Eric's Music
I play music, mostly fiddle. I can play viola reasonably well, and wooden flute not particularly well.
I organize the
St John's North Adams Third Friday Contra Dance
I currently play with
- Poke in the Eye (Al Goodrich)
- Spare Parts (Bill Matthiesen, Liz Stell)
- The Early Muses (Susan Matsui, various others)
I used to play with
(TFC graphics:
Disc Cover Back)
Background
As a small child, I got a classical background with the Suzuki method, and studied classical music through high school, where my friends Dave and Kyoung got me interested in improvisation, and Lee introduced me to a lot of folk music.
About the time I moved to North Adams, I was introduced to folk fiddle, though a Mark O'Conner CD I got as a gift. Dale Ott introduced me to the Acoustic Brew / Potluck Music Society crowd. I met Tony Pisano at CC's Cafe, and a bunch of other excellent musicians at the Appalachian Bean, where Elena Traister started a weekly jam session.
All in all, I'm trying to back off the performing music schedule, since it involves booking away my weekends months in advance, usually for less than minimum wage. I'm hoping to find a good combination of gigs that are fun, local, and/or lucrative.
Philosophy
I have made an inadvertant collection of the reasons people play music:
- to socialize and meet new people
- to make money
- to become famous, or at least popular
- as meditation/prayer
- to create a masterpiece
- to meet attractive people of the appropriate gender
- their parents make them
- to please parents
- to annoy parents
- actual, no-kidding love of music
Naturally, these motives exist in various combinations, and I imagine I've missed a few. Personally, I favor the social and meditative aspects.
My favorite musical technique involves laying out a consistent pattern, then breaking out of it. To work, this requires building up some expectation that is then broken. My appreciation of jazz is limited by its frequent failure to set down the base expectation in the first place. Conversely, I'm not too caught up by classical music that picks a formula and carries it out to its logical conclusion. What I do like:
- Tunes that start off sounding like they're in a different key, but aren't
- Rich instrumentation that breaks off suddenly into a bare version of the tune
- A complete change of underlying chords beneath a consistent melody
Live interaction between musicians is also a great joy when it happens. Nothing beats improvising some part of a melody and hearing it come right back at you from another instrument. It gives the music a great vitality that naturally can't be scripted. It encourages us (as musicians) to be ready, but not too prepared.
That's more of a general philosophy, too. I think education that lets you figure things out on the fly is more fun than training for a specific job. Government that limits itself to simple, specific, and wide laws is more useful than one that micromanages.
--
EricBuddington - 11 Jul 2006
