Comments on: The head is not a percussion instrument

The head is not a percussion instrument

orthogonality — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:33:31 -0800

"Several songs on the instrumental album were voted Best in Genre, and then shortly after that I was flown out to Los Angeles and nominated Independent Artist of the Year by the Association of Independent Artists." Until age 40, he'd never played piano. Then he suffered a concussion.. Also, cavemen sang -- and maybe echo-located. Where? Where they painted their cave art.

By: Faze

Faze — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:58:59 -0800

Sounds like he had a concussion and turned into John Tesh.

By: Bathtub Bobsled

Bathtub Bobsled — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:02:33 -0800

I get the impression John Tesh has had a few concussions, himself.

By: Roman Graves

Roman Graves — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:19:29 -0800

I thought this was written by John Tesh.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:27:02 -0800

I had never even touched a piano. Alternative diagnosis: He bumped his head and turned into a pathological liar.

By: Alex404

Alex404 — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:39:21 -0800

These articles are only particularly related by awesomeness.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:51:41 -0800

If he had bumped his head and played with a Newfie accent I'd believe it.

By: No-sword

No-sword — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:57:52 -0800

Evolutionary biology shows that early cavemen evolved the ability to speak in Newfie accents and play piano after they bumped their head because it gave them a comparative advantage when exploring dark, smoke-filled, cramped, dangerous areas like caves and Newfoundland piano bars. And the women stayed at home gathering herbs.

By: konolia

konolia — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:14:14 -0800

So has anyone got a link to any of his actual music? I withhold judgement till then.

By: ifthe21stcentury

ifthe21stcentury — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:17:50 -0800

So has anyone got a link to any of his actual music? I withhold judgement till then. Verily!

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:28:44 -0800

The Upper Paleolithic people responsible for the paintings had likely fine-tuned their hearing to recognize the sound qualities in certain parts of the cave and chose to do their artwork there as a kind of landmark, perhaps as part of a singing ritual, said researcher Iegor Reznikoff, a specialist in ancient music at the University of Paris X in Nanterre. New MetaFilter format: If you made it across the first leap of logic, you'll probably also like having a go at the unrelated second batshitinsane chasm.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:37:28 -0800

uh, the first link has an autoplaying video?

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:38:29 -0800

So has anyone got a link to any of his actual music? I withhold judgement till then. How bout the video on page 1 of the article? Don't know about the veracity of his story, but it seems like that could be checked through interviews with friends/relatives so it's unlikely that the lie would hold up for long. I don't get the connection with the caveman article, though.

By: Bora Horza Gobuchul

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:44:48 -0800

Acoustic archeology is just downright cool - it's like taking the best parts of Erik von Daniken and Indiana Jones and removing the aliens. It reveals entirely new aspects to sites, things we literally haven't seen before, and suggests our ancestors were far more canny than we suppose. And it's been explored on the blue before. My personal favorite is the pyramid of Kukulcan (Quetzelcoatl) in Chichen Itza, on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Not only are the pyramid's features aligned with celestial events (summer and winter solstices, the procession of Venus), but the ball court there is a whispering gallery: a whispered word will carry down to the other end, 543 feet away, and a clap will produce nine distinct echoes). Furthermore, a clap in front of the pyramid itself will produce an echo similar to the call of the quetzelcoatl, the bird.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:49:10 -0800

More music, from the second page of the first link.

By: hoskala

hoskala — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:04:29 -0800

I call bullshit. His most popular Myspace song has had over 59k hits so the viral campaign has worked. Plus he plays shitty music. Plus he also seems to be able to play the guitar and sing quite well. Concussion, shmoncussion... On the other hand maybe we could just bypass hundreds of years of music pedagogy and start hitting people's heads in right angle? Linkin Park must have been an early adoptee of this technique. It sure wasn't perfected in those days.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:12:33 -0800

I had never even touched a piano. Synthesizer? Accordion? Harmonium? Organ? Mellotron? Harpsichord?

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:15:48 -0800

konolia writes "So has anyone got a link to any of his actual music? I withhold judgement till then." There's a video on the linked page.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:18:49 -0800

The acoustic prehistoric stuff is fascinating, and I think perfectly plausible.

