Fakin' the Funk...
i can't find that blasted cheat book to save my life! on a night when i'm feeling like fumbling around with my keyboard, i can't find my most recent acquisition: a big book of great songs with the guitar tabs AND the chords charted for simple folks like me who can strum enough chords and finger enough tunes of a keyboard to pass as a musician.
there has to be a lesson for me here.
well, i do have a guitar chord book. and taped on the wall in the corner is a master list of piano chord fingering. hmmm...
snap, there it is! instead of learing just the songs, maybe i should learn the chords, then i can play ANY song, and not just a few. "Give a man a fish you feed him for a day; teach him how TO fish, and you'll feed him for a lifetime."
so, let's tread into some dangerous water here now...
this hurricane katrina thing has been tough on so many people. i've been involved in a couple of initiatives (maybe i'll write a little more detail later, generically, as to preserve the true motive of providing assistance without soaking up props) here and there. most recently, i was asked by an artist in the community to get on board with a benefit that is supposed to be multi-cultural in nature. no problem about that, after all, i just got done participating in one. the request for participation in this one sparked within me a certain age-old curiosity, however. to begin, this person just happens to be white and well-known in the "mainstream" community and mentioned that this benefit would be different from others out there. then, when it was described, it was almost identical to the one i'd just participated in that was held in North Nashville (yes, across the railroad tracks). it made me ask, "Where has this person been?"
now, i'm not questioning sincerity, or the desire to help. but i find two things to be very interesting about some people who operate in the popular circle of the mainstream:
A) we little folks don't register as a beep on the radar screen. this kind of initiative has been going on for weeks, especially in the communities of what's popularly referred to as the "inner city." all of a sudden, there is a unique idea being generated. "what we have here is...uh...a failure to communicate."
B) we people, who are darker than blue, can be found when needed. now i'm not called for certain events, or invited to planning sessions for major initiatives that originate from mainstream arts organizations. yet, when some color is needed, all of a sudden, i find messages everywhere.
this leads me to believe that we've concentrated too much on a few songs and not enough on the music theory. personally, i'm kinda worn out with the notion of token involvement. either share the power or let me head to the shower. we'll never get anything flowing righteously in this country until "mainstreamers" realize that in order to be inclusive, everyone must be at the table. in order to make good music, all of the notes and chords must be understood. as a matter of fact, the more notes, the fatter the chord; the fatter the chord, the deeper the chill in the spine.
the other thing is, we have to understand our role as individual notes. i've been a little hot with some of the grandstanding that's been taking place with this whole benefit thing. i'm of the firm opinion that if we want to help, we should just go out and do it, then leave it alone. Press and media is good. Necessary at times. but only insofar as it is used to support motivating more people to help. too many people are seeking publicity for publicity's sake, and that's just dead wrong. what happened to not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing.
i'm not gonna go too deep in sharing specifics. i think we can get the picture without me telling anyone's personal business. plus i want people to feel free to read and contribute here; i know of another writer who utilizes so much personal information that 1) people don't trust the person enough to talk with and befriend, and 2) people instantly delete whatever this person sends without reading it. i don't ever want that to be the case with this new undertaking. but alas...i digress...
so, now that i've written enough about this, i'm gonna look over that chord chart and play around a little, see if i can memorize some of these "configgerashuns." maybe i'll be a better musician. maybe not, but at least i'll have a better understanding--and appreciation--of the music itself.
joc
