Written by cbte on January 30th, 2010
There’s nothing better than a good concert. Am I right? The sun goes down, the breeze gets stronger, the opening bands pack up and leave, and then the magic happens – your favorite band comes out to share an hour and a half of sonic bliss with you.
But what about after the music stops? You can’t go to a live concert every time you get the urge to hear your favorite band. So you get an iPod and load it up with your favorite tunes. Any time you get the urge, you simple press Play. Easy. Accessible. The way we wish it had always been.
When I got my first iPod, I had about 80 CDs to rip to my computer. iTunes made it so easy – just pop the CD in, select your ripped bitrate, and you’re on your way to a happy and full iPod. I chose the Apple Lossless format, so my tunes would be identical to their quality on the CD. Fast forward a few years, and here I am. I’ve decided to live minimally, so I’m getting rid of my “stuff”. The CDs fall into that category.
Here’s my dilemma. Are the CDs my license to own the music? If I give the CDs away, am I morally obligated to delete the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) files from my computer? You might say that I should have just purchased the music from the iTunes store in the first place. Until recently, iTunes has only offered music at a piddly 128 kpps bitrate quality – strapped with some tasty DRM to boot.
So if I want to put some music on my cell phone too – too bad. Only the iPod and my computer can listen to these files. But how logical is that? The point is to limit the promulgation of the file right? Why can I have it on my computer and my iPod, but not my phone?
I’ve recently purchased a few albums from Amazon’s MP3 store, because of their low prices; however, I miss the pristine quality of a direct CD rip. I can’t buy lossless audio files from iTunes or Amazon, so what am I left to do? If I rip an album and then sell/donate it to get rid of it, I’m taking a sale away from the artists. But… how else can I get my files without keeping the optical media?
Just to see how good my ears really are, I will be performing a test.
I will be sound testing five of my favorite songs at three different bitrates. Apple Lossless, AAC 320, and AAC 192 (what my library is currently encoded at, so that it will all fit on my 16GB iPod Touch). The songs are as follows:
- Keane – She Has No Time
- Death Cab For Cutie – Soul Meets Body
- Coldplay – A Message
- Eric Ruske – Csárdás (Vittorio Monti)
- Porcupine Tree – Trains
These are songs that I’ve always felt were recorded with superb skill. We’ll see how the listening test goes.
What happens if I like the lossless files better by a landslide? I guess that’s just a hurdle I’ll have to cross when I get to it. I really don’t know a good ethical way to purchase lossless music files, but I’d definitely be open to suggestions. I’m all about doing this legally – and the less moral dilemmas, the better.
Stay tuned for the results of the listening test!
Written by cbte on January 28th, 2010
In this day and age, it’s very easy to choose convenience over joy. Whatever state you’re in – trying to become minimalist, trying to get out of debt, or simply trying to improve your quality of life – you need to take a step back. You won’t find out what’s keeping you from your goals and dreams until you stop everything you’re doing and simply observe.
I’m going to make a very specific suggestion. Go out and buy a copy of Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto. Get it from iTunes or Amazon’s online store if you must. The next part is crucial. Find a place to listen to this where you can concentrate completely on the music.
Get your nice headphones out. This can work with a nice speaker system, but it’s infinitely more intimate with headphones. You don’t want anything to break your focus from the music. Now press play, and prepare for the eerie C minor arpeggios. At this point, you might be worried that this piece is too long for you to take it in, in its entirety. Did you know that 200 years ago people went to hear this very same concerto for recreation? This was their form of going to the cinema. So for this one time, stop the internal struggle, and sink into the music.
If you’re listening to this in a public place, try not to look around. Just focus on one spot. Perhaps your cup of coffee. Perhaps a painting on the wall. If you’re in a private place, close your eyes. Now let the music create your thoughts. The thoughts will form as the music plays. It’s like how movie soundtracks are created, but reversed. The movie in your mind will be written as the music plays on.
As your brain works, it will create thoughts about the things that matter most to you. The business you’re thinking of starting. The promotion you’re working towards at work – you will visualize yourself succeeding. Then more important things will become clear.
During the second movement, you will envision the complete absence of all your relationship problems. You will find true happiness in your thoughts, and you will know what it takes to achieve the real thing. Let the music add as much detail as possible to these thoughts, including landscapes, temperature, the tingle of the wind on your skin, and the time of day. Make it as real as reality.
