[Harp-L] Ignorance of theory



I may be ignorant in your opinion but I'm going to keep listening to the music I love. Without discrimination for or against what the musician knows about theory. --Harri

Harri, ignorance is nothing more than not knowing about something. All of us don't know something about something, nobody knows everything so we are all ignorant of something. Personally, I don't think that being ignorant of things in areas that I'm interested in could be considered a good thing. I want to know all about things that I'm interested in. But I'm a geek, people are not all the same.


My daughter gets upset that her husband isn't mechanically inclined. Growing up in my home she got the idea that it was a guy thing to be able to fix things. It isn't, lots of guys are mechanically hopeless. Lots of people in general don't understand things, mostly because they don't care to. My wife doesn't care how her car works, only that it does work. She is not the least bit ashamed of being ignorant of how her car works.

If you don't know music theory you are not ignorant "in anyone's opinion", you are ignorant (of music theory), not to be confused with stupidity or any other inflammatory thing. To me, people not knowing, or wanting to know about the theory of things that they are interested in is completely unfathomable. But I grew up making go-carts out of scrap wood, discarded lawnmower engines, and wagon, or buggy, wheels. Knowing about how things work (theory) is essential to me. It isn't some dry useless thing for people like me, it suits how our minds work. I am well aware that many people do not consider ignorance to be a sin, and go through life just fine that way.

After having said all that, I'll admit that I'm ignorant of how to overblow on a diatonic harp. I'm not ashamed of it because life is too short and I have other activities that I place a higher priority on. We all have stuff like that. The wording of your reply leads me to believe that you were offended. Don't be. I don't presume to speak for Richard, but it is clear that for him to be ignorant of something that he is acutely interested would suck bad for him. We all have to decide what is important to us. Since this is a discussion list about the harmonica, it is probably safe to assume that all of us wish to eliminate some area of our ignorance, so we're all cool.

Peace and music,
Dave





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