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

Hi!
This is a message from E the mad therapist.
Great homepage! Like the fish, too.
Alors, t'es francais, quoi?

Me, I'm german and I live in Heidelberg. I study music therapy (though you could also have found that out on my homepage) and I'm actually a drummer, not a pianist.I'm looking forward to hearing more about your music(your band?) and about your views on jamming. Whats "economics", by the way? Wirtschaftswissenschaften?

Cheerio,
Ed

Saluuuuuut !
Ouais, je suis francais (et fier de l'être *s*), enchanté de faire ta connaissance E.
Music therapy sounds good to me, I guess it's a bit more than listening to all those silences you've got up there, in your class, in Heidelberg. I even didn't knew that this kind of studies existed what is it all about ? What kind of things do you learn ?
To me, jamming is the most fun way to play music because you're in a constant dialog with all the other persons that are playing with you. It's not only playing, but also listening to the others and try to understand where they are going while being a part of that. The spontaneity of it is what fascinates me the most: it lives and keeps on dying at the same time.
Our Band name is: The Almost Pretty Good Band and we're the kind of band that only does play for the fun of it (In other words we're no proffessionals). I play together with my little brother (he's 14 and our frontman[guitar,drums,vocals,bass]), my father[guitar,vocals,harmonica], and a friend of ours[drums,vocals,slide-guitar,bass]. We constantly change the instruments. I play bass and guitar and do a bit of background singing...

Hope to hear from you soon
PAt

Hey pAt,

sounds like a great band! Comment est-ce-que tu fais les accents sur les e? Yeah, well, first of all I'm not surprised you've never heard of music therapy. It is still a very small branch on the great tree of psychotherapy(you must have checked my homepage, I just realised!) and I've not yet heard of anyone other than Msr. Tomatis, who has worked with a lot of celebrities like Gerard Depardieu who does music therapy in France at all.
I won't even start trying to explain what its all about but what we students do is mostly learn to play as many instruments as possible, learn to accompany other players/patients, learn a lot about ourselves(in group therapy..) and study some basic psychology.
Sounds like fun? It is!
The only thing thats a bit annoying is that I'm away for half a years' work placement in September and the clinic in the black forest where I shall work doesn't have an internet pool to which I can access.

To other things: I fully agree, the magic in jamming is playing while you listen and play WITH the others, and also it is the fact that you will probably never ever play exactly the same music again which you produce while jamming. Its the music of a glorious, passing moment or something like that. I like the fact that you all swap instruments in the Almost Pretty Good Band; I like to get a chance to play all the instruments I can while we're jamming. Do you play fixed songs? And if you do, what kind of songs? What kind of music do you listen to?
Me, I like most music. I can appreciate anything that is well played. I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to playing or listening to music on record. My preferred styles are basically jazz, hiphop, funk, reggae, soul and stuff but I also like just about everything else -apart from, say, 240bpm speed metal or 19/8groove progressive rock. I like music if its groovy(makes me dance), if its intelligent(makes me think) and if its well played/produced(clear sound, interesting effects, unusual recording techniques). As you see, I'm a perfectionist.
I still love jamming though, even if its loud, bad and out of tune!!

Allright, I'm off again for now,

hear from you sometime,
Yours

Ed

Hi eddie !
I just realized that I forgot to mention that economics were Volkswirtschaf, Betriebswirtschaft would have been business (so you were right I just wanted to confirm it).I also forgot to say that my father also does play Bass.

Alors pour les accents sur les e c'est très simple: à côté du ß\? il y a ces "tirets" `´. Il faut ajouter un espace pour que les tirets apparaissent dans le vide, ou la lettre désirée (le cas échéant, un e ).

We got fixed songs (except for the blues tunes), we got a pretty strange setlist, I guess I would say we bassically play Rock. Maybe I just give you a few examples that are on the list for the moment: So we play for example tunes like Johnny.b.goode or Jailhouse rock as well as we do play Paranoid or Whole lotta rosie. We also play stuff like Brown sugar, Self Esteem, What I got, My generation, Heart of gold,Basket case , it's kind of some over-generation-gap rock. Yes, maybe we could call it like this.

I like any kind off music as long as it is not over-sampled electronic stuff. I don't like too much all those new wanna-be soul singers nor do I like Panthera or other noise Bands. But I do like (alomst) everything in between. I like Blues, Jazz, Rock, Reggae, Ska, Swing, and so much other types. I never liked to categorize all that music, I guess I consider it all the same thing somehow.

I guess, I'm also a perfectionist considering my guitar playing but I think, it's ok if you miss a note from time to time: I mean I'm no machine, and I'm proud of it ! Crap happens. And I think its way more important to be able to play what you've got in your head at that time, putting all your heart, guts and soul into it, than machinally playing something that might sound perfect.

You, surely also do play in band, wich kind of music do you play ?