By: bluesky43

bluesky43 — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:36:47 -0800

I find the cave painters music link pretty fascinating BUT when I toured Niaux, the guide said that the height of the caves was much smaller when some of the paintings were done and the artist would have likely painted on their backs. Relevance? change the height of the cave and the resonant frequencies are altered (maybe the music-painting link only works for some of the paintings).

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:50:08 -0800

For some reason I had trouble getting the linked videos to play (I think it might be the computer I am using), but there is always youtube. I remain a bit skeptical about how he started playing, but whether he sounds like Tesh or not, if it is true it is pretty amazing stuff.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:59:57 -0800

Mama Cass was the waitress who sang along with the group while she waited tables, never asked to join the band because she didn't quite have the right sound, nor should she hit the high notes they needed. Until the day she was emptying the trash behind the restaurant, and the re-modelers in the upstairs apartment were throwing construction debris into the dumpster, and she got clocked on the head. Her voice just snapped into place after that, according to the official story.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:20:33 -0800

The very first time he played he was with his friend who had known him all his life. That's the red flag that this is made up. Good try, though.

By: konolia

konolia — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:52:12 -0800

Okay, I gave it a listen. He does exactly what I do. Only I wasn't hit in the head. Having said that, what he does is not nearly as hard as one would think. The hard part of playing most music is learning to sight read. When you totally bypass that, and just know how to HEAR what you are doing, it is actually pretty simple to play really complex sounding stuff. So, I think it is entirely possible getting hit in the head has something to do with it. Or, not. Oh, the only other difference is he is making a living at it, and I don't. But, that's okay. Nice to know there is a market for this sort of thing. I usually play like this at prayer meetings. Holy muzak, if you will.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:08:42 -0800

konolia writes "I usually play like this at prayer meetings. Holy muzak, if you will." Keyboarding in tongues is more what his description sounds like.

By: konolia

konolia — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:12:45 -0800

Keyboarding in tongues is more what his description sounds like. Actually, that's not a bad way to put it. In my case at least. My playing (other than songwriting) is many times totally spontaneous. I know others who do that as well-I have an instrumental recording made by friends of mine (that has sold quite a few copies, btw) which was all recorded in the studio as spontaneous playing. There were tracks laid down, so some folks were simply playing along with what was previously recorded, but there was no written score.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:24:32 -0800

Well, I got clocked over the head with my bass guitar by a biker when I was 17 but it didn't change my approach to the instrument at all, other than I stopped taking it in biker bars. Then again, I've got a pretty thick skull. He cracked my bass right through from the neck bolts, down to the bridge-- I wobbled, but I did not go down. Still can't play the piano at all.

By: cmoj

cmoj — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:07:12 -0800

First thing: If you can play other instruments, picking up another is not very hard (depending on the instruments in question). Piano is especially intuitive, too. Second thing: If the marks are supposed to be indicators of something, then what good would they do in the corridors where they couldn't carry a torch? The idea of human echolocation is not crazy, though. Try it. For an easier time, listen to someone moving around in a room in front of speakers playing music.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:51:53 -0800

Human echolocation in the modern day. Previously.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:46:39 -0800

You might consider smoking pot, konolia. It makes a big difference to the brain's ability to perform improvisation. Heck, might even come in handy for that speaking in tongues business!

By: speicus

speicus — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:51:34 -0800

Another reason to make sure I never get hit on the head!

By: konolia

konolia — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:04:01 -0800

You might consider smoking pot, konolia. It makes a big difference to the brain's ability to perform improvisation. Heck, might even come in handy for that speaking in tongues business! posted by five fresh fish at 2:46 AM on July 5 [+] [!] You didn't know me back in 1979, obviously. All pot does is make you fuzzy and make you crave chocolate chip cookie dough.

By: konolia

konolia — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:04:41 -0800

Oh, forgot to add my ability to improvise did not occur till later in my life when I was clean and sober.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:06:22 -0800

I just suffered a concussion.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:08:36 -0800

I can haz a cleanz and zsober.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:20:40 -0800

Tranzbortz to futurz.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:22:33 -0800

Profitz!

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:51:11 -0800

By: invitapriore

invitapriore — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:40:56 -0800

The hard part of playing most music is learning to sight read. When you totally bypass that, and just know how to HEAR what you are doing, it is actually pretty simple to play really complex sounding stuff. Once you've got the ear to do that, I think you're correct. The problem is that (in my experience) the process of developing one's ear to that level is much more involved than learning to sight read, although sight reading is really a part of ear training anyway.