HI Dean ...

This might be a bit long and rambling, please bear with me (Alan)!

I've read all the previous comments/reviews/curiosities and, most importantly, their need (not just desire, but need) to improve their musicianship. I found every one of them, and your replies, most interesting and valuable.

I had a real long reply here but have shortened it substantially. What I was trying to say in all the gibberish I deleted was, I think all of