Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1112052034140.27463@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Last Night's Music at Unnameable Books (and labor thereof)::
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 20:35:45 -0500 (EST)
Last Night's Music at Unnameable Books:: http://www.alansondheim.org/adamzoud.mp4 Alan Sondheim, oud Chris Diasparra, baritone sax This is a fair amount to watch, but it gives a good idea of the labor involved in music production, something I've wanted to emphasize. The oud is plugged in. To 'play like this' requires hours of practice and an exactness that's difficult for me; I've only been playing fretless instruments for maybe two years now. So the speed involves quick stopping and starting (with all the issues of accelerating and inertia involved), as well as hopefully minute adjustments to bring the position into tune. Fingers, wrists, arms are involved. To get a greater reach it's sometimes necessary to move the hand from under the neck, fretting from above; I gain at least a fourth from that, most of the time more. All of this, at speed, is exhausting; if it's not, I need to play faster, so that the envelopes of the sounds become the primary focus, not the individual notes and their linear positioning. The video is a good recording of the process as a whole. Courtesy of Azure Carter, 12/04/11.