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Polyfía
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Ricardo
Posts: 13824
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to Pgh_flamenco)
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The thing that I first heard about was the thing with his kids ear training, and it was like nails on a chalkboard for me, I hated seeing that going on for some reason. I am quite glad he has dropped that subject and admitted his kids don’t care about music anymore, only play video games. I hope the kids get back into music minus Dad’s input, ie, on their own, in the future. But I enjoy his other content and music theory teaching is pretty good IMO. Al Di, is the closest he has come to “flamenco” subjects, which is ok actually, people shouldn’t talk about subjects they don’t understand much about. I hope he does something on Mclaughlin at some point, but I already know it will be the same old “what was it like to play with Miles, and how did Mahavishnu come about” typical story.
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Date Jan. 22 2023 18:56:43
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Brendan
Posts: 299
Joined: Oct. 30 2010

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to JasonM)
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The interviewer is Justin Hawkins of The Darkness. Somewhat older than the Polyphia lads. There is a one minute mention of flamenco but that’s all we need, right? Here is his analysis of their oeuvre: https://youtu.be/LyhW0YqqxqY And here they are interviewed, where we see the depth of their engagement with the art of flamenco: On that song [Playing God], you guys use nylon-string guitars for the first time. Do you listen to much flamenco or bossa nova music? Henson: “Not really. Some people have made comparisons of this song to Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia, but I’ve never listened to them. The way the song happened was, we were in Cologne, and I found this nylon-string, S-shaped Ibanez guitar. “I texted Ibanez and asked them what it was, and they said it was a failed project from 1998. I bought it, plugged it in and started messing with it, and it was right when I rediscovered the harmonic minor scale. “If you play that scale on a guitar like that, it sounds very classical or Spanish influenced…”
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Date Jan. 23 2023 16:12:31
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estebanana
Posts: 8745
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to Brendan)
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In the first few years I watched Beato regularly with great interest, it was fun, indulgent to have the ‘breakdown what the band is playing’ chat, it’s like talking shop over beers in a bar. His take on music is more sophisticated than a lot of others doing that breakdown thing. He’s made the connections between things like Penderecki’s music and rock, or brought Stravinsky and the 2nd Viennese school to people who would otherwise pass it by. His musical knowledge is solid and he’s done a lot of music education through his videos, plus he has access to super star rock figures and interviews them as a fan. He’s generally a good element and I wish him well. Does he know anything about flamenco, nah, but then who does if they’ve never put in a few mentored years listening? And the ironic thing about the newer bands that are out that have gender bending and pronoun awareness is that none of this is remotely new in rock. It’s always been there from Little Richard to David Bowie to whomsoever like the New York Dolls - you can go on and on talking about gender slippage in rock music. None of the pronoun observing bands now are much different than how it’s always been in rock. Gender slippage has always co-existed with jock rock, the German muscle boys who have ‘straight’ images. Most ironic is that the jock rock bands are often fronted by or manned by gay members and it’s not part of the bands look. And softer image bands that look more feminine are made up of real life jock type guys. To me all that stuff is just part of rock, and a lot of the new bands come off as feminine are really at the core if it not feminist, but actually male dominated making the same boys club music, but with a veneer of what passes today as socially accepted gender slippage, but it’s still very male dominant art. It espouses a sense of being enlightened and progressive, but is stuck in the place of not recognizing the power and complexity of gender, feminism or anything else. Cos play virtuousness or immersion in contemporary kawaii culture etc. doesn’t translate into awareness about anything that’s significantly feminist, because that culture is rife with sexism and body issue problems.
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Date Jan. 23 2023 21:01:50
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Mark2
Posts: 1760
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to estebanana)
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I like RB and have watched a few dozen of his videos but I was also a music major for a few years and even the first semester was a lot harder and informative than watching Rick's vids :-) The piano class alone......and then Walter Piston's book on harmony, etc. At the time I found it difficult to manage. As a guitarist he does some really cool arpeggios and has a great command of the fret board and yet, the stuff he plays is less memorable than a decent solo with little more than minor pentatonic runs and "boomer" bends. Also his tone isn't very good.....nevertheless I'm a fan. The new generation of rock/pop players do have some great original ideas, but I'm not much interested in electric guitar playing, in particular improvised solos. I can appreciate the skill, but it's all been done before. And the good jazz players kinda make them look silly. quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana Beato has a lot of substance mixed in with the chatty videos about ‘greatest guitar solo of all time’. If you culled through his videos and took all the ones that deal with non rock subjects like theory and music history and watched 30 hours of them it would be equivalent to one semester of beginning to intermediate college music history and theory. If you watch that much Beato on the serious music explanations it’s a solid freshman year of music education for a music major or minor. Without your own assignments and instrument course work. I remember when he was pushing that substantive work out regularly Jason McGuire and other guitarists were binge watching it and saying how good he is at teaching. Polyphia isn’t my thing, I don’t like stuff like that, but not because I’m an old fart who loves “ boomer bends” ( how Henson describes older guitarists techniques) it’s because I’m more interested in classical music, jazz and Flamenco. On kawaii culture, anime and all that, I’m really tired of it and how highly sexist is really is. A deeper analysis of that culture would e required to see how much it’s not new or progressive, it’s the same old sexism in an an exotic-sized package. For gods sake I’ve lived in Japan for ten years and that’s where this crap comes from.
