Looks like shipping the bass back to CA will need to wait until I return to the U.S. My spouse was not thrilled with being responsible for the safety of one of my instruments.
Reader Warning: An interesting story associated with my current work in Russia follows. It is, however, only tangentially related to Alembic or the rest of this thread.
During our time in Russia/Krasnoyarsk I had the opportunity to have a two-hour meeting with Valdimir Lande who is the artistic director and primary conductor of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra in Krasnojarsk as well as an orchestra in New York and the national choir in Washington D.C. Most of the discussion centered around his experience working with young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the U.S. who are musicians and ideas he has about at least some of these children having a much better capacity to express emotion and self-regulate their behavior through listening to or playing music than through language. The conversation focused on how teaching melodic music to children with ASD in the form of instrumental lessons and having them listen to it might improve their functioning. Sorry drummers, he indicated that melodic instruments were a lot better approach than the rhythmic approach currently used in most music therapy programs.
Vladimir made the point that during music a musician needs to: (1) Predict what is coming next (e.g., move his/her hands up or down the neck of a violin to be ready to play a specific set of notes); (2) Execute the sets of notes specified by the music; and (3) Analyze what is played in the context of what is to be played next. Interestingly, all these processes are also involved in the development of those skills all children need to develop in order to: (a) engage in ongoing social interaction with others; and (b) exercise self-determination (i.e., exercise the degree of control they desire over those things in life that are important to them). These are two topics on which I’ve been working for years in my research, but never thought of how they might be more easily taught to children with ASD via music than more traditional approaches. By the way, when asked if bass could be considered a “melodic instrument” he indicated that it all depended on the way it is played referencing Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, and Stanley (Dave: if he knew your work I think he’d also include you with this group).
Eventually the conversation came around to a discussion of digital music and while Vladimir’s response wasn’t surprising his comment that, “this digitized stuff is ruining our brains” took me a little by surprise. He alluded to digital music being similar to looking at an art masterpiece (I think he used Rembrandt’s, The Night Watch as an example), with a large piece of cardboard placed over it with holes punched in the board every inch or two. He went on to state that he thinks that listening to music in this form removes much of the signal/stimulus that allows the musician to communicate feeling, emotion, & affect, and for the listener to hear that from the musician. Vladimir expressed the belief that we listen to so much of this type of music today that musicians are losing the capacity to effectively communicate this aspect of music to their audiences because they no longer pay attention to it themselves. In addition, because they hear it so infrequently, audiences are losing the ability to respond to the emotional aspects of music even when it is present in live performances. This interesting conversation ended with his pleading for everyone to make sure their children have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument; that technique should not necessarily be the primary aspect of musicianship on which attention is focused; and that even poorly executed live music is a lot better to listen to that music of the digital type.
