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by janra
Posted to Diaries, Diary on Thu Aug 19, 2004 at 09:19:00 AM PST
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My high school chemistry teacher had a saying that I'm finding more and more true the more experience I get with the world.

Work expands to fill the time available.

So I've been unemployed for a while, puttering around trying to find a job, write, work on Scoop (the program that runs this site), and generally keep from going stir-crazy. And I always felt - simultaneously! - like I never had enough time to do what I wanted to do, and that I couldn't find enough to do to fill up the day.

Now I've got a short contract, and as far as time goes, I feel about the same way. It's amazing how much time you can waste without noticing.

Anyhow, I added another "extracurricular" to my schedule - a band that meets about every two weeks for rehearsal. We've had three rehearsals so far, and I think we're going to sound good with a bit more practise. The guy who started the band has never been in a band with horns before, and expressed surprise when he found out why there are supposed to be 3 (or more) trumpets (or multiples of any of the instruments) - they each play one note in the chord. I could see on his face that something clicked when he realized that - he's a keyboard player and usually performs with your typical guitar/base/drums/keyboard/singer kind of group, so he's used to all the instruments being able to play entire chords at once.

But oh, my cheeks hurt at the end of the rehearsals... I hadn't pulled out my saxophone in a few years before I joined this band, so those muscles were way out of shape. They're getting better pretty quickly, though - I'm not leaking air out the sides at the end of the rehearsal anymore. The muscle remembers what it's supposed to do... it just didn't have the strength to tighten up properly :-)

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busy/not busy | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

Chords (3.00/0) (#1)
by pkej on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 02:20:34 AM PST

Better add more than three, if you're going to play anything by me :) Not that anything by me is finsihed to the point where I'm comfortable with releasing it. I think that a critical sense of your own work is the hallmark of a professional vs an amature. (In addition to getting paid, of course.)

But, seriously, I thought that was a bit weird, not realizing you'd need several single note instruments to make a chord, even though he was a keyboard player.

Your chemistry teacher was a wise man, though. But there is antoher side to the point, I think. Work also creates space! After staring working for NRK, 8 hours every weekday, I've found that I still carry on with 8 more hours of private stuff afterwards (my own programming projects), and add a couple of hours for food and suddenly I'm sleeping almost 4-6 hours less than during this summer.

But, the work is fun, and I'm relaxing during the weekend, really relaxing. Next week swimming starts up again, as well, so I'll be shortening in on the private work hours, I guess.
--
When in doubt,
turn around,
cry and shout

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I think (3.00/0) (#2)
by janra on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:23:54 AM PST

that the chord thing was one of those "oh, of course!" moments, because he just had never thought about it before. Like I said, he'd never been in a band with horns before, so it's not something he would have had to think about. I know some horn players who took years to figure out that they were playing part of a chord...

And yes, my chemistry teacher was a very wise man. I don't think he had a single student who didn't at least like him, too - an excellent teacher, with a real love of teaching and of chemistry, and it showed.

I think work is like a gas - it expands or compresses to fit the time (space) available, up to a point, where the work simply takes a minimum amount of time to do and gas liquefies under pressure... :-)
--
Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?
[ Parent ]

Oh yeah... of course (3.00/0) (#3)
by Drog on Mon Aug 30, 2004 at 07:03:48 AM PST

I have to admit it, I never really thought of it before either, but yeah, it DOES make sense to have three trumpet players so you can play chords. Would that be true of all wind instruments? Or do just trumpet chords in particular sound nice? I played alto saxophone when I was a kid (it's been years since I pulled it out) and I am just now learning to play piano, which has me learning new things about music. Such as chords, and the bass clef, and the very strange feeling of playing completely different rythms simultaneously with each hand.

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[ Parent ]

: basically, yes (3.00/0) (#4)
by janra on Mon Aug 30, 2004 at 07:07:48 AM PST

Any instrument that can play only one note at a time can (and often does) have 2-4 different parts in a given arrangement to make chords like that. He just noticed the trumpet one because the piece he was looking at had a strong trumpet line.
You played alto sax, eh? That's my instrument - but I started on the organ (three keyboards minimum... one for each hand and one for the feet!) then moved to the saxophone in grade 8, when I joined the school band.
--
Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?
[ Parent ]

A great (3.00/0) (#5)
by 5507 on Wed Oct 27, 2004 at 08:41:43 AM PST

A great deal of attention is being paid today to the soª²called digital divide ¡ª the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.
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busy/not busy | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

	I listen	50%
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	I perform	50%
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	I'm tone deaf	0%