Recent content by Tommyc

It's completely off topic but reading your post I realized Trace Elliot is an anagram for Clear Toilet. It must be the Jumble. Forgive me Trace owners!

Well, the rich get richer. 37 bucks turns into 12.6 million. I congratulate him. Word is though, he doesn't sell anything. Then again, he doesn't need the money.

Boulez had perfect pitch, Stravinsky didn’t, Boulez was the lesser composer, therefore perfect pitch makes one a lesser composer. It’s false logic. The decisions, creative tools that were in Stravinsky’s mind made him the better composer. He’d have been the better composer if he had had...

Sure oral traditions have to predate the scribe. Some continue to this day. The very detailed body of knowledge in say, Indian classical music is still passed on orally, teacher to student. It’s not 100% improvised. It does work. What wouldn’t work would be trying to pass down the whole of...

If literary artists could write books, screen plays, plays, poetry etc. without having learned to read and write, they would. Before an argument is made that the blind poet, Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey didn’t write down anything, for obvious reasons, I’d like to know how much of...

I have to proof read more often.

What did McClucuhan say “the medium is the message” It’s not an encouraging message. Give me a grainy, silent, black and white film whose content and artistic quality is beyond reproach over any empty, trendy, fashionable cartoon that doesn’t even try to do anything but make money. Same goes...

. Take a look at this. Not saying you should do it yourself. But it is a step in understanding how the bass works and the general metrics one should seek and be aware of.

There are actually spare examples of Bach before Mozart using parallel fifths in a few cantatas, but and here’s the big but, they occur in the bass in support of contrary motion in upper voices. They still were not in the 18th century considered good taste and were to be avoided. In Debussy’s...

Oh and another thing. Theory is not a road map nor a set of rules. Using the thorough bass method e. g I- IV- V7 - I, the practices of composers throughout the ages get analyzed. That’s all. When by 1890 Debussy, who knew more theory than anyone here, decided to use parallel 5ths in a piece...

Poor Artur Rubinstein, the dirty little over-achiever, he managed to learn Frank’s Symphonic Variations playing imaginary keys on his lap, while sitting on a train. I suppose I should be more impressed with someone who has real musical talent and has no need of paper crutches, what the little...

What I find annoying is that there are too many people who have learned chords by note name, their various voicings etc. but don’t know why for example, f a c e is F major seventh. The concept of tertiary harmony, a fifty cent word for stacking 3rds is the cornerstone of Western harmony and...

God help Paganini if he hadn’t liked Guarneri’s scroll, he’d have missed out.

There was someone, a couple of years ago, maybe it was here, who bought an early series 200 watt AI amp which was about a 10 year old model at the time, on EBay. I don’t remember the issue with it but Rick fixed it and this is what I remember, upgraded some part that had since changed. And...

As a bonus even though you’re not the original owner, should you have a problem, Rick Jones will take care of it. AI has the best customer service in the business.