<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>It seems to me that the ability to read the grand staff fluently and realize it in sound with one's own two hands is a sine qua non not only for Schenkerian analysis professors but also for BM music degree holders. But perhaps I'm being too hard on our poor darlings? ("What American education gives its students these days is low standards coupled with high self-esteem.")<br><br>Donna Doyle<div><br><div>Adjunct Assistant Professor</div><div>Aaron Copeland School of Music</div><div>Queens College</div><div>Flushing, New York 11367</div></div></div><div><br>On May 5, 2014, at 11:26 PM, Stephen Jablonsky <<a href="mailto:jablonsky@optimum.net">jablonsky@optimum.net</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252">It is all about terrain. Depending on what instrument you play, your understanding of harmony comes from the field in which you play. Guitarists have a terrain that involves six strings tuned in a strangely wonderful way, bass players have four strings tuned in fourths, trumpet players go up and down on three pistons, and piano players have that field of blacks and whites. Jazz and rock drummers play no pitches and travel through a time continuum bathed in harmony coming from the nearby amps.<div><br></div><div>Many guitarists have difficulty converting from tablature to piano notation. A few of them succeed and become college professors of Schenkerian analysis or post-tonal note counting for reasons no one can explain!</div><div><br><div><br></div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><font><b style="font-size: 12px; ">Dr. Stephen Jablonsky, Ph.D.</b></font></div><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b style="font-size: 12px; ">Music Department Chair</b></div><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b style="font-size: 12px; ">The City College of New York</b></div><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b style="font-size: 12px; ">Shepard Hall Room 72</b></div><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b style="font-size: 12px; ">New York NY 10031</b></div><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><b style="font-size: 12px; ">(212) 650-7663</b></div><div style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><font><b style="font-size: 12px; "><a href="mailto:music@ccny.cuny.edu">music@ccny.cuny.edu</a></b></font></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><br></div><div><font face="Copperplate"><span style="font-size: 12px; ">America's Greatest Chair </span></font></div><div><font face="Copperplate"><span style="font-size: 12px; ">in the low-priced field</span></font></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On May 5, 2014, at 11:06 PM, Zachary Cairns <<a href="mailto:zacharycairns@gmail.com">zacharycairns@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Guitarists are just ahead of drummers in their inability to comfortably deal with the challenges of traditional music theory. There is no way around it—you have to have keyboard chops</span></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font>I understand that this is tongue-in-cheek, but as a former teenage percussionist/metal-guitarist-wannabe, I can say from experience that there *is* a way around it. I recall class after class of my undergrad theory experience thinking, "Oh, *that's* what Yngwie/Vai/Satriani was doing..."</div>
<div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Zac</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>_______________________________</div><div>Zachary Cairns, Ph.D.</div><div>Assistant Professor of Music Theory</div><div>Associate Music Department Chair</div>
<div>University of Missouri - St. Louis</div><div><a href="mailto:cairnsz@umsl.edu">cairnsz@umsl.edu</a></div><div><br></div></div></div>
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