Music Lessons in the potting shed

[zauberflote]

I did a lot of online research on Cochlear Implants and music a couple of years ago, but what I found was stuff on people who’d had hearing as children, but went deaf later in childhood/teenagers etc.
Just going to see if I can find something, but it is middle of night, just woke for bathroom and peeked in...

I’ve just found I deleted all the links I had found on research because they didn’t help me!

Okay, there is Evelyn Glennie, who Hearing friends tell me that I should look on her as inspiration if I want to learn about music.

So I researched her. But what annoyed me was that she had NOT been deaf from birth but had a very good grounding in music while she was fully hearing because of her father, a musical family I think. And that was rarely said anywhere online (although it seems to be mentioned now), so you got this impression she is a totally deaf person who did this amazing achievement despite being totally deaf. Which to me as a profoundly deaf person from birth is a sort of inaccuracy. She had an illness when she was around 11 I think.

You, as a hearing person may think I am missing the point in all this.

Anyway here is one link. I will try and find a better one.

http://www.openculture.com/2017/06/...n-listen-to-music-with-our-entire-bodies.html


https://www.allmusic.com/artist/evelyn-glennie-mn0000126390/biography

It says she was deaf from the age of 12 due to illness.

She has achieved a tremendous amount .

Going to look at your other replies...I think I saw there were more....

>^..^<

Glennie is like Beethoven, who had hearing until he didn't. So he could hear in his head what he was writing. She can presumably hear in her head the scores she reads that are music to accompany her solos. Due to her training while hearing. You cannot do that!
I was looking for refs to "profoundly deaf from birth" too! Had to quit, was getting too tired You may be in uncharted territory here!
You are not supposed to be keeping yourself awake with screen time in the middle of the night!!!

 

[zauberflote]

Okay, sounds good, an instrument I could feel. I would like that.
.............
Maybe you will be able to point me where or what to look for then I can figure out what I want?
I love my potting shed!!!
So does cat !
>^..^<

Hmmm. There was that lap harp. Do you live anywhere near good music? If I were a harp teacher I'd probably let you play one of mine just for the joy of watching your discoveries unfold. Meanwhile, and I'm serious, find a good sturdy rubber band, hold one side of the loop tightly between your teeth, stretch it out a bit with one hand, and twang it with your other hand. This is not a "beautiful" sound at all but you ought to feel the band's vibrations. Pull it tighter. It will vibrate faster. Play around, see what you feel. I don't know whether your processor should be "on" for this or not.
Have a narrow-neck glass bottle around? Try blowing across it. It makes a hooting sound which can be made progressively higher and higher in frequency/pitch as you fill it a little at a time. Of course the original game is, it starts full of beer, and you drink it lower and lower in pitch/frequency. When you get a bunch of music students together doing this, you wind up playing familiar tunes in a drunken fashion, ensemble-wise.
Um. Take a metal spoon and a metal pot. Maybe hug the pot to you with one arm and strike it with the spoon with the other? By golly, hold it on your head like a basket and tap it with the spoon. See what you feel. Tap everything in the kitchen with the spoon, with and without your other hand in contact with the whack-ee object. . It won't be The Least Bit pretty, but it might be educational. Not too sure on this.
Perhaps I can ask some harpists about UK harp associations or educators' databases of teachers in whatever area. I'd be bold and contact a few, see what their interest level in something completely different is.
Gotta go sorry!!!! Back in a while.

 

[zauberflote]

Forgot to say, keep listening to Hildegard as long as she continues to please you. It's a good benchmark for you- you've had a couple of different perception experiences with it, and for all we know there are more to come. Trailblazer you!

 

[gennepher]

Glennie is like Beethoven, who had hearing until he didn't. So he could hear in his head what he was writing. She can presumably hear in her head the scores she reads that are music to accompany her solos. Due to her training while hearing. You cannot do that!
I was looking for refs to "profoundly deaf from birth" too! Had to quit, was getting too tired You may be in uncharted territory here!
You are not supposed to be keeping yourself awake with screen time in the middle of the night!!!

