Wednesday, 22 March 2006

stuck

wikipedia says - The Chapman Stick in the early is a musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman 1970s. He set out to create an instrument designed for the tapping technique and the first production model of the Chapman Stick was shipped in 1974. Superficially, it looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar with 8, 10 or 12 strings mounted on it, but it is considerably longer than a guitar fretboard. Unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. Instead of one hand fretting and the other hand plucking, both hands sound notes by striking the strings against the fingerboard just behind the appropriate frets for the desired notes. For this reason, it can sound many more notes at once than most other stringed instruments, making it more comparable to a keyboard instrument than to other stringed instruments. This arrangement lends itself to playing multiple lines at once and many Stick players have mastered performing bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously.

the beauty of the tuning - from stickiwicki - This one will stretch your brain a bit. Since the melody side is in fourths, and the bass side is in fifths but in reverse order and a fourth is an inverted fifth, the same chord and scale shapes work on the bass side as the melody side! They produce different voicings, since the octave pattern is different, but the same shapes and patterns will work on either side.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

here's more to explore - (yes, google and wikipedia are very good sites)
.The sole manufacturers of the intrument (check the prices :(( )
.flash-listening on Jason Stunges' site
.some mp3z - some arbit, some with vocals.
.the video of Greg Howard playing distortion on stick is awesome.
.an interview of Emmett Chapman.

I wish I buy this instrument soon.

p.s. people who still want to fight, move on. i won't entertain crap now.

Saturday, 18 March 2006

entertained....

My last 2 years in Kgp have kept me busy in music almost throughout the year. Here is what I've gathered from the experience (speaking about entertainment/music only).

Three habits of winning people -

How to win in any event -
a) "Tap" potential fachchas.
b) Get a judge who would be pass-out of your hall.
c) Get the gymkhana ent-secy in your hall.

How to win a groups event -
a) Get a slot different than first 3.
b) Get your hall people to kowtow.
c) Be the black horse - you can come second most of the times.

How to win a vocals event -
a) Sing some fundoo pop number with hoohaa modulation in western vocals.
b) Claim that you have not had training.
c) Sing same songs for all the duration you are here.

How to win an intrumentals event -
a) Do some wizardry (e.g. biting your guitar or playing tabla (only right) by both hands time and again).
b) Again, play same pieces over the years (except this year).
c) "Ek guitar aur ek synth... sabhi hall yehi karenge... kya sexy lagega be.... judge ekdam impress ho jayega.... nahi to kuchh nahi aanewala apna is event me.... mai bata raha hoon na."


And the other side of the coin - three habits of losing people.

How to lose any event -
a) Try something beyond your caliber, no matter how it comes out.
b) Find some excuse for not performing, you can do anything you want during this time - chat, play guitar/synth in your room, sleep, go to chhedis etc etc.
c) Get disheartened very easily (kya rakha hai, sab moh-maya hai!).

How to lose in a groups event -
a) Be overconfident about your musical abilities, don't care about tightness, meager amount of practice would be enough.
b) Don't choose something which you can do better than other halls.
c) Get a first day first slot when the judge is good, or any slot when the judge is normal.

How to lose in a vocals event -
a) Realize that you don't stand a chance anyway, so try something out of the blue.
b) Re-organize the ongoing event because of some impertinent reason.
c) Choose accopanyists who are not-so-experienced.

How to lose in a instrumentals event -
a) Any excuse (e.g. going to Cal) for not participating will do - samajh rahe ho na!
b) Try playing different instruments and decide which one to play 1 hour before the event.
c) Play what YOU like rather than what THEY like.


I have seen the habits of losing people creeping in most of us losers (sure these were sore grapes for me, I will be the first one blogging the other view - how it feels to lose) though I'd rather advice not to indulge proactively in so-called good habits (unless you have exceptional tempo like Daku or Bhatu or few other people).

Why am I being so sarcastic? There's a proverb in Marathi meaning "A wise needs no explaination". I hope people are wise enough to digest this sarcasm (In my defence I argue that if they can't take it, they may not be that wise!).

p.s. I sincerely hope that the persons criticised/glorified in the above post read this entirely (esp. all the RP-ent team members) because this is what an ent-captain should have done and has failed to do - motivate his teammates.