[Dixielandjazz] What they teach in college these days...

[Bill Gunter]

Hi all,

Bob Ringwald asks:

>But, what if there is no god?

and

>What if we do not have a soul?

In that case I'm just blowing smoke.

On the other hand, what if there is a divine presence and we do possess an 
inner spirit?

Anyway, this is a music forum and not a theology website.

I will proceed, however, on the assumption that there is something that sets 
music in a special category and that it is not simply an assortment of 
sounds engineered by someone who claims to be a musician but who produces 
nothing but (to my ears) noise.

You may argue that I'm in no position to judge someone else's "musical 
expressions" and you'd be right.

But I'm not speaking for you, I'm speaking for me.

I'll put it simply: If anyone can do it and it requires no special training 
then I don't think it's art.

Music is an art with roots in cultural traditions.

It takes discipline, practice, dedication, talent and honesty. Guess that 
makes me a musical conservative and not a musical liberal (little political 
analogy there). I believe strongly in traditional values. I don't want to 
flaunt them to "expand the musical genre" or "raise your consciousness".

At the same time I will aver that Monsieur Le Petomane was a musical genius.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "do a Google on that" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com