life: May 2008 Archives

synths have the same lure electric guitars do: they make sounds that don't really exist! however, they have the unfortunate property of being discrete, and discrete is boring (unless you pile up a huge number of discrete things and set them off at slightly different times).

electric guitars, on the other hand, are continual, and can be double plus continual with the right effects' pedal. or pedals.

when i was a kid, i had piano lessons, like every other middle-class kid my age. my teacher had a yamaha synth next to the piano, which i oggled through most of my practice. i wasn’t allowed to touch it, because it would corrupt my tiny little soul and ruin my piano learnings. well, guess what, i dropped out and have spent my life listening to noise. hope you’re happy.

can you imagine jimi hendrix’s dad going “sorry kid, no electric guitar for you, otherwise you’ll never be able to play it properly”? or slash’s? paul mccartney’s, sure.

(to be continued)