It’s difficult to find anything useful isn’t it?
I know I shouldn’t go on my devices in the middle of the night!!!!
>^..^<

 

[gennepher]

Hmmm. There was that lap harp. Do you live anywhere near good music? If I were a harp teacher I'd probably let you play one of mine just for the joy of watching your discoveries unfold. Meanwhile, and I'm serious, find a good sturdy rubber band, hold one side of the loop tightly between your teeth, stretch it out a bit with one hand, and twang it with your other hand. This is not a "beautiful" sound at all but you ought to feel the band's vibrations. Pull it tighter. It will vibrate faster. Play around, see what you feel. I don't know whether your processor should be "on" for this or not.
Have a narrow-neck glass bottle around? Try blowing across it. It makes a hooting sound which can be made progressively higher and higher in frequency/pitch as you fill it a little at a time. Of course the original game is, it starts full of beer, and you drink it lower and lower in pitch/frequency. When you get a bunch of music students together doing this, you wind up playing familiar tunes in a drunken fashion, ensemble-wise.
Um. Take a metal spoon and a metal pot. Maybe hug the pot to you with one arm and strike it with the spoon with the other? By golly, hold it on your head like a basket and tap it with the spoon. See what you feel. Tap everything in the kitchen with the spoon, with and without your other hand in contact with the whack-ee object. . It won't be The Least Bit pretty, but it might be educational. Not too sure on this.
Perhaps I can ask some harpists about UK harp associations or educators' databases of teachers in whatever area. I'd be bold and contact a few, see what their interest level in something completely different is.
Gotta go sorry!!!! Back in a while.

Will look at this one and try tomorrow.
Need sleep now...
>^..^<

 

[gennepher]

Forgot to say, keep listening to Hildegard as long as she continues to please you. It's a good benchmark for you- you've had a couple of different perception experiences with it, and for all we know there are more to come. Trailblazer you!

Okay.
Am doing so.
Listened to her in the pub earlier this morning when I was escaping the workmen. I streamed it directly to processor obviously, as I in a group of people, and the quality is not as good as even with my ION speaker, BUT I got the more monotonous tone (but as I said before not in a bad way), and that was comforting as there was too much assaulting my senses there. But being there was the lesser of two evils as I was still mad with those workmen...
>^..^<

 

[gennepher]

Okay.
Am doing so.
Listened to her in the pub earlier this morning when I was escaping the workmen. I streamed it directly to processor obviously, as I in a group of people, and the quality is not as good as even with my ION speaker, BUT I got the more monotonous tone (but as I said before not in a bad way), and that was comforting as there was too much assaulting my senses there. But being there was the lesser of two evils as I was still mad with those workmen...
>^..^<

Will look at this one and try tomorrow.
Need sleep now...
>^..^<

These replies are playing up.
I just wanted to add that I have been searching for music stuff like harp and stuff near me, but a bit lacking in these parts...will look again in next couple of days...
>^..^<

 

[zauberflote]

@gennepher hearing people often bang things around when angry. The rhythmic motion blows off steam. It's also very satisfying to slam a door, and not necessarily for the noise. The effort is what does it, although the loud bang lets everyone else in the house know you're mad. But it's not very good for the house so I wouldn't recommend it.
There's no rush on finding info and harps and such. I've found a database of harp teachers in UK, will have to be sitting at computer to put it on here.
Hildegard will be a forever thing ) this is all going to be cumulative, so take your time, enjoy the ride.
Sleep well!

 

[gennepher]

@gennepher hearing people often bang things around when angry. The rhythmic motion blows off steam. It's also very satisfying to slam a door, and not necessarily for the noise. The effort is what does it, although the loud bang lets everyone else in the house know you're mad. But it's not very good for the house so I wouldn't recommend it.
There's no rush on finding info and harps and such. I've found a database of harp teachers in UK, will have to be sitting at computer to put it on here.
Hildegard will be a forever thing ) this is all going to be cumulative, so take your time, enjoy the ride.
Sleep well!

I didn't realise that as such. I didn't associate/really understand this.

My ex husband used to slam one particular door very hard, he had a foul temper. The crack across the ceiling got deeper and wider and further across the reaching into the middle of the room. I divorced him before he cracked the ceiling in two.

I couldn't see the point in it. It never had any effect on me, him slamming the door. I couldn't hear it, just saw the crack...

Thinking about it, I have never done letting of steam for a noise. Obviously.

I suppose in a sense I haven't had had the lifetime emotional experience towards noise. My stuff is visual or writing.

Listening to Hildegard in bed now...before I restart the day.

>^..^<

 

[gennepher]

@zauberflote
I don’t know what has happened but the Amazon collection point that was meant to take the Bose speaker in has refused the parcel and is sending it back to Amazon.

I am very disappointed and have no idea what has happened.
>^..^<

I sent Amazon an email asking for an explanation.

 

[gennepher]

I found this looking for deafness and musicians

http://www.decibels.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/deafness-no-barrier.pdf

I can't tell if the person who wrote this was born deaf, but they are a deaf musician writing a thesis as part of their B.A. degree.

I've skimmed but I cannot take it in/understand properly yet.

In Chapter 2 Rhythm. For me, someone some years ago tried to explain rhythm, but I didn't fully understand or take it in. They couldn't understand why I couldn't take it in.

