The Funklet

So you're trying to sell a book based on a notation that you invented - that looks like this?


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Jeff
 
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So i pay twenty bucks, for twenty beats. Thats a buck a beat not bad really. A nice idea and good luck with it, great playing to. Being a funklet myself ill transcribe a beat if i wanna learn one.
 
To be honest, that's the most confusing notation I've ever seen, aside from illegibly handwritten standard notation.
 
This evokes a bunch of reactions from me. By turns it's goofy, cool, innovative, dated, inscrutable and clear as a bell. Maybe because my dad was into cryptography, I'm drawn to this type of stuff. And you sound like you're having a blast. Keep doing it. I particularity like that you'll pay musicians 1967 scale!

-John
 
I just can't help but think "How utterly pointless".

First, to me, if there is a basic standard music notation that just about everyone knows and is easy to read, what is the point of confusing the issue completely by making the comprehension and reading of a simple beat so difficult? This is pure gimmick to me and makes playing music too long winded and difficult. I look at that midi-thing and just think "What? There is a beat in there?" I could listen to that beat and play it back maybe straight away or figure it out very quickly or I could see it written in standard notation and play it straight away because it's not going to be very hard to play. The nuance, subtlety, and flavour yes, but not the actual beat itself. This thing would take the simple act of reading and then playing the beat into a long, painful process when it's probably very, very, very simple.

Aren't we just trying to play the beats and get good at that? What is the musical use of this difficult to interpret notation? How does it help become a better musician? Does it make something easier? Does it take away a useless portion of the learning process to make it better and easier or does it add in more confusion, more unrelated non-music stuff to figure out before you even get down to actually learning to play a cool funk groove?

As a teacher who spends much time trying to make the process of learning music easier and keeping it about learning and playing music, I can't help but find this incredibly ... I hope I don't cause too much offense but, stupid and ignorant. We want to make the process between learning and playing easier and as free of restrictions and non-playing related material as possible rather than more complicated and tedious with non-music related stuff.

If it was free (even if it was free I'd still find it foolish), then I wouldn't think about it at all, but people have to pay for that!?! Anyone that is thinking of getting that and paying 20 bucks too, just go here instead and get more for free and it will be easier and much quicker to learn: http://www.drummerworld.com/Drumclinic/transcriptionstabs.html

It has transcriptions of classic funk stuff with videos, music notation, and it's all free. Or if you feel like you need to buy something for it to be legitimate, get Tommy Igoe's book/cd Groove Essentials. Ten times the material with music to play along to and easy to read grooves, and variations. It's about playing music!

I don't know why this annoys me so much, but for some reason it does. I dislike gimmicky stuff I guess and things in which people are made to pay for something that is, in reality, utterly useless and can be had anywhere for free.
 
jazzin' said:
I just can't help but think "How utterly pointless".

First, to me, if there is a basic standard music notation that just about everyone knows and is easy to read, what is the point of confusing the issue completely by making the comprehension and reading of a simple beat so difficult? This is pure gimmick to me and makes playing music too long winded and difficult. I look at that midi-thing and just think "What? There is a beat in there?" I could listen to that beat and play it back maybe straight away or figure it out very quickly or I could see it written in standard notation and play it straight away because it's not going to be very hard to play. The nuance, subtlety, and flavour yes, but not the actual beat itself. This thing would take the simple act of reading and then playing the beat into a long, painful process when it's probably very, very, very simple.

Aren't we just trying to play the beats and get good at that? What is the musical use of this difficult to interpret notation? How does it help become a better musician? Does it make something easier? Does it take away a useless portion of the learning process to make it better and easier or does it add in more confusion, more unrelated non-music stuff to figure out before you even get down to actually learning to play a cool funk groove?

As a teacher who spends much time trying to make the process of learning music easier and keeping it about learning and playing music, I can't help but find this incredibly ... I hope I don't cause too much offense but, stupid and ignorant. We want to make the process between learning and playing easier and as free of restrictions and non-playing related material as possible rather than more complicated and tedious with non-music related stuff.

If it was free (even if it was free I'd still find it foolish), then I wouldn't think about it at all, but people have to pay for that!?! Anyone that is thinking of getting that and paying 20 bucks too, just go here instead and get more for free and it will be easier and much quicker to learn: http://www.drummerworld.com/Drumclinic/transcriptionstabs.html

It has transcriptions of classic funk stuff with videos, music notation, and it's all free. Or if you feel like you need to buy something for it to be legitimate, get Tommy Igoe's book/cd Groove Essentials. Ten times the material with music to play along to and easy to read grooves, and variations. It's about playing music!

I don't know why this annoys me so much, but for some reason it does. I dislike gimmicky stuff I guess and things in which people are made to pay for something that is, in reality, utterly useless and can be had anywhere for free.
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I guess I wasn't looking at it as some kind of alternative to Alfred music, just something that loosens things up- a different take on music. So my take on it was that it's an evolving project/documentary/multi-media blog that's looking for funding to keep it going. And having fun in the process. My reaction would probably be different if I thought it was being presented as a comprehensive teaching method.

-John
 
JohnW said:
I guess I wasn't looking at it as some kind of alternative to Alfred music, just something that loosens things up- a different take on music. So my take on it was that it's an evolving project/documentary/multi-media blog that's looking for funding to keep it going. And having fun in the process. My reaction would probably be different if I thought it was being presented as a comprehensive teaching method.

-John
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know some people might dig it and I'm not positive why I had such a strong reaction against it but I just see music as a language to use to express ourselves and making it harder to get a basic grasp of a simple thing to me seems mighty absurd.

See, this is not a different take on music. It's a different take on the notation of music and a very abstract, difficult to grasp one at that. When you look at notated music, it should be as simple and quick to read as possible to get from reading to playing in as little time as possible. Making the reading of music difficult absolutely baffles my mind. I need to be able to look at some notated music and preferably not have to think at all to be able to play it. It should be clear, concise, and quick to read to transfer straight to playing music.

Different take on things.
 
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