[Dixielandjazz] Royal Crown Revue and horn based bands.

Mon Mar 31 15:28:33 PDT 2008

Generations of guitar bands have left
> the popular music scene in ruins.
_______________________________________

I am completely with you - personally I can't get to the OFF button fast 
enough when a guitar band comes on.  Actually I am a guitar lover.  I played 
for many years.  Not particularly well compared to many but OK.  It's a 
tough instrument and you need competent teachers to do well.  You really 
can't treat it as a double.  It's an instrument that is a beautiful thing if 
played with any sort of sensitivity.  That's just my point.  With 
amplification and electronic gadgets it just isn't

Guitar players have tried desperately to change things but what has happened 
is they have made things more boring.  First came the wah wah and the fuzz 
box.  Now there are whole pedal boards with every sort of gimmick known to 
man.  They are instantly misused and overused by the players and almost 
never with taste.

I think everyone is aware of the repetitious nature of the guitar band and 
the typical tune.  I personally think that guitar bands are more of an 
assault than anything else.  It's sad to waste a lot of talent on a, IMHO, 
instrument that is going nowhere in the next 50 years.  The instrument has 
become BORING!  Solos are more often than not something that resembles a 
mosquito buzzing around your ears.  Have you ever noticed that most of the 
solos rarely cover more than a third or the easy reach of the hand and 
almost never incorporate chords as well as melody lines.  That is difficult 
to do and just isn't done much.

I have played professionally for 50 years.  My main instrument the Tenor has 
been popular for long before and I assume will stay that way long after I am 
long gone.  I couldn't say that the guitar will have that kind of longevity. 
There must be a lot of people out there that share my feeling about it.

I think real instruments have a character and take on the characteristics of 
the player and become an extension of the person playing it.  Sound has to 
be produced by the person and the instrument is of less importance whereas 
the guitar it's exactly the opposite.

When a kid takes a band instrument he learns just thousands of things about 
the production of music ranging from dynamics to tone production and the 
balance that it takes whereas guitar bands do all that in a computer.  If 
you don't learn how to play musically it's a pretty good bet that you won't.

After having said all that I enjoy good musicians playing the instrument 
with good taste who are not assaulting my musical taste or my ears with 
gadgets, volume or dumb music.

>From the business that the many local guitar stores do I would guess that 
kids are trying to buy good sound rather than take the typical 15-20 years 
to do it the other way with a horn.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Murdick" <kmurdick at jaguar1.usouthal.edu>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 2:45 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Royal Crown Revue and horn based bands.

> As simple as this music is (youtube.com / Royal Crown Revue) it's good
> to see horn bands of any type making a comeback.  With horn based bands
> there is only one way the quality can go, and that's up, IMO.  The
> problem with the guitar based bands of the last 50 years is that they
> have remained musically static.  Generations of guitar bands have left
> the popular music scene in ruins.
> This is due, IMO, to the fact that it is very difficult to read music on
> the guitar and guitarists are
> generally  musically illiterate. For example, the 2nd line G (treble
> clef) on the guitar can be played in four places with a total of 13
> different fingerings.  Guitarists usually learn play by memorizing
> finger patterns..  Anyone who has ever learned the Berkley Jazz School
> guitar scale system ( as I did) can attest to how difficult it is to
> gain even a modicum of freedom and music skills on this instrument.
>
> Kent
>
>
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