h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cool page - I am really impressed with it - especially as I am still trying to learn about ths HTML thingy.
Must say that Zach's posts on the Chatroom Bulletin board are a great help and I am muddling through.
You sound like an interesting person - I am particularly pleased to see someone as young as you interested in all types of music. I agree with the others - I think you would enjoy Zappa, but might I make a suggestion that you listen to a whole album at a time rather than a track here and there. The albums were mostly put out as concepts and are best appreciated that way.
I saw Zappa live in Sydney years ago - WILD!!! He always surrounded himself with really great musos!
As you are someone who appreciates a) all kinds of music and b) jazz may I also suggest that you listen to some of the earlier jazz guitarists. Their style is, admittedly, very different from the guys you listed but the influences can be seen.
You will, of course have heard of Django Rheinhart, (if not, drop me a line - he has a fascinating history) but here are a few you may not have heard of Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, George Van Epps, Teddy Bunn, and Dick McDonough.
All, as I said, very different from Joe Satriani etc but very influential to styles that were to follow.
HINT: This is not music to play if you want to rage - but if you want to listen, learn and appreciate, find a time when you are in the right mood and enjoy.

Thanx, your the second person to recommend Zappa to me, so i'll definatley check out a few of his albums. I've never heard of Djanga, but i'll look out for his work. I never used to like Jazz, but since i joined the school Jazz band (which is quite well known in the musical circles across South Wales) as a bassist (they didn't want a lead guitar ) I've gotten quite attached to it. I do like the odd 'wild rage' but I'm also keen to listen to music with emotion, and relaxing melodies, so I'll have a listen to those guys you suggested.
P.S. I don't like ALL types of music, Theres something about rave music which I just can't get my head around...

I totally agree with you about rave "music" - it's like "drum machines are for people who can't handle REAL music"
A little about Django to pique your curiousity - born 1910 in Belgium he was a gypsy, brought up by his mother in the poor parts of Paris, a neighbour bought him a 6 string banjo-guitar at age 12 and he was hooked!
When he was 18 he was trying to exorcise an evil spirit in his caravan when the candle he was using started a fire - he was badly burned, spent 18 months bed ridden and was left with a severely charrred left hand.
Over the course of a year he recovered the use of his thumb and the first 2 fingers. The other 2 he could lift onto the finger board enough to stop the top 2 strings but that was all. He worked out a highly unorthodox mode of fingering to overcome his handicap and 2 years after the accident he was playing again.
His first brush with American style jazz was when a friend played him a Louis Armstrong record - he was overwhelmed by it and just cried. (Gypsies are very emotional ) He started playing the new music and eventually teamed up with violinist Stefan Grapelli, they formed a quintet with accordionist-bassist Louis Vola and Django's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput also on guitars.
They were The Quintet of the Hot Club of France and became world famous - Django and Stefan and the quintet went on an eventually played at Carnegie Hall (I think with Duke Ellington) - Django died in the early 50s Grapelli died just a few years ago.
Hope that this has interested you - Django was an amazing musician and a fascinating character - he was an arrogant, illiterate, fiery man - a typical gypsy - but, like his music, he was never boring!!
BTW - I, too, like all kinds of music - as I write this I am listening to a radio show about black gospel music and, when that finishes there's a show on the "idiot box" about opera that I want to see. The only things I don't like to listen to (besides any BAD music) is techno and muzak.

Whewww!!!! That was a long one!!!!!

Wow.. That was interesting. Sounds like a great man, I'll definatley try and get hold of some of his music. Yeah, I like Black Gospel music too, it's got a lot of soul in it, and they put a lot of emotion in to their singing as well. I'm no religious person, but their singing is great, and there can be some real meaningful stuff in there.

You should Cut and Paste that as a User Page!!!

I prefer the Verve, they had great music but they've split up now (damn).

And Madness just rule, well ruled REM is ok but R.E.M. is better

Thanks for the suggestion - might do that - I could use it as a starting point anyway
I am assuming that you found the post interesting - it's hard to tell - there's so much irony around

I like the verve too, they were depressing, but wrote some good stuff. I'm too young to remember R.E.M., and I don't really like madness.... But hey...

It's that time of year.

but yes I did find it interesting. I too have quite a wide range of musical tastes, (I even like rave music - but only trance, not house). I like anything that has a bit of passion and ingenuity to it. The only music I really dislike is mainstream (like Boy bands and Celine Dion/Shania Twain and all those wankers)..

I know that REM is a good group but I was Joking about R.E.M. because it stands for Rapid Eye Movement I.e. sleep. I also think that blur is good.

I know that REM is a good group but I was Joking about R.E.M. because it stands for Rapid Eye Movement I.e. sleep . I also think that blur is good. I hope it did'nt send this twice.

I like all kinds of music to, but admitedly My favorate is pop/rock and Jazz, I think that some dance music is good such as Fatboy slim, but often it has too much bass beat.
I have decided to take my GCSE in music, but I have learned that it may have been a mistake because of my dyslexia and dysfracxia (ignore the spelling) and I wondered if I could get any Tips.

I took music GCSE, and it is one of my favourite subjects. There's two parts to it, Composing and the other stuff. half the lessons will be just making your own music, a quarter on musical History, and a quarter on Listening. It's ok, but you've got to be able to come up with compositions over the two years, and it helps if you can play an instrument (or two). I don't know how your dyslexia and the other one (I'm not even going to try to spell it) is going to affect your work, and i'm the furthest thing from an expert, but it shouldn't have any affect on your ability to compose it in your head, although writing it down may be a problem. I'm not sure...

I do most of my compositions on the computers at school which is mostly ok. But I have also been told that I must give a couple of performances, but its hard to play my sax beond grade 3, what's the minimum grade allowed or does it not matter.

Well, playing at Grade 3 should give you a decent enough mark for performing. The way it works is this: You play a peice, and get a mark out of 12 for how well you played the music. Then the examiner times's the mark you got by 1 for grade 1, 1.5 for grade 2, 2 for grade 3, and 2.5 for grade 4 and above. So the maximum you can get is 30 if you play a grade 4 piece perfectly, which no-one ever does, apart from child prodigy's. If you play a grade 3 peice, the max you can get is 24, but the average is probably about 18, at a guess. I'm sitting my internal music performing exam tommorow, so wich me luck...

Good luck, for your exam today

Woohoo, i did pretty well, I did a grade 4 piece on Guitar, and only made a few mistakes, so i should get around the 25 mark... i hope...

Good, hope you get the mark you want.

I know nothing about music, but nice page you got your self!