Don Ross writes his own stuff. Just about everything he does is a combination of lead and rhythm, with a hint of bass every now and then. But it's not just that he can play his music, although that's pretty amazing. It's that it's good music.
I don't know how somebody hold this much music in his head, much less be able to bring it out of an acoustic guitar.
The only finger on either hand that sets idle is his left thumb.
No,..I take that back. I see him reaching over the neck and using his left thumb too.
Good add - it's sometimes enjoyable to exercise the "creative writing" component. I've been through this xty x times with students.
And I suspect the knowledgeable "students" enjoyed correcting you (sensei) easily enough on the "exercise" from the start and found it most satisfactory.
My students have corrected me many times - I learn a lot from them.
Good add - it's sometimes enjoyable to exercise the "creative writing" component. I've been through this xty x times with students.
And I suspect the knowledgeable "students" enjoyed correcting you (sensei) easily enough on the "exercise" from the start and found it most satisfactory.
My students have corrected me many times - I learn a lot from them.
Based on your authoritative musings here - not nearly yet enough.
Good add - it's sometimes enjoyable to exercise the "creative writing" component. I've been through this xty x times with students.
And I suspect the knowledgeable "students" enjoyed correcting you (sensei) easily enough on the "exercise" from the start and found it most satisfactory.
My students have corrected me many times - I learn a lot from them.
Based on your authoritative musings here - not nearly yet enough.
How could you possibly have even a clue regarding the sufficiency of a stranger's learning? Or are you merely trying to act like a smartass?
Every day is a new opportunity and I believe in lifelong learning - so may yet get to some learned state. But, already have realized that in this thread you are willing to speak like a presumptuous snot to those who hold applicable knowledge and aren't afraid to opine against the common grain. Nice that you affirm the authority.
Good add - it's sometimes enjoyable to exercise the "creative writing" component. I've been through this xty x times with students.
And I suspect the knowledgeable "students" enjoyed correcting you (sensei) easily enough on the "exercise" from the start and found it most satisfactory.
My students have corrected me many times - I learn a lot from them.
Based on your authoritative musings here - not nearly yet enough.
...you are willing to speak like a presumptuous snot to those who hold applicable knowledge and aren't afraid to opine against the common grain.
BRAVEHEART in the midst!!
As stated, clueless and now doused mightily with both pretense & martyrdom.
Seems like it ain't very often you browse into a popular performer's background and find so much of interest.
I was looking up the origins of the song "Nothing Compares 2U". I have no idea as to the nature of Prince's personal life, but one does get the sense of the women in his life, including two wives, leaving HIM, which seems odd for a guy with a 80 million dollar fortune, these same women afterwards saying what a great guy he was (maybe a reclusive Jehovah's Witness was too much to live with I dunno). We know that Prince did write songs to the women in his life.
So I was wondering which woman might have inspired that one.
Dunno, but I did find mention of this guy in connection with that period, apparently a musician of whom even CCCC might approve. Pretty cool I think that Prince would collaborate with a Jazz and Latin music Great thirty years his senior. An obscure White guy from Michigan yet, that even the likes of a Herbie Hancock would state "I wouldn't be me without Clare Fischer".
This thread seems to be devolving into a "Prince sucked" vs. "No he didn't" deal.
I'm gonna throw out Clare Fischer as evidence that whatever the limits of Prince's actual musical abilities may or may not have been (I honestly have no idea), he did at least have the brains and the interest to reach out to others in the field.
So put this in the "No he didn't" column.
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
May I step into this debate and point out a factor that makes a difference in perspective when discussing how one listens to Music?
Most are just listeners who may or may not like what they are hearing and be done with it. There is no more continued critical thought about whether a piece could have been better or improved on.
But to an accomplished Musician it is completely different in perspective when listening to a piece or how it is arranged. Artists with true improvisation skills and talent are helplessly by nature very extreme critics of each other.
They have to be very critical to become accomplished and proficient at their craft. They tend be perfectionists and critic about everything produced...And most especially their own abilities and personal work.
Musicians tend to spend countless hours, days and sometimes weeks on one piece to get it as absolutely perfect as possible in order to benefit and improve their own skills has earned the right to judge their peers Work or Skills past or present.
It's just a part of the trade and the nature of the beast as an artist perpetually improves and advances his own skills. Without this discernment of self and others all music would be fairly dull and all sound the same.
There would never be innovation.
With skilled musicians there will never be a "good as it is going to get" situation. Everything is always scrutinized in this perpetual motivation in perfecting their own skills. Themselves most of all...
So as an accomplished musician myself, I completely understand the scrutiny shared by CCCC. This is natural and normal in this particular cultural art. And as a teacher of this art it is his JOB to pick arrangements or styles apart and share his critics of them.
When I no longer have the right to protect my own person or property...my person and property have become public property in common.
May I step into this debate and point out a factor that makes a difference in perspective when discussing how one listens to Music?
Most are just listeners who may or may not like what they are hearing and be done with it. There is no more continued critical thought about whether a piece could have been better or improved on.
But to an accomplished Musician it is completely different in perspective when listening to a piece or how it is arranged. Artists with true improvisation skills and talent are helplessly by nature very extreme critics of each other.
They have to be very critical to become accomplished and proficient at their craft. They tend be perfectionists and critic about everything produced...And most especially their own abilities and personal work.
Musicians tend to spend countless hours, days and sometimes weeks on one piece to get it as absolutely perfect as possible in order to benefit and improve their own skills has earned the right to judge their peers Work or Skills past or present.
It's just a part of the trade and the nature of the beast as an artist perpetually improves and advances his own skills. Without this discernment of self and others all music would be fairly dull and all sound the same.
There would never be innovation.