Then later, this writer talks of Glennie and Beethoven. I nearly didn't read further.

It ignores, in my mind, that Glennie had full hearing up to the age of 12, and had a thorough music background and musical education.

I know I am probably being unfair, because Glennie has probably helped a lot of deaf children/people, and that barrier is there for me when I read about her because she was totally involved and immersed in music before she went deaf.

Is this pdf any good?

>^..^<

 

[zauberflote]

Hey @gennepher I have NOT been ignoring you!! Been thinking of you often, but I am so behind everywhere that I'm afraid to open threads!!
That is AWFUL about the Amazon. Is this the same flooded out post office? My son would advise, cancel the order, wait for the refund, and order again. I had to chat with a seller once, and they kept the $$ and sent me a replacement of something that had gotten lost in transit.
I'm printing the pdf so I can actually read it, so I'll get back to you on that.
Rhythm! Let's see what we can do. Much Rhythm is the organization of EVENTS in TIME. Much rhythm is the organization of OBJECTS in SPACE. (oh boy! Space-time continuum here we come!) The seasons of the year have a rhythm. The words you write have a rhythm. Poetry has rhythm. The limerick is an excellent example. I don't know how you perceive them, but hearing people speak a bit louder on the syllables I've capitalized below, meanwhile giving each and every syllable the exact same absolute amount of time in their speaking.
There WAS a young LA-dy from SOME-where
Who SOME-thingdy etc etc
I have rudely forgotten your kitty's name, but watch the area below the ribs for the rhythmic breathing. Snorgle her, and lay your head on her ribs if she lets you do that. The heartbeat you feel is rhythmic. I can definitely feel my own heartbeat. Sometimes it has a "regular" and sometimes an "irregular" rhythm. Most people's heart rhythm is "regular", or so I hear.
!...!...!...!... is a visual rhythm. Very regular. Many visual patterns are regularly rhythmic. Think of a garment with a scalloped hem or detail. The scallops are (generally regular) rhythms.
A baby suckling usually has a pretty regular rhythm, visually and audibly. The waves in the ocean have rhythm, visual and audible. . A grandfather clock's pendulum, unless in a zombie movie, has a definitely regular rhythm, which is sometimes one swing/second if the clock is just the right size. ANY pendulum must have a rhythm, a very regular one. Thing of swinging on a swing.
If you get a flat tire it will thump regularly, and you may feel it. (Ha! I'll bet your auto mechanic loves you! You never bring the car in and say, "it's making a funny noise"!!!!)
Infantry and marching bands both march to a rhythm, and create a visual rhythm, several of them at once. Watch the feet. Watch the knees. Watch the arms. Watch the rows. Watch the brass players swing their horns side to side. Etc.
Look up "contradance" on Youtube. You can see the dancers' bodies, especially feet, moving in rhythm. If it's a far shot, you can see the lines' rhythm. How about rowing? A good rowing team has the most precise rhythm. Bell ringers ringing a peal in a church tower MUST all be in the same rhythm or somebody's going to get hurt!
Old style train tracks used to create a clickety-clack that had a very strong rhythm. The telephone poles going by out the train window, with their wires, have a swooping rhythm all their own. Assuming they're set regularly...
Electricity has a rhythm but don't go looking to experience it
Walking, skipping, running-- all have rhythm (sneaking up on music here...)
A pile driver has a rhythm, as does someone who's good with an axe or a hammer.
In the photo below, ignore EVERYTHING but the little round black spots with lines coming up or down from them. You see that each spot is precisely spaced apart, equidistant from the last and the next. It so happens that this is written music, but you can ignore that too...I can't! I look at that and I see and hear not only different "pitches" (sound frequencies) corresponding to where on the five horizontal lines (staff) the black spot (note) is, but the precise same regularity of sound that is seen in the placement of the "notes"-- that is their "rhythm", as indicated by the shape/appearance of each note. Music is both a heard and a written language, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise! Hildegard had a primitive system of notation that was a forerunner of the modern type you see in the photo.

Hopefully some of this makes sense? If it's any consolation, 7/8 of the kids in a beginner band (or adult beginners for that matter) have NO CLUE what rhythm is. Some of them learn, and some never do. Some are born with rhythm, some aren't.
I'll shut up now!
Edited for clarity.