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Date Jan. 25 2023 16:43:09
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Ricardo
Posts: 13824
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to Mark2)
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quote:
I like RB and have watched a few dozen of his videos but I was also a music major for a few years and even the first semester was a lot harder and informative than watching Rick's vids :-) The piano class alone......and then Walter Piston's book on harmony, etc. At the time I found it difficult to manage. I often talk about the mixed discipline terminology leads to confusion, and RB is guilty of this as a guy exposed to classical and jazz. He talks more using jazz terminology than the standard college classical (never say minor 7 flat 5, it is half-diminished, etc.). If you go into your class in college talking like that to a teacher trying to have you do analysis, it is disruptive because either the teacher (depending on THEIR discipline) has to take extra steps to translate what a Beato student asks or puts forward, or (more likely) they are simply confused with that language and just say “no”. There are numbered scale degrees, where you alter steps based on the Ionian (jazz and Beato approach) or you learn Weber style Roman numeration, which is quite different. I am only thankful, at this point, Beato has not gotten into flamenco. His video on Aug6th chords (fourth semester material in college) I think was helpful….but to people that had skipped semester 1-3, maybe not so much? I wouldn’t know except on a case by case basis with each student. I personally believe most of RB subscribers watch and learn tid bits assuming he is some high level master.
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CD's and transcriptions available here: www.ricardomarlow.com
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Date Jan. 26 2023 12:56:07
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Ricardo
Posts: 13824
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to estebanana)
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I guess what you are saying circles back to that “Music theory is racist” video a while back. Again, I don’t think it is helpful when tons of different disciplines come in like mixed martial arts. It is not about black and white races or whatever, rather musical disciplines and terminology. Nor is it about superior this or that. The amusing one for me is when they talk about Indian music as if Western classical is “racist” because there is Indian music discipline that is ignored. Well, this ignores the fact Indian North and South had disciplines that did not mix either (not even getting into caste system shyt), until White boy Johnny Mclaughlin forced them to work together. Even then I believe those in the know acknowledge it was the South system taking over and Husain (North) learned and adapted. In flamenco we don’t have payo and gitano flamenco that can’t mix. And Mclaughlin says clearly, mixing is ok but you have to show respect for what you are doing by “learning the rules and regulations of THAT music”. It was the same when he worked with Paco. And he learned this concept from his mentor Miles Davis. Race has nothing to do with respecting musical disciplines and these talking heads that are MAKING it an issue are problematic. My issue in the past has been talking about a simple cadential function when people are using jazz mode speak, and it just means more unnecessary language is needed. And there is nothing “wrong” with Schenkerian reduction, it is a different discipline that I later realized is linked to Renaissance voice leading practice, and it does not matter that this guy was white nationalist or whatever, it is simply a learning tool…we don’t need South Indian music class in USA college major. Go to south India and show respect, IMO.
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Date Jan. 27 2023 12:06:13
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estebanana
Posts: 8745
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

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RE: Polyfía (in reply to Brendan)
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No no no I’m not saying the music theory video of Adam Neely makes classical music or it’s theory racist. In fact that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. My analogy between Richard Rodriguez’s 60 minutes essays 25 years ago is simply an analogy, but with my politics included. 😂 That’s it. I’m against white nationalism, but I’m pro Beethoven. Here’s what I think, a band that has a contest to see who can cover their material is band I’m really not that interested in, that’s the epitome of pretentious. Also that band, speaking of guitar tone, they are horrible. The sound they make I would characterize as ‘woke cosplay Muzak’ / they suck in my non math rock loving opinion. The next thing, since Rick Beato even pays attention to them has my lessened my opinion of him, because again, they suck. I think we maintain a similar view on respect between cultures and how music works as a media that can be picked up by different cultures and expanded on. I just don’t like virtuoso boy bands that much because they bore me. I teach jr. high and I see the inequities that play out in society between girls and boys and how boys are favored and pushed to excel, while girls still have barriers that are baked into almost all cultures today. I’m going to root for the girls every time. Here we are talking past each other because you have a view point sketched out in your musical world view and so do I. We probably align quite a bit, with minor differences on which ensembles we like and why. I’m decidedly not supportive of the notion that one particular culture shouldn’t touch the musics of another, but if they do, they have paid some dues in the form of working hard on music. That said, lots of contemporary pop or alternative rock music holds zero interest for me.
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Date Jan. 28 2023 12:28:47
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