With skilled musicians there will never be a "good as it is going to get" situation. Everything is always scrutinized in this perpetual motivation in perfecting their own skills. Themselves most of all...
So as an accomplished musician myself, I completely understand the scrutiny shared by CCCC. This is natural and normal in this particular cultural art. And as a teacher of this art it is his JOB to pick arrangements or styles apart and share his critics of them.
Bugout4x4 - you are both discerning and kind. It is gratifying to see straightforward comments from a fellow who is highly knowledgeable on the subject and knows how to write. I neither wish nor need defense - and am thinking that few, if any, were able to learn much from what I offered. I think there is a good chance that they will learn from your post. Thanks for that.
And I suspect the knowledgeable "students" enjoyed correcting you (sensei) easily enough on the "exercise" from the start and found it most satisfactory.
My students have corrected me many times - I learn a lot from them.
Based on your authoritative musings here - not nearly yet enough.
...you are willing to speak like a presumptuous snot to those who hold applicable knowledge and aren't afraid to opine against the common grain.
BRAVEHEART in the midst!! As stated, clueless and now doused mightily with both pretense & martyrdom.
Take a hint add - read the thread and analyze - get some knowledge. I noted the opinions of others regarding the guy's musicanship, did some gentle analysis and offered a counter opinion. Just doing business in the correct way. Gave him credit as a performer and, unlike others, said nothing about his personal life, possible drug abuse, etc., etc..
You soon got snarky with me, personally. Does that elevate you in your own mind? When you get nasty to a person - even a calm person - sooner or later he/she is going to give you a couple of jabs to the nose, a left to the gut and a right to the jaw. It's your payoff.
You have soiled yourself here. Now, go clean yourself up. Done with you in this case.
May I step into this debate and point out a factor that makes a difference in perspective when discussing how one listens to Music?
Most are just listeners who may or may not like what they are hearing and be done with it. There is no more continued critical thought about whether a piece could have been better or improved on.
But to an accomplished Musician it is completely different in perspective when listening to a piece or how it is arranged. Artists with true improvisation skills and talent are helplessly by nature very extreme critics of each other.
They have to be very critical to become accomplished and proficient at their craft. They tend be perfectionists and critic about everything produced...And most especially their own abilities and personal work.
Musicians tend to spend countless hours, days and sometimes weeks on one piece to get it as absolutely perfect as possible in order to benefit and improve their own skills has earned the right to judge their peers Work or Skills past or present.
It's just a part of the trade and the nature of the beast as an artist perpetually improves and advances his own skills. Without this discernment of self and others all music would be fairly dull and all sound the same.
There would never be innovation.
With skilled musicians there will never be a "good as it is going to get" situation. Everything is always scrutinized in this perpetual motivation in perfecting their own skills. Themselves most of all...
So as an accomplished musician myself, I completely understand the scrutiny shared by CCCC. This is natural and normal in this particular cultural art. And as a teacher of this art it is his JOB to pick arrangements or styles apart and share his critics of them.
Bugout4x4 - you are both discerning and kind. It is gratifying to see straightforward comments from a fellow who is highly knowledgeable on the subject and knows how to write. I neither wish nor need defense - and am thinking that few, if any, were able to learn much from what I offered. I think there is a good chance that they will learn from your post. Thanks for that.
My pleasure...just explaining the difference in scope of discernment between Listeners and Artists is much broader than most realize. Rather than just comparing artists within a particular Genre we tend to compare all artists in all genres as a whole. Guitar players don't share this much, but sometimes the genre they choose to personally express is often limited to their own skill level even though they enjoy most genres.
But in secret every one of them would die for the ability and skill level it would take to keep up with the likes of masters like Paco De Lucia no matter what their chosen genre happens to be.
Players like Paco actually set the bar for the term "Good guitar player", Masters like this can literally adjust the sound their own fingerprints produce as they caress the strings.
Last edited by Bugout4x4; 04/25/16.
When I no longer have the right to protect my own person or property...my person and property have become public property in common.
Dutch, seems that you don't know a tut tut from a toot toot - but do know how to twist another's words in your tower of babble. Is that charitable enough?
You have only the intention to be dismissive to defend your perceived superiority, yet you claim you wish to be charitable? How small.....
I don't much care for Prince's music, but I recognize an artist who created novel, innovative and passionate music. Few, vanishingly few, artists create a style, if not a genre. Prince came close.
You didn't just point out a few minor things as a criticism, you took it upon yourself to diminish an artist (for reasons you will probably never allow yourself to realize) by trying to redefine an artists through petty criticism on minor technical details. Skillfully, honed by many years of practice, you tried using your seniority and status in an attempt to devalue the whole of the artists' contribution.
You may have established for yourself that you are a better technical musician than Prince was.
You just don't even rate on the same scale as an artist.
Dutch, you too are soiling yourself. I said zero about the level of my own artistry or technical ablity. And, I did nothing whatsoever to to diminish that performer as an "artist" - actually gave him his due as a performer. If he puts his stuff out there for sale, he is open to critique - and only he can diminish his worth as an "artist".
I merely replied to opinions about his musicianship as stated by some, expressed disagreement, and used some acute analysis to support my point. It appears that you don't like or appreciate keen critical analysis of stuff with which you are comfortable. That's fine, but it doesn't change reality.
Meanwhile, you started with the personal attacks and - silly you - presume that you have the intellectual power to calculate and state the motivation and intent of a person you do not even know. You simply don't have it.
Finally, you have no idea where I, and maybe any other musician on here, rates as an "artist" - or as a performer. Limitations in taste do not enable that - you simply don't have it. When you learn to step outside of your own likes and dislikes and critique work on the basis of reality, and when you learn to disagree without resorting to ad hominem attacks on folks you don't even know, your comments may take on meaning and weight. If you can't do that, open mouth and insert foot.
