Hi, Richard!  Awhile ago you commented about Braille music & whatnot:

RW>  For piano and organ folks one learns about intervals
RW>  and scales in the process of learning music


           Sounds good to me!  I'm glad I started on piano because it made
the theory so much easier to understand.  At beginner level the sharps
& flats are the black keys.  If you can't see them you can feel that
they're assigned to a different position on the keyboard and, on older
instruments, may be made of a different material.  Even now I visualize the
piano keyboard at times when I'm struggling to get a handle on a chord
symbol or a theoretical concept....  :-)



RW>  often all that's written is the chord notation and the
RW>  melody line along with words.


           Ah... I've seen a similar style of writing in the "fake
books" used by dance band musicians.  In this context, if Joe Doakes
asks for a song which the musicians aren't familiar with they can probably
look it up... and he will probably be quite content if the tune is more or
less as he remembers it.  ;-)



RW>  in my younger days often by the time I'd received my sheet
RW>  music transcriptions, unless I did it with somebody else
RW>  dictating I'd already memorized the part by just attending
RW>  rehearsals .  My mother learned to read sheet music
RW>  enough to do the dictation while I transcribed to braille,
RW>  with resources she could call on the phone such as the band
RW>  director to decipher an unfamiliar symbol when needed.

AH>  If I'm expected to memorize or play by ear or copy what
AH>  somebody else has done, I feel like a fish out of water.
AH>  [The blind woman in our community band] probably did too.

RW>  INdeed, as do I often, can do it, but it isn't quite as
RW>  easy.


           I hear you.  I coped when somebody turned out the lights because
it was somebody else's birthday & they were determined to show off a
cake adorned with sparklers to best advantage, but didn't think to warn the
musicians about their plans (and evidently didn't notice what *we* were
doing at the time).  I coped when one of my fellow teachers asked me to
show her grade two students a bit more about the clarinet I used to play
THE MARCH OF THE THREE KINGS behind the scenes in rehearsal for a school
Christmas pageant & discovered only after my arrival in class that the
kids also expected me to play something they were more familiar with.  Now
I know I can play TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR by ear if need be.  My heart
was in my boots & I still prefer to read the music.  :-)



RW>  I guess that's why I'm a jazz person .


           Dallas is a jazz person too.  That's how I know about "fake
books", and that's why I was wondering how you managed to pull off a
gig in a style of music you don't usually play.  At a formal concert one
might have a few pieces up one's sleeve... but I imagine a C/W gig as an
informal situation, where one might be expected to deal with requests. 
Quite a challenge, in any case.  :-)



AH>  Now you've got me wondering about that C/W gig in
AH>  Lethbridge....  ;-)

RW>  WAs fun and interesting for a few days.  I couldn't
RW>  quite get used to the fact that if I had a drink, even
RW>  nonalcoholic while on break and wished to take it to the
RW>  bandstand I couldn't do that, one of the wait staff had
RW>  to bring me my drink on the bandstand.


           We have... or used to have... a law in BC to the effect that
anyone drinking an alcoholic beverage must not walk around with it in a
public place, including (e.g.) a restaurant open to the general public.  I
think the law has now been changed.  But perhaps Alberta had a similar law
'way back when... and perhaps some folks find it easier to make a blanket
prohibition than to bother keeping track of whose soda, coffee, etc. may
have been spiked with what.  :-)



RW>  OTherwise, was just another 6 day stand in another
RW>  town basically .


           Uh-huh.  Dallas did that sort of thing, and you've just reminded
me of an Oktoberfest experience after which he resolved not to do it again.
 :-))




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+