I haven't hit it yet. It is depressing. yours, Peter T. |
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03 Jan 00 - 08:02 PM (#157589) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Llanfair I tried that left/right dominance test, and they came out about equal, with lashings of "visual"The testers seem to think that this combination is quite useful. I still can't identify left or right in a hurry, though, and it takes a while to work out which way a screw undoes!!!!. Hwyl, Bron. |
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03 Jan 00 - 08:26 PM (#157605) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: WyoWoman Bron: Rightie, tightie; Lefty, loosey. My son the carpenter finally made it clear to me. I just put together a large desk of many small pieces and I was huddled over the parts with my screwdriver saying, "Let's see... rightie, tightie..." (But... do screws fasten in the same way around the globe, or is this one of those oddities that depends on where you live, like driving on one side of the road or another?) WW |
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03 Jan 00 - 08:35 PM (#157617) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jon Freeman Just tried the Left/ Right brain test and I am very left brained.
The results were Left 66.7% Right 33.3% Jon |
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04 Jan 00 - 01:02 AM (#157736) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Check out this site. Has a test to determine right/left brain dominance. http://www.mtsu.edu/~devstud/advisor/hemis.html |
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04 Jan 00 - 01:18 AM (#157742) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jon Freeman Just tried anons test - came out the same (or as close as possible with fewer questions) as the zip file for me 70% left brained - maybe I am. I have Helens link to the the Keirsy Temprament Sorter on that one I'm am I+2, S+12, T+0, J+0 whatever that means. Maybe somebody will explain it all to be. In the meanwhile, I'll stick to playing jigs and reels etc. on tenor banjo. Jon |
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04 Jan 00 - 05:01 AM (#157770) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Llanfair Thanks, Wyowoman, I'll remember that one!!I had to bleed the folks' radiators yesterday (bank holiday,banging pipes, wanted it sorted). No problem doing the job, big problem working out which way to turn the key!!! Jon, ANY kind of test of personality or IQ is suspect, because you never know exactly where the tester is coming from. Jim tried the left/right test, and came out very left-brained. He's left handed, and plays the bass upside down. Hwyl, Bron. |
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04 Jan 00 - 11:23 AM (#157830) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Danlbear Joan...I think you have a point there. A friend of mine is a garbage collector, and he plays songs by John Denver and David Gates. |
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04 Jan 00 - 12:14 PM (#157850) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Jeri Haha - I just took the Keirsey test and came out as ISTP - Artisan. The secondary was SP - Crafter. I love it when tests tell me what I want to hear. (And ignore it when they don't.) |
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04 Jan 00 - 01:15 PM (#157873) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: gervase I work with words and people as half-social worker half-Torquemada, keeping an eye each to the flashing knives behind my back and the greasy pole in front of me. I've been doing it for nearly 20 years, and the darned personality test tells me I'm probably crap at it! INTP? Certainly not theoretically possible! I prefer singing with people to playing and instrument, and remain deeply mistrustful of stereotypes and pigeonholes. (Which is probably why I am crap at my job - working on a newspaper isn't the best place for such equivocation) |
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04 Jan 00 - 02:47 PM (#157902) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Danlbear smiles |
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05 Jan 00 - 01:19 PM (#158433) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: peg interesting thread. I am a freelance writer (mostly a film critic and alternative health writer), but have done a variety of other things to pay the bills over the years, including teaching and, for about the last fifteen years, working as an artists' model. I now have a "real" (i.e. full time) job as an executive assistant which arose out of a long temping gig; thought I'd try this for a while cuz I need the insurance. But I have lots of free time to do my own work during the day since we are not busy that often...best of both worlds. They get a smart creative non-automaton, I get some space to do my thing. Music-wise, I am a singer. Period. A rather good one, too, if that is not too arrogant of me. Always better at that than at instruments cuz I have tried several of them and while i do have some aptitude and did well studying theory in schol etc. I have trouble staying with one thing long enough to master it. Thus I play a bit of piano, a bit of guitar, a bit of pennywhistle... I do play percussion instruments fairly well, and am not too shabby on the bodhran (no jokes please! :)!!) I think the reason singing and percussion are my musical strengths is that they are somehow far more kinesthetic (at least to me) than learning tunes on instruments. They involve the body and emotions somehow more than other instruments which require some amount of mathematical thought when learning to play tunes on them...partly this is because of lyrics in songs speaking to the imagination with images, partly because drumming mimics the bloodflow and heart ryhthms more than anything else...also, as I am sure you would all agree, an innate sense of rhythm is something which cannot really be taught; any more than a true sense of pitch or a good sense of phrasing...although all these things may be somewhat refined with work...which is why many of our finest musicians have an emotional or magical quality to them that makes them shine far and above those who are merely great technicians; this may also explain why so many music lovers gravitate towards singers (groupie syndrome)since the emotional response to lyrics and human vocals is a bit more complex and immediate than to instrumentals; which affect us on, perhaps, a deeper, yet more subtle, level...any thoughts on any of this? my hobbies: herbalism, aromatherapy, calligraphy, hiking, cooking...was once very active in theatre...and I am a pagan/witch to boot! My MBTI usually comes out under Idealist; this time around I was a Champion, but it varies... peg
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05 Jan 00 - 10:40 PM (#158788) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: Joan LOL! Garbage collector? Love that, Danlbear. Some folks really hold up my theory about word people going for lyrics and songs vs. analytical types going for picking tunes. Other folks blow the whole theory right out of the water. Don't know if our dominant hand hooks into the left-right brain dominance. Certainly a wide variety of occupations out there, but what a bummer it would be if we couldn't have our music too--whatever we sing or pick. Joan |
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06 Jan 00 - 11:07 AM (#158956) Subject: RE: Your occupation vs. your music style From: lajka Housewifw vs Irish folkmusic What´s make that me to become?? Desprate!! |