bad music

[bort2.0]

I took 2 full years of Calculus in high school. Even with high scores on the AP tests for Calculus AB and BC, that only was accepted as 1 course I could place out of in college -- since I was a math major, they didn't want me (or anyone) to place out of more than that. Which meant, taking Calc 2 and Calc 3 in college was about 25% new content for me.

The real fun started the next year, when I started to take the real analysis courses... which is basically like starting all over again with Calculus, but learning it the theoretical way, with deltas and epsilons all over the place, proofs galore, etc. And it all just got more theoretical from there... and then as the "how am I going to translate this to a job and make money" started to set in, I started to fade out from all of that theoretical stuff, and focused on 1) getting out of school ASAP and 2) finding something real-life and applied to which I could market my skills. Because theoretical mathematics is NOT much of a marketable skill.

[bloke]

Thinking back, the most recently-played (by me) "outside" music was a piece that is supposed to imitate some industrial-related noises.
(I could be more specific, but I wish to avoid discussing a particular composer and their piece.)
There were varied tempos, very loud places, and very soft places. Moreover, there was a great deal of activity, which prompts interest/attention.
Further, the piece was only about 6 or 7 minutes long (which was enough).

We hear that sort of music ALL THE TIME in movies and dramatic TV series (or accompanying modern dance - as did Stravinsky's exceptionally-amazing "outside" music), and it adds to the experience. By itself - though - it needs to be (as Stravinsky's) exceptionally good, yes?

[Doc]

The real fun started the next year, when I started to take the real analysis courses... which is basically like starting all over again with Calculus...

The real fun started the next year, when I started to take the real analysis courses... which is basically like starting all over again with Music Theory...

That's when the work starts.

[hrender]

I listen to a pretty broad range of music. There's great stuff and crud in every genre, including the more avant garde. One modern composer I recommend to folks is the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (RIP), who mixed electronic and non-electronic instruments as well as various digital effects, e.g. this, this, or this (has a tuba part).

[Rick Denney]

Every concert ought to have one piece that just about nobody will have heard, to prevent the exercise turning into an aural museum. And it’s not always easy to predict which pieces will stand the test of time. So there will always be some performance failures, none of which will be helped by verbal explanations.

But it’s a matter of context. A group that consistently pleases audiences earns a bit of room to let the musicians entertain themselves occasionally, without being sure whether the audience will like it.

Rick “most great music was out there when first perform, but only the good stuff survives” Denney

[Three Valves]

We had trigonometry, calculus, and physics (and chemistry, advanced chemistry, advanced biology) offered at our high school, although I'm confident our calculus wasn't anything like the college level "power tool" calculus as @Rick Denney described. Texas called these classes "Premium" Courses (today they are called AP - Advanced Placement - Courses), and every college-bound student was highly "encouraged" to take them, and students were highly "encouraged" to go to college.

Ours too, in the backward late 70s no less!!

[bloke]

...and then, there's "badly PLAYED music"...

a few of the infinite examples of this:
...tuba/piano acct. pieces - whereby the tuba player is playing 10c sharp to (even) the treble-clef piano pitches, and substituting elbow-flapping for phrasing.

[Doc]

...and then, there's "badly PLAYED music"...

a few of the infinite examples of this:
...tuba/piano acct. pieces - whereby the tuba player is playing 10c sharp to (even) the treble-clef piano pitches, and substituting elbow-flapping for phrasing.

I’m not sure why players flap their arms in an attempt to emote like some prima donna arteeeest. If they had teachers, why didn’t the teachers shut that down? Stopping that nonsense is NOT stifling their “artistry.” That wing flapping and moving around like a bobber in the water a complete waste of energy and is completely unnecessary to expression, especially when you’re playing 25 pounds of brass. Sit the hell still and channel that “artistry” through your instrument. Baadsvik and Sheridan have chops and skills beyond belief, but they don’t need to physically “emote” to express themselves. They can/do move around to entertain the audience, but that is a different matter altogether.

[Tubeast]

I have an example of - well, not bad, but unfortunate programming:
Young brass quintet gets hired to play a christmas-related event at a facility helping homeless men.
Not just providing food, warmth and hygiene, but rather a program to get people off the road and into normal, employed lives.
The most basic step was assisting them in re-learning to structure their daily routines.

We mistook it for the usual old-people´s home gig: Christmas decoration, some food, cookies, and hot beverages, visit by Santa...
All of which was present, so we consequently programmed lots of traditional German christmas charols to give a chance to sing along:
Stille Nacht, Es ist ein Ros´entsprungen, Es kommt ein Schiff geladen, O Du Fröhliche...

...Wrong move. In contrast to old-people´s homes, these guys didn´t enjoy to be reminded of maybe happy times in their youth or the family lives they never experienced.
Situation lightened up when we switched over to less bible-related content such as "Jingle Bells" or "Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer".
I´ll be ever so grateful to the staff member who after a set or two tugged our sleeves and gave us a hint...

[bloke]

I recently made what I consider (actually: know) to be a bad recording. A friend of mine let me know about an opportunity to record some stuff to see how this new-to-me tuba sounds. The sound engineer pulled a "Popiel"... (Some e of you may recall the worst ever solo tuba LP, as far as the quality of the sound.)
They stuck two microphones right in my bell - picking up all of that woofy fuzz, and valve noise, and air noise - as if they were trying to pick up the vibration from a violin or a guitar, as they themselves are a guitarist. I suggested other strategies, but was quickly told that they know exactly what they're doing, so I just quit talking.
On my part, I didn't have anything prepared to play as a solo, and I still have really not completely mastered playing this huge B flat instrument, so my own reading through a couple of short pieces was substandard at best.
I'm not going to say that the recording is the worst tuba playing I've ever heard, but I know better than to host it on the internet.

Some may recall that I posted a good performance of mine of the John Williams concerto from decades ago, but played with a bad orchestra. I put it up on the internet for about a day and a half - for people in this limited group to hear, and then took it back down - just as I said I would.