 

[zauberflote]

Notes on dissertation thingy:
"Deaf" not defined for purposes of the paper.
Beethoven went progressively deaf and would never have been able to write what he did without having been hearing first. He was such a musician that he could hear it all in his head, even the entire Symphony #9. Most composers do that. It's inside and has to come out. Glennie was hearing for 12 years. I'm not sure that actually has anything to do with her gift, but probably makes it easier for her in her brain, to know what the sounds she produces "sound" like. For all I know, African drumming started with a deaf person looking for a way to communicate! American First Nations peoples' drums are gigantic, and get the audience in the pit of the stomach-- that's the process of the rest of the body that's not the auditory nerves perceiving sound.
This paper has so many typos and weird constructions that I'm embarrassed for the author! Also missing the sense of it here and there. What DO they teach them in schools nowadays?
We have to remember that this is an opinion piece, not a textbook of facts.
[re making loud noises when angry as your ex did with the door. The noise is satisfying, but so is the physical exertion. The exertion gives the angry person's body a feeling of satisfaction, and the loud noise gives the brain that sense of "I'll show them who's boss!" The crack in the ceiling was an added benefit for him... next time you're angry, take maybe a rake, and go rake hard for 5 minutes. Or pound on the table with your fist if it doesn't hurt. See if you don't feel some physical relief from the anger. Exertion will do that. Angry pre-schoolers will stomp off down the hall, and I expect deaf ones are no exception! The pounding of the leg on the floor is very satisfying!]
More later....

 

[zauberflote]

PS when you are ready for a small new Hildegard challenge, let me know! But that can take a back seat to rhythm to keep things simpler.

 

[gennepher]

PS when you are ready for a small new Hildegard challenge, let me know! But that can take a back seat to rhythm to keep things simpler.

Hi.
Yes, same flooded out Post Office...
Going to have to print all the above out later to take it in properly, and pin it on the wall.
I have come to realise I don’t know/understand what rhythm is, and neither can I comprehend rhyming.
Yes I write poetry, but that is haiku or tanka which has nothing to do with rhyming at all.
When I first began writing poetry, I tried to do it like other people do, so I bought some books on Rhyming and other stuff to do with that. But it killed poetry stone dead for me. And I gave up. I even bought books on how to write poetry with, I think it was stuff like iambic and pentamic or something. It was like reading Latin which I don’t know. Obviously poetry could never be for me.

So, poetry then became pieces of free writing for me. I even tried belonging to a poetry group to try and learn. So boring. They had to bring an extra copy of the poem for when they read it, so I could follow. They were a good group and tried their hardest for me. I stopped going.

Then I discovered haiku and tanka. Bliss. This was my kind of poetry! I see a picture in my head, or it is an abstract feeling, and I can write the words.

I have abandoned it a bit the last two years. Too much going on.

Anyway, sun is out. Potting shed beckons.

And I will print the above so I can read it properly.

I only watch three threads on a daily basis. And peek into others. Otherwise you will end up living literally on this site.

Take care
I will respond with thoughts on above later.
By the way Popeye is a HE. He says MEEOOOW!



>^..^<

 

[zauberflote]

I knew I would guess Popeye's sex wrong I did have a 50-50 chance though! Will try extra hard to remember!
Haiku probably is my favorite type of poetry, for exactly the reason you say about image or feeling. It also has rhythm but since Japanese is a total blank to me beyond a few phrases, I don't know what its rhythm is in its original language. But the rhythm for us here right now would be the syllable count. It's pretty far out there so don't worry about that.
I was just throwing lots of examples out for you, so you can see if any of them makes any sense. I don't know what the other person told you rhythm was, so I don't know (and choose not to care lol) what I SHOULDN'T say!
PS rhyme has nothing that I can think of to do with rhythm so you can safely forget it! One can probably make rhymes in music but I don't want to try here
Take your time absorbing your favorites of all the examples I threw you! It's not an overnight thing until one day you may say AHA! Got it!!

 

[zauberflote]

You know what, @gennepher ? I cannot make heads nor tails of Chapter 2, Rhythm. I'm sure the author has good points, but I am failing to see them. Chapter 3 has no relevance to us here&now. Skip! Chapter 4 ditto. Chapter 5 maybe. I'll read next.

 

[gennepher]

You know what, @gennepher ? I cannot make heads nor tails of Chapter 2, Rhythm. I'm sure the author has good points, but I am failing to see them. Chapter 3 has no relevance to us here&now. Skip! Chapter 4 ditto. Chapter 5 maybe. I'll read next.

It was difficult/impossible finding any information on deaf from birth and music.
With this young person writing this thesis and appearing to be deaf from birth, I was hoping there might be some relevance in there somewhere . I have researched her since sending it to you she went to the Mary Hare School for the deaf in UK, which is a prestigious deaf school in the U.K. which promotes sign language.

