This will disturb some of you

[Soul Power]

My musicianship teacher is old, and he has lived one hell of a life. He only tells us what he KNOWS, not what he thinks. This leads him to tell stories while lecturing. He was the principal trumpet player of the ventura county philharmonic for 28 years.

Yesterday, he told us one of his stories.
There was a gunsmith that everyone in town knew. He was a WW2 type of character, the type that chainsmokes cigars and never gets cancer. He was well known both for his professionalism and the fact that he charged less than everyone else for service. All around, he was a great man.
On his 80th birthday, the town had a get together in celebration. There was a stage for people to speak, and there were more or less 1500 people there.

My teacher, being an amazing musician with a VAST amount of knowledge both in and outside of music, was going to sing a folk song in front of all these people.
He asked a friend if he would play guitar behind his speaking----but he made sure that it was a friend who had NEVER IN HIS LIFE TOUCHED A GUITAR. To add to the spectacle, my teacher made the guitar horribly out of tune. He told his friend to basically BANG his hand down on the strings, as if trying to break them all at once.

When they got on the stage, my teacher did the expected "We're going to dedicate this folk song blah blah etc."
Then, he called his friend with the guitar to the stage and said his introduction...
"This is my friend _____, he's a disciple of Andres Segovia, and we flew him out here from Madrid, Spain. He's here to play on this folk song"

So the show went on, my teacher sang as planned, and his friend played about as musically as banging your fists randomly on a piano while blindfolded and wearing boxing gloves.

After that, and I swear to you, this man does not lie....
About 10 different GROUPS of people went up to his friend and asked if he could play at their weddings, birthday parties, get togethers, and etc.

Just think about what this means for a while before you reply. I want to hear what you guys think about this, because I know that my viewpoint is not entirely my own, and I'm more interested in hearing what I don't hear in my head.

[JTE]

"Do youuuu play any Skynyrd?"

Jogn

[Ewo]

My father used to say that some people only have taste in their mouths.

That would explain how suggestible they were, in that story, y'know?

[jkramer5]

Your friend is telling the exact 100% truth. What he left out however is that there are large groups of people, approximately 10, in that town that are tone deaf, blind and not very smart.

[bassteban]

I think I missed the *disturbing* part. What do you expect of people? We're pretty dense.

[ajb]

The story is very revealing and says quite a bit about human nature.

What I can't quite understand is why your teacher chose that particular occasion (intended to be a celebration of a prominent member of the community) to conduct his little sociological experiment. Says something about your teacher and his ego as well, methinks.

[kai]

That is some funny shat!! Thanks for sharing.

[Soul Power]

In regards to my teacher----yes, he was abused as a child and had it rough----but he is a very compassionate man. I was a psychology major for about 2 years and read endless books on narcissism (not that that makes me qualified at all), and I would agree that he does have some eccentricities...but deep down he's very kind and selfless.

[MonsterBass101]

I think the disturbing part here is supposed to be the fact that he introduced him as a friend from Madrid. The general public interpreted his random banging as a his "masterful playing" because they know little about his background.

[mongo2]

FreeBirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd!!!!!!!!!!

Love the story.

[Johnius]

I dunno. Am I buying this story? Some super-powerful "musicianship" teacher chooses to prank 1500 people at a celebration and no one in the crowd has enough "musicianship" to figure it out? That's an awfully big gamble. Had the rouse fallen apart this guy stood to lose a whole heck of a lot more than he stood to gain by pulling it off.

[Soul Power]

"musicianship" is just the name for the class, which is actually a sight-singing class.

[LongHairFreak]

... About 10 different GROUPS of people went up to his friend and asked if he could play at their weddings, birthday parties, get togethers, and etc.


I'm not surprised; sheep are quite predictable.