[Dixielandjazz] Can you listen to music and chew gum at the sametime? NO

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Try sleeping after playing Jazz.  It takes me hours to unwind.  You are dead
on Bill.  People ask me why I don't listen to music.  I do, but I really
can't do other things too.  Either I'm listening or not.  There isn't a
halfway.  I'm absolutely no good in an elevator.  It drives me nuts if I
can't hear the music and there is other noise like people talking and it's a
major distraction in movies and on TV too.  The History channel has taken to
putting music in some of their things and that's just plain WRONG!

When I was a kid my brother would take me to the Muny (forest Park in St.
Louis).  There are several rows of free seats and the people would sit and
talk through the performance.  I could never figure that out either.  Talk
about a moth drawn to the flame.  We loved the musicals but hated the
talking.

I had occasion to buy a mike cord and went into a local guitar shop.  I told
the guy there that working in a guitar shop was my idea of hell.  With the
would be drummers and really bad guitar players trying out all the new
gadgets recently invented to make a guitar sound worse I was hearing every
note or sort of note of it.  He said that after a while he just tuned it
out.  How does anyone do that? But they do I guess.  My mother always had to
have sound going and I never understood that.  How can someone just turn on
a radio just to have something making sound?

These are in short the curse of being a musician.  I wonder if brick layers
go around looking at bricks to see if they are level or not all day.  Ah,
another mystery of life.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Gunter" <jazzboard at hotmail.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 7:38 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Can you listen to music and chew gum at the
sametime?


> Hello friends,
>
> Listmate Jim Kashishian writes:
>
> >Next time you are having trouble dropping off to sleep try putting on a
> >jazz
> >CD.
> >Researchers have shown just 45 minutes of relaxing music before bedtime
can
> >make for a restful night.
> >Actually, I can't listen to jazz, period, when doing something
else...even
> >driving.  I really listen when I listen, and lose track of what I'm
doing.
> >That may be due to the fact I'm a musician, and find myself within the
> >group, so to say. I certainly couldn't describe listening to jazz as
being
> >relaxing for me.
>
> This is interesting to me because I have essentially the same problem. I
> can, however, drive while listening to music but that's probably because
> driving is a motion - sort of like dancing with wheels. I mean I wouldn't
> say that I can't dance while listening to music . . . but that's beside
the
> point.
>
> My problem is that as long as I can remember, whenever music is playing
> someplace my attention is immediately captivated. I can't carry on
> intelligent conversations with others because my attention is too strongly
> diverted away from conversation.
>
> On the other hand it's possible I can't carry on intelligent conversations
> anyway but perhaps that's also common among musicians.
>
> I could never do homework and listen to the radio at the same time when I
> was in school . . . result - I rarely got my homework done.
>
> In talking about this phenomenon with some of my musician friends, it
turns
> out they have the same problem too. I'm beginning to think that some
people
> often become musicians because they basically can't do anything else when
> music rears its ugly (read beautiful) head.
>
> How many of you have trouble concentrating when the music starts?  I bet
> it's a pretty common thing amongst DJMLers.
>
> Respectfully submitted,
>
> Bill Gunter
> jazzboard at hotmail.com
>
>
>
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