(I have never been to a deaf school, my parents didn’t believe in signing, they believed, well initially that I was mentally handicapped and deliberately refusing to speak or hear, lazy in listening and speaking and so I got sent to normal school where I spent most of my time in tears, with no understanding of anything, and in the corner standing on a 3 legged stool with a white pointy dunces hat on with a big red capital D on it. It was some years later, about 7 years old, before profound deafness was diagnosed by Great Ormand Street Children’s Hospital in London, and I had to be taught to speak word by word by vibrations with my hand on this old lady’s chest and blowing raspberries on balloons, but those balloons burst in my face sometimes and I am scared of balloons to this day.)

Anyway this young woman has gone on to do some degree in music. And this appears to be her dissertation/thesis or whatever you call it. She appears to have been deaf from birth which is the bit I was interested in. And that was why this thesis/dissertation had the possibility of being interesting from a deaf person from birth making music as part of her career, and her personal viewpoint of it. She seems to have gone on to other stuff now although still seems to be working from a deaf angle in the work she does.

Sorry if I am not quite making quite proper sense but I have just woken up, and am going out in a bit, so my brain is not quite in grammatical gear yet.

You said Haiku has rhythm...well it does have
syllables 5,7,5
Tanka 5,7,5,7,7
And that is what attracted me initially as a form of structure, because I was getting stick from others at different creative writing groups for not following rules in poetry. There was always some officious person who ran the group...you know what I mean...
Anyway I am writing haiku on Twitter in 2009 sticking to these rules, but it is very stilted i found.
Finally I wrote a more free form of haiku. Still 3 lines but forget the syllable rule (which is an English contrivance anyway because our language is not Japanese), but I stuck to the essence of haiku and tanka as well. So tagged it #haiku #3lines and made up #micropoetry tag in conjunction with another haiku poet. It took quite a while for that hashtag to take on but it has now become #mpy I think.
I got a lot of stick initially from die hard haikuists. So many trolls out there. So was at the end of a bit of online abuse. Took awhile but gradually it caught on.
Now people are more free and inventive and there are loads of other forms, and terms used for hashtags, and I am now lost as to the meanings of some terms now!!!!
I need to get back to my poetry!

Anyway back to Popeye.
He forgives you!!!
But he wasn’t sure yesterday about his throat being held in a choke grip with both my hands to feel that purr mechanism in his throat.
Well it is the best place to feel it properly!
But then he decided it was okay and was happy to purr away.
I know you didn’t tell me to do that!!!
Still feeling his purr with intention now.
He lies on my chest when I meditate...
And when I come to I think I have a ‘dead’ cat on my chest.....

Catch you later...

>^..^<

 

[zauberflote]

Lord have mercy, you have a long-suffering cat! I'm so glad he forgives me. I offer high-quality catnip to him!
My cats allow me to lightly lay my head against their side and are frequently already purring when we're in a mood to do that. Your Popeye must be small, that you can breathe with him on your chest. Mine are 12.5 and about 17 lbs and anywhere from the waist up on me is forbidden territory!
All right now, class! You have just composed, sat for, taken, and Passed With Flying Colors your first quiz on rhythm!!!! YES!! 5,7,5 is rhythm! So you must tell yourself, that academically that structure of haiku and tanka is rhythm. Academically speaking, you are a star student! We can certainly work with this.
That's all of school for now
Sounds like you have forgotten more about poetry than I've learned in a lifetime. Twitter would be the perfect place for short form, indeed. I promise I am not a troll nor will I be!

 

[gennepher]

Lord have mercy, you have a long-suffering cat! I'm so glad he forgives me. I offer high-quality catnip to him!
My cats allow me to lightly lay my head against their side and are frequently already purring when we're in a mood to do that. Your Popeye must be small, that you can breathe with him on your chest. Mine are 12.5 and about 17 lbs and anywhere from the waist up on me is forbidden territory!
All right now, class! You have just composed, sat for, taken, and Passed With Flying Colors your first quiz on rhythm!!!! YES!! 5,7,5 is rhythm! So you must tell yourself, that academically that structure of haiku and tanka is rhythm. Academically speaking, you are a star student! We can certainly work with this.
That's all of school for now
Sounds like you have forgotten more about poetry than I've learned in a lifetime. Twitter would be the perfect place for short form, indeed. I promise I am not a troll nor will I be!

Popeye accepts the catnip gratefully!

Actually Popeye is a bit of a heffalump. Just weighed him. 12lbs. Used to weigh more when younger...
Got used to Meg, my Hearing Dog for the Deaf on my chest. She knew when she was meant to wake me up, so she lay there and when alarm went off she pawed my chest ...

Thank you for my flying colours award )

Popeye and Hearing Dog Meg...

>^..^<