Once you’ve soaked in this bath of imagination, don’t dry everything completely off right away. Keep these thoughts and feelings fresh on your mind, and start to live them! The second you go back to the normal routine, you’ll no longer have the proper motivation. The solution is to make this practice a recurring pattern in your life.
Always set apart a specific time in the week for this musical meditation. If you have access to a quiet area outdoors and the weather is right, you can accomplish the same thing in the solemn wilderness. Become engulfed by the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, and let a story develop in your mind.
As soon as you begin loosening the ropes on your mental creativity, good things will start to happen. You’ll start writing that book you’ve always planned on. You’ll write out a business plan for your dream business. You’ll finally clean out the back room.
How do you slow down the busy cycle of life? How do you enjoy what you have and who you are? Even if you think this won’t work for you, do you have anything to lose by simply trying it?
Written by cbte on January 27th, 2010
Apple – ya heard of it? It just happens to be one of the most revolutionary companies in the world – if not the quintessential tech company. Today, they released the iPad.
Apple has always focused on one thing – changing paradigms. When Steve delivered the iPod on October 23, 2001, he changed the way we listen to music. I remember dragging and dropping mp3 files to my Rio 512mb mp3 player. It was REALLY cool – that I could listen to music without a CD player – but it was hardly seamless. What Apple had created was an entire ecosystem for listening to music in an entirely new way. Compared to dragging from one folder to another, iTunes just feels right. It always has.
I didn’t jump in the Apple game until the release of the iPod 5G. I had just gotten a great new job, and I felt like getting a new toy. Wow, was I surprised. I didn’t just get a new toy, I got the best gadget experience of my life that far. Everything worked so seamlessly. Not a year later, I got my first Apple computer – a black MacBook.
I’ve grown to love the Apple universe. Apple reminds me of Mike Holmes (see Mike Holmes, HGTV) – when they do something, they do it amazingly well. This takes us to the iPad.
Do I need an iPad? Even if I don’t need it, does it offer enough to persuade me to buy it anyway? Here’s the skinny. I already have an iPod Touch (1G, 16gb). I also have an HTC G1 with T-Mobile service. I do sometimes wish for a larger screen when browsing the web, but I don’t take the ability to put these devices in my pockets for granted.
One of the iPad’s greatest strengths is its beautiful IPS screen. Perfect for viewing lots of video. The usage of my iPods has been approximately 96% music and 4% video. This might change, as I’ve recently taken up a new hobby – ripping all my DVDs and creating two versions of each of the resulting files – one full resolution for laptop/TV viewing, and one lower resolution for mobile (iPod) viewing. I might start watching more videos just because I can, but for now, I don’t.
I don’t travel extensively with my job (yet), but if I did, I could see a desire for a bigger, higher resolution screen. Speaking of the larger screen, if you haven’t seen the iTunes/iTMS integration on this thing, you need to. It’s fantastic. It adds another sensation to listening to music – something only Apple could do. They’ve shifted the paradigm yet again to make listening to music more interactive and fun than it was before.
The iWork integration is interesting. I’ve heard (and seen videos) that the web browsing is supreme. The only problem? No hardware keyboard. I got the G1 for the hardware keyboard. I need tactile feedback to enjoy my mobile typing experience. The same goes for Apple products. You might wonder why this doesn’t matter on my iPod Touch. I use it primarily for music, so there’s not a lot of typing going on anyway. The touch interface is the best music browsing experience there is. Period.
The Verdict. I wouldn’t get an iPad. First of all, the name sounds like a feminine hygiene product. Secondly, the things it focuses on don’t appeal to me as much as they will to others. The big deal with the iPad is web browsing, video, and apps. If I’m browsing on the go, I will use my G1. I have maybe 3 (non-stock) apps installed on my iPod Touch, so you can see apps don’t matter much to me. As I previously stated, I don’t watch much video outside of the comfort of my room (or somewhere I don’t have my laptop).
I think the iPad is a great product. Apple puts out a lot of great products (how did the Apple TV make it past QC?). Personally, though, the iPad is not for me. I’d love to have that great music browsing/listening experience, but that alone is not enough to convince me to bite. If you purchase a shiny new iPad, let me know how awesome it is. Perhaps some day in the future the magic of Apple will convince me otherwise, but for now, I’m sticking with what I have.
