- Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:55 pm
#35811
Good god that Berkley music college story is astonishing but I've heard that same line about African Music being 'free' with no regular pulse....
I met a guy at a festival a few years ago who introduced himself as a djembe player. I went back to his yurt with him, all excited, until he started to play. He told me that he played 'African' music because he just let it flow like they did. He told me you shouldn't learn things because that just stunts your creativity (very un-african according to him). He told me a lot of stuff actually so I said very little. Of course there was absolutely no point in trying to educate this guy so I beat a hasty retreat at the earliest opportunity.
It shows that people can hold quite absurd beliefs though. His argument appeared to be that he played 'African' music because he didn't learn any african music! Also because he couldn't understand the structure he assumed that it had no structure. That's ego for you!
When you come across something so outrageously absurd there is no point engaging at all. Any one who has arrived at such a conclusion will have no interest in having their beliefs challenged.
In a similar vein I got chatting to a guy at a party in about 2000. I was studying for my PhD in cognitive psychology at the time. At the beginning of the 'conversation' I happened to mention that I was studying psychology, at which point he launched into a 30 minute rant about psychology. He had done an 'A' level and I think, in his circles, it was kind of his thing. So he spent half an hour telling me about psychology. What he came out with was half-remembered stuff from the standard 'A' level text with all the gaps filled in with rubbish. I tried engaging for about 5 minutes until I realised that he simply wasn't interested in anything I had to say at all. It apparently never occurred to him that I might have an in-depth knowledge of some of the research he was alluding to. He never even found out that I was doing a Ph.D or that I had personally met some of the major researchers he was talking about.
My point is, I think, that people tell themselves stories, and after enough repetitions it becomes the truth. These stories are intimately linked to our identity and to challenge one is to challenge the other. I have my own stories and feel defensive when they are challenged.
The people at Remo will have a story, and it will make perfect sense in their world. Ditto all the other 'drum makers' in this thread.
I met a guy at a festival a few years ago who introduced himself as a djembe player. I went back to his yurt with him, all excited, until he started to play. He told me that he played 'African' music because he just let it flow like they did. He told me you shouldn't learn things because that just stunts your creativity (very un-african according to him). He told me a lot of stuff actually so I said very little. Of course there was absolutely no point in trying to educate this guy so I beat a hasty retreat at the earliest opportunity.
It shows that people can hold quite absurd beliefs though. His argument appeared to be that he played 'African' music because he didn't learn any african music! Also because he couldn't understand the structure he assumed that it had no structure. That's ego for you!
When you come across something so outrageously absurd there is no point engaging at all. Any one who has arrived at such a conclusion will have no interest in having their beliefs challenged.
In a similar vein I got chatting to a guy at a party in about 2000. I was studying for my PhD in cognitive psychology at the time. At the beginning of the 'conversation' I happened to mention that I was studying psychology, at which point he launched into a 30 minute rant about psychology. He had done an 'A' level and I think, in his circles, it was kind of his thing. So he spent half an hour telling me about psychology. What he came out with was half-remembered stuff from the standard 'A' level text with all the gaps filled in with rubbish. I tried engaging for about 5 minutes until I realised that he simply wasn't interested in anything I had to say at all. It apparently never occurred to him that I might have an in-depth knowledge of some of the research he was alluding to. He never even found out that I was doing a Ph.D or that I had personally met some of the major researchers he was talking about.
My point is, I think, that people tell themselves stories, and after enough repetitions it becomes the truth. These stories are intimately linked to our identity and to challenge one is to challenge the other. I have my own stories and feel defensive when they are challenged.
The people at Remo will have a story, and it will make perfect sense in their world. Ditto all the other 'drum makers' in this thread.
