how geeky are we here, really???

[Clifford-D]

I don't have any friends that have as big an appetite for all things music science as me.
I always burn them out first. I can get pretty heady.

I get kidded by being called the professor at the local blues jams, and my playing is more
Unusual than the typical player , like a geek. I don't strut looking too cool for school.
Was Monk a geek, or Jaco?? Sco? Friz? Not just Bacharach.

Here at TGP it's like a support group for those that really want to be geeked,
Should I start naming the geeks here?

How much of a geek are you, or have you ever been?
What do your friends think of your obcessiveness with the guitar?

[Bunther]

Jaco was not a geek. I remember seeing him play with Ira Sullivan in a very small joint in North Miami in the early 70's. One day while visiting my local music store in Ft. Lauderdale, Jaco calls the store owner to find out how he could play the notes between the 1/2 steps (like Don Ellis and his 4-valve trumpet on "Electric Lady"). I overhear the conversation and volunteer info about the synthesizer and how you could set the ribbon strip to divide an octave into as few or many parts as you wanted. After that, I believe Jaco started playing fretless.

For you bass aficianados - with Ira Sullivan, Jaco was playing through an Acoustic 360 with folded horn. I always thought those were great bass rigs!

[Clifford-D]

I don't know
That sounds like an obcessed music geek to me.

Geek in music is a GOOD thing. Imo

[Seraphine]

I wonder just how much musical ground "geek" covers. Obsessiveness w/ the gtr is one thing, yet I would bet most of us are married to our gtr's and polygamous.

Back to Geek... A friend of mine long, long ago and far away in a distant land and time.. one day he said to me.. "You know we can say practically anything we want using songs we know and lyrics?"... That started an hour conversation at least.

We were seriously into music and lyrics and both of us ended up musicians. Such a precept includes much.. not only can songs render atmosphere's.. themes. plots and sub plots and of course, the most common and simple expressions... they also well cover emotion and attitudes, let alone philosophies and fun... even craziness etc etc

Alot of it is relative... technically is it a Geek who knows every note of the fretboard or it is so only compared with someone who doesn't? Comparing someone knowing every note on a fretboard with someone knowing every sound on the board... now we're getting into serious Geek or serious Talent and abilities maybe lol...

I also see the images created as part of music and not just the audio or sound. I do not mean Marketing or Corporate "tricks" when I mean images, though some are obviously Logo and emblem / symbol like, even the most sincere... Art.. without using "artist" like the newspeak buzzword it is these days. But the Arts...

Much of "music" has to do with culture... from clothes to attitudes to philosophies etc etc.. extending from individuals to groups to masses of people. Heck even the animals and plants are affected by the music played and set loose on the enviroment and world ( talk about Geek-ness! ). So when I think "Geek" about music and also Musicians... there's more to the picture than first meets my eye.

[Clifford-D]

Originally Posted by Seraphine

I wonder just how much musical ground "geek" covers. Obsessiveness w/ the gtr is one thing, yet I would bet most of us are married to our gtr's and polygamous.

Back to Geek... A friend of mine long, long ago and far away in a distant land and time.. one day he said to me.. "You know we can say practically anything we want using songs we know and lyrics?"... That started an hour conversation at least.

We were seriously into music and lyrics and both of us ended up musicians. Such a precept includes much.. not only can songs render atmosphere's.. themes. plots and sub plots and of course, the most common and simple expressions... they also well cover emotion and attitudes, let alone philosophies and fun... even craziness etc etc

Alot of it is relative... technically is it a Geek who knows every note of the fretboard or it is so only compared with someone who doesn't? Comparing someone knowing every note on a fretboard with someone knowing every sound on the board... now we're getting into serious Geek or serious Talent and abilities maybe lol...

I also see the images created as part of music and not just the audio or sound. I do not mean Marketing or Corporate "tricks" when I mean images, though some are obviously Logo and emblem / symbol like, even the most sincere... Art.. without using "artist" like the newspeak buzzword it is these days. But the Arts...

Much of "music" has to do with culture... from clothes to attitudes to philosophies etc etc.. extending from individuals to groups to masses of people. Heck even the animals and plants are affected by the music played and set loose on the enviroment and world ( talk about Geek-ness! ). So when I think "Geek" about music and also Musicians... there's more to the picture than first meets my eye.

So you're saying geek and artistry don't share similar space?

I think of a geek as someone that is always "on".
Whenever you cross their path they are always deep into
their music. SRV lived and breathed his bag, he was inseporable
from it, he was always on. Coltrane? Always on.

These geek guys are the guys that would leave a show to go home to play.
It's a burning desire I get.

It's true I would rather play than work or clean or eat or sleep,
Ok, I'll take the sleep and the eating.

[Seraphine]

The physical playing of music or an instrument is one thing, yet doing it in our heads is virtually the precise same thing. I can compose hear and "play" music in my head.. while doing anything.. I don't have to go home to play.