Written by cbte on January 26th, 2010
Part 1 of 2
There are many different versions of this story. One of them is perhaps the most generic. Young Sally goes to school. She lives in an apartment while attending college because she “can’t afford” a house yet; however, she pays for this apartment partly with student loans. The other part is paid by a part time job. Sally graduates with a degree in Finance. She gets a job just a month after graduating! Her boyfriend of 2 years asks her to marry him, and she does so. Less than six months into her job, they buy a house together with a 30-year variable rate mortgage.
Although everyone’s story is different, I’m going to base this example off of the many, many first time home buyers I see on “Property Virgins”, “House Hunters”, and “My First Place” on HGTV. Although I’ve only personally witnessed two home purchases, I’ll add them to my example base.
It starts with a sense of entitlement. Sally – and her new husband, Dan – decide they need a house. They have a combined $15,000 in credit card debt and $60,000 in student loans, but they deserve a house. They’ve worked hard during college, and they both have well-paying jobs now ($45,000 per year, each). They didn’t enjoy apartment dwelling, and with the fantastic income they now have, they’re confident they can make the mortgage payments.
But that’s just it. It’s a mortgage. Society has warped our sense of perception on this topic by stating that if you owe a mortgage, you “own” your home. No. The bank owns your home. But that’s not all.
Sally and Dan want four bedrooms, a chef-style kitchen, and a swimming pool. It will be tough to make those monthly payments, but they can do it. It’s not impossible. So they sign the papers. They’re “homeowners”! Congratulations!
The first question arises: Why did they need four bedrooms? They haven’t had any kids yet? No matter, time to start filling the place up! They put a TV and speaker system in the living room and get a couch to sit on. They have many enjoyable, romantic evenings watching movies on their single couch in front of their TV. But…
That doesn’t look terribly normal. There’s usually a loveseat somewhere. They get a loveseat to go next to the couch. They don’t really sit on it, but it makes the room look much more normal. You know what else looks abnormal? The entry room with nothing in it. They had fun dancing around in it when they first moved in, but it’s now time to make their house a home. They fill the room with couches, end-tables, light fixtures, and the works. The only thing is…
Now those extra bedrooms are begging to be filled. They decide to make one of them another TV room. Sure, they already have a TV in front of their first couch, but it would be convenient to have a TV room upstairs, near their bedroom. They hook everything up, get another couch, and call it a day.
This continues until the whole house is full. They have two unused beds, four (normally) unused couches, and plenty of tables to go around. They’ve also stocked all the closets with linens, towels, comforters, and the like that they’ve acquired from their families over the years. Everything’s going well, right? Well…
They are now up to $25,000 in credit debt (between cards and furniture stores), their student loans have grown (due to the interest) to $65,000, even though they’ve been making the minimum payments (after waiting the 6-month grace period). They don’t get to see each other often, as they’re occupied with work all day, making sure to bring home the cheddar to make the monthly payments. When they get home after a long day of work that they don’t especially enjoy – but can’t quit, for fear of missing a mortgage payment – Sally often wants to grab a bite to eat and head up to her room, while Dan stays downstairs and watches TV. They say a brief goodnight, and they’re at it again the next morning.
You might be thinking that this is unrealistic at this point. Who has $90,000 in debt, not including their mortgage? You’d be surprised. How much do you have in credit card debt? Student loans? Unsecured loans? Home mortgage?
This is the point where their marriage reaches the brink. They’ve both seen it coming from a distance, but they chose not to talk to each other about it. It has been much easier to find comfort in “stuff” than in the respite of solid communication. Their lack of communication leads to multiple fights – and ultimately – a separation.
The divorce becomes all about who takes each portion of the debt. Isn’t that awful? This is happening to many people every day, and I claim that it all starts with one common factor –
the house.
Why did they need that huge house to start with? If they hadn’t gotten that house with all the space in it, they wouldn’t have felt the need to fill it with “stuff”. They wouldn’t have “needed” to impress the neighbors with two fancy new cars. They would have had a happier marriage.
Minimalistic living is not only about keeping your life simple – it’s about making your life better for everyone you come in contact with. When you have little or no “stuff” to focus on, you give others your complete attention. This is what successful marriages are made of! This is what great friendships are made of!
If you’re young and looking for a new house – and you happened to stumble upon this article – think twice about your first purchase. Do you really need four bedrooms when you don’t have any kids (or even any plans to have kids)? If you just rented for a few more years and saved all your extra money, who knows? Maybe you could buy a house with cash! How exciting would that be?
Some see living minimally as a challenge, but isn’t it harder to deal with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt (and possibly divorce)? You be the judge.
In Part 2, we’ll discuss how to work with what you have
Written by cbte on January 21st, 2010
When we stop paying attention, life can become a big pile of clutter very quickly. Sometimes we clean up a mess simply because we notice it. How differently would we feel about our lives if we were constantly working to avoid making the messes? Let’s stop being hypothetical and switch into literal mode. We’ll first examine the types of messes, and then look at ways to stop palliating them and start cleaning them up.
Physical Messes
You’ve been busy at work, busy with the kids, busy keeping in touch, etc… You’ve let the mail pile up on the counter like the mountain of potatoes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the kids’ toys are all over the place, and there’s only 20% of your bedroom floor that isn’t covered with random things you haven’t sorted through yet. Everybody has a normal amount of clutter in their lives, so this is no big deal.
Financial Messes
You’re good with money, so you don’t really need to write out a budget. You only go out with your friends every so often, so it’s okay to charge drinks to the card. You make minimum payments on the student loan so you have a lot more money each month to “be responsible” with. You don’t know how much your next insurance payment will be, but you’ll have enough to cover it after this paycheck comes in. You don’t know how much you spend on food each month, but your home hasn’t been foreclosed on, so you must be doing something right.
Communication Messes
You haven’t been getting along with your spouse/significant other recently, but that’s just how relationships go. Marriage gets slow, dating loses its original infatuation. This is just how these things work. You’ve started hiding your feelings from your significant other, but he or she wouldn’t understand how to mend the situation anyway, so best to put it on the back burner for now. It’ll either come up or fix itself later.
Baking Soda and Vinegar – used to clean up ANY mess
Here’s the harsh reality. That mountain of clutter in your bedroom is your fault. If you don’t start making financial decisions on purpose, you won’t be living or retiring with dignity. If you don’t start communicating with your lover, you’re going to lose him or her. If it’s easy to keep doing things the way you’ve been doing them, why change?
Good things are worth fighting for. You know what’s good? A clutter-free life. The absence of financial worry. A loving relationship with the man or woman of your dreams. These are things we need to strive for. If we don’t strive for them, what are we really living for? Only you can answer that question, but let’s look at some possible cleaning solvents for these unfortunate messes.
A clean space will clean your mind. When you either organize your junk into nice piles or just get rid of it all, there’s a burden lifted from your shoulders. You no longer have to be concerned with the impending painful cleanup of a mess. What’s even better, though, is if it’s all on purpose. Every other Saturday, I will attack the bath tub grime with baking soda and the glass surfaces with vinegar. If things get rough, I’ll even use them both at the same time. But before I even start to see the dirt/dust build up on anything, I know that it will be cleaned in a timely fashion. It’s something to look forward to. It builds me up and gives me confidence that I will succeed in other areas of my life.
Getting rid of debt could just save your life. Getting out of debt and into financial shape is not complex, but it’s an extremely arduous process. When you give each of your hard-earned dollars a purpose before the paycheck even comes in, you feel more in control of your financial life. Your money doesn’t own you, you own it. This will transfer over to your physical life, and you’ll want to start making health goals.
The more debt you pay off, the more pounds of fat you’ll want to shed from your body. If you’re planning how much grocery money to spend, you might as well learn how much the healthy foods cost per month. Guess what, it’s not more expensive than non-healthy food. You don’t have to go all out with the “Organic Happy Go-Lucky Amazing” food. Just stop buying the cookies and greasy chips! As you progress throughout your financial clean-up, you’ll improve your physical life and vastly improve your chances of a longer, healthier life.
Being on the same page about the previous items will fix the third. When you communicate your goals with your partner, you begin to form a team. You both contribute your ideas and have meaningful discussions about how to go about achieving your goals. Your relationship becomes less about going through the motions and more about falling deeply in love with a person that shares your goals and strives for mutual success. When you’re constantly working towards a goal, you don’t have time to sit around and stop communicating with each other.
Perpetual Scrubbing
So what are you going to do about your situation? Are you going to continue to live in a cluttered home? Will you continue swiping your debit card with no idea how much money you’ll have in 10 years? Will you continue to hold yourself back from your partner?
Make a change, and do it now. Clean your living space, and set a date to repeat every month. Even twice a month. Heck, do it every week. Can you imagine how awesome it would feel to live in a brand new place forever? Keep it clean, and it will feel like that. Actually, it will feel better than that because of the added pride you gain from doing it yourself.
Spend your money on paper, on purpose*, before the month begins. When you know where the money’s going before you get it, you get excited about the next paycheck rather than dreading the bills. You start using investment calculators to see how much you’ll be worth in 5 years. 10 years. 20 years. How much will you be worth? $500,000? $1 million? $10 million? You’ll never know until you start spending and saving your money on purpose.
Communicate with your partner. If you both agree on living clutter-free, share and discuss financial goals, and communicate regularly with each other, where can you fail? You’ve successfully removed at least the number one cause of divorce (money fights) from your relationship. The important thing to remember is, don’t hold back anywhere else. If you develop a problem, talk about it. Right away. The longer you wait, the worse the problem will get; so fix it before it becomes a mess that needs a thorough cleaning.
Although the process will be difficult, the theory is simple. Start living on purpose. When you make the jump, you’ll see areas of your life turning around that you didn’t even know were headed in the wrong direction. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Be a rock star. Make your friend green with envy of your successful life, and then show them how to do it. Live your life on purpose, and you’re gonna win.
*Yes, I’ve stolen this from one of the greatest minds of today, Dave Ramsey. If you’re interested in a tried and true plan to get out of debt and become wealthy, head on over to www.daveramsey.com for the best financial coaching you’ll ever get. If you want the handbook for success, get Dave’s The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.
Written by cbte on January 19th, 2010
(This is the first of many posts that will become a new blog, My Silly Paradigm.)
Welcome to the maiden voyage of My Silly Paradigm. I’ve thought for a long time about what sort of blog I’d need to get the most readers. I have a few passions in life, so naturally I thought to have a few blogs – one for each passion. Simply put, the motivation is all wrong there. The means comes before the end, not the other way around. I was trying to create the ultimate solution and only then would I compose the remedy. With that in mind, I’ve decided to simply share the successes and failures that come with an unorthodox lifestyle.
From the time I was a child, I have always been extremely pensive. During moments of rote repetition, my mind wanders the depths of my imagination. I think up new ideas, debate personal decisions, and contemplate improbabilities. Extreme literalness is a side effect – unfortunate for some. I analyze things until they are blue in the face.
I wondered, as I grew, if my morals and behaviors were mine or if I acquired them from my parents and teachers. As time went by, I discovered that although I had good influences throughout my childhood, I give myself at least 85% of the credit for my ways. Don’t get me wrong – I take 100% responsibility for my actions, but I will give others some credit for the way I perceive reality.
This leads me to minimalism. I’ve always considered myself an auspicious candidate for OCD, so it’s no surprise that I enjoy a high degree of order among my personal things. As I constantly search for more efficient ways of storing and compartmentalizing things, I came to a realization:
If I had less stuff, organizing would be exponentially easier.
So I began donating things I didn’t need. I didn’t want to throw everything away because there had to be someone who could get more use out of my old things. I started with clothes. Easy. I never wear that Olive Green suit any more. Donated. I never wear that Gap button-up shirt any more. Donated.
I easily donated 50% of my clothes, including some brand new Banana Republic khakis (2 pairs) that still had the tags on them. I got them as a gift, but never wore them. Now someone in a financially weak stage of their life can obtain clothing for an affordable price. I don’t agree with the government trying to help people in need; however, I do agree with people helping people in need.
Next came CDs and DVDs. I’ve already recorded all my CDs to my hard drive in a lossless format, so they are essentially useless to me. The DVDs? I have a Blockbuster rental subscription for less than $11 a month – with which I can rent Blurays. What’s the need for physical media? I’m only going to watch the movie once every few months, if not a year. So I gave some of my good DVDs to my roommate and donated the rest.
Last came the trinkets. The random things that I had no clue what to do with. A PocketPC case. A three-ring binder. Somebody will make some use out of them. I’m surely never going to use them again, so why have them take up valuable free space?
At this point, my room was looking nice. I had filled my trunk with seven trash bags full of my old things. I felt as if a burden had been lifted. I lost about 200 pounds without changing a single thing in my diet. I wish I could explain it more elegantly, but you really have to experience it to fully comprehend it. I didn’t do a count, so I don’t know if I’m under 100 things yet, but I bet I’m ridiculously close. Just think of the implications!
If I need to move, I can fit all of my stuff in my car! My car is not a Ford Excursion – it’s a (Volvo S70) sedan! Moving is not the only benefit. What about Renter’s Insurance? I currently have a policy with protection at $10,000. There’s no way my possessions are worth that much at this point, and that’s a good thing! We so often get caught up in appearances that we forget the internal damage it does. What if my house burns down? No big deal! The fewer things I have, the easier it is to keep a mental inventory. If the house does indeed burn down, I’d totally know what needed replacing instantly.
The last benefit I’ll attribute to minimalism is its effect on its surroundings. When you look at modern architecture or home design, you aren’t impressed by the amount of “stuff” in the house. A wood floor is only beautiful if you can see it. The impressive part is the lack of superfluous clutter.
How would you feel if you didn’t have to worry about your “stuff”? Would you be relieved? Does simply thinking about it make you nervous? Why not take the focus away from the material and put the spotlight on the finer things in life: experiences.
Written by cbte on January 17th, 2010
Lately, I’ve been extremely busy. It’s not that I’m necessarily doing a lot of things, but the things that I do are taking up the entire day. It’s a bit unfortunate, but it’s motivation to change my circumstances. I’ll preface the remainder of what I’m about to write by saying this – I don’t really have anything pressing to get off of my mind, so I’m resorting to this.
So being busy, I have to be very careful with the goals I set to be accomplished during my free time. If I set too lofty a goal, I’ll be disappointed in myself for not completing the task; however, if I set a simple task, I might wish I had done more with my free time. The solution? On occasion, don’t set any goals! This is where I found myself last night.
I decided to hit up YouTube for the most recent horn videos – an activity I’m often engaging in. I came across a selection of recordings of high school students auditioning for the UIL Solo & Ensemble contest. One of the students was playing the Gliere Horn Concerto. I’m familiar with the Gliere because I played it for UIL Solo contest my senior year of high school. During high school – and even to this day – I have good days and bad days with my horn. Some days it’s just really easy to hit all the notes. I must have slept on my lips in such a way that kept them tense all night, causing them to be ready for action the next day. Who knows. One the day of my UIL performance, I was in the zone. It was a good day. It was a perfect way to end my high school musical career.
Since high school – and even since I started playing the horn – I’ve had trouble with my flexibility. I was not taught the proper way to play the horn in sixth grade, and thus I have always applied pressure to hit the high notes. You might just say, why don’t you just stop doing that? Well, the problem is that I’ve been doing it for a very long time, and I only recently discovered that there is a proper way to do it. If I were to attempt to correct the error, it would take between 6 months and a year, and I wouldn’t be able to play any of the fun stuff that I do currently, for the tenure of the re-training. What I did, instead of playing my horn properly for the past 11 years, is learn how to play musically. There is more to this than I can write about, so I’ll save that for another post. In a nutshell, I know how to connect musical phrases and make a jumble of ink on a page make sense to the ear. I can also tell when an artist is not doing these things.
With all of that out of the way, I get back to the high school UIL competition. The kid is playing Gliere, and he can obviously hit the high notes. He doesn’t have any trouble with them. What he does have trouble with, though, is everything else. His initial note attack is sloppy, there is no phrasing to be heard whatsoever, and his tone is mediocre. Here’s the problem. It’s like being in a down-hill bike race, where the YouTube kid has a $3,000 road bike, and I have a tricycle. Also, the YouTube kid deliberately doesn’t study how to ride a bike down a hill, even though he knows he’s going to have to. On the other hand, I’ve received years of training on how to ride a road bike down a hill. The kid with the bike has the obvious advantage. It’s ridiculous. I won’t win.
When I hear kids on YouTube playing in this fashion, it bothers the piss out of me. A music teacher somewhere is getting away with robbery. He or she is teaching his or her students that playing an instrument is all about learning to accomplish the extremes and hardly about the subtleties that make great music magical. I know the obvious solution to this dilemma is that I need to start teaching horn lessons – preventing this from going on any more. Perhaps someday I will take up this call to arms. For now, I’ll continue complaining about it.
It’s not only on YouTube. I experienced this during college, too. Talented horn players – technically, at least – who neglected the most important part about horn playing: making music. It pains me to know that I have the ear to make musical magic happen, but when it comes to playing the horn, I don’t yet have the physical ability. Perhaps I’ll make that my next goal. Why not, right? I’ve got a lot of life to live, and what’s 6-12 months of training for a remaining life of excellent horn playing?
Let it be written, let it be said: in one year, I will be considerably better at horn acrobatics than I am today. Until then, I’ll keep hoping that all this unused potential on YouTube finds a willing and able teacher.