I can hear "music" in a woman talking... laughing.. moving.. etc etc

This is what I meant about what geek covers in all this. Many who listen and love music are Geeks and they don't play instruments... they play recordings or even hear it in their heads

[Clifford-D]

In my 22 yr old sons world he considers himself a geek.
His crowd of people are all geeks, basically responsible
level headed and goal oriented, it's his image and he loves
it, and I love it because I consider myself a hippie geek.
Unconventional, free thinking, blabla
Now an active non bohemian business person can also have
the ability to go deeeep on music and excel, these are powerful
people, might I suggest the geek is not as skilled with people?
More comfortable puttering at home than use their personality
to sell and get the recognition.
I've said it before, music is not a competition, it's sharing.
Not to many music geeks are into competition but they just
may share their music. And that's enough.

[Jday413]

I have my college degree in music. So, I spent a long time in the heady, academic world of music, and deeply loved it. I don't get to flex that part of my brain as often anymore, even though my career is in music. But, I can talk deep levels of theory, and classical music history with the geekiest of them.

Geeky to the point, that I'll occasionally do ear-training exercises over at musictheory.net, just for fun! Or, get a thrill out of doing a chordal analysis of a piece of music.

But, the geek-ness was never the end for me (nor should it be for anyone), it was the means of me understanding what and why I wanted to express things musically, or how songs and melodies worked the way they did, so that when I played them I could accurately express the music. Also, I believe about myself, that having a deep and wide understanding of theory and history has kept me from staying in ruts very long in my playing. I know how to look at what I'm doing, and figure out why it's repetitive and boring, or know where to look for a different musical inspiration.

I am a geek. And proud of it!

[monty]

I wouldnt say geek for myself, more like a dumbarse looking to be more of a geek.

[Jeremy_Green]

I don't know if geek is really the right word... I mean for me personally it is just the thing I love to spend my time doing the most.. But honestly isn't that the same with everyone? I mean I hear endless conversations about golf amongst golfers. Or fish amongst fisherman... Hell even hear tv people talk endlessly about stupid tv shows. Really anyone who has a passion for anything could be called a geek then.

So by my observation that would incorporate most people? But "geeks" they stuck out because they were odd... Singular, alone, awkward, weak?

I do get the spirit of your post here and agree. I always find it funny that many musicians who are the CENTER of a party, are in reality almost anti-social. Kind of funny, but to get good at it you need to spend a lot of time by yourself in a room.

Seems like "geek" is the new popular thing these days - imagine that! Revenge of the Nerds indeed. The Fonz must be rolling around in bed right now : )

[matte]

guitar isn't very important to me, as a musician.

it used to be.

not so much now.

i still learn/practice/apply.

working hard to develop these musical ideas on guitar.

otherworldly.

the phrase beginning @ 02:02 is my idea of perfection.

Originally Posted by Clifford-D

How much of a geek are you, or have you ever been?
What do your friends think of your obcessiveness with the guitar?

[JonR]

Originally Posted by Clifford-D

I don't have any friends that have as big an appetite for all things music science as me.
I always burn them out first. I can get pretty heady.

I get kidded by being called the professor at the local blues jams, and my playing is more
Unusual than the typical player , like a geek. I don't strut looking too cool for school.
Was Monk a geek, or Jaco?? Sco? Friz? Not just Bacharach.

Here at TGP it's like a support group for those that really want to be geeked,
Should I start naming the geeks here?

How much of a geek are you, or have you ever been?
What do your friends think of your obcessiveness with the guitar?

My friends are all musicians, so they're cool with it.
Mind you, I think they'd regard my constant visits to sites like this as pretty geeky... (I keep the two worlds quite separate. Although live playing experiences obviously help to form the opinions I express here, nothing I say - or read - here has any impact on how I play the guitar live, as far as I'm aware.)

[rob2001]

Originally Posted by JonR

Mind you, I think they'd regard my constant visits to sites like this as pretty geeky...

LOL! When I'm talkin with the guys in the band and I say something like "there was a guy on TGP that said blah blah blah" I feel like a geek!

Jeremy, yes I agree, 'geek' has a negative connotation to it.

[Clifford-D]

Originally Posted by rob2001

LOL! When I'm talkin with the guys in the band and I say something like "there was a guy on TGP that said blah blah blah" I feel like a geek!

Jeremy, yes I agree, 'geek' has a negative connotation to it.

I guess geek does have this negitive connotation to it.
But I feel it could be a generational thing.
I also feel that most posters are not 22.

So a new word Geezer comes to mind lol.
Anyway, definitions aren't consistent so
I feel my op question will never succeed lol.

And that's the way it is. Oh well

[matte]

theory without practice is a car with no engine.

robert fripp introduced me to the half step whole step scale (via bartok's axis system) in 1986.

it's become my default setting.

used in a sentence.

http://soundcloud.com/matteh/3100-matte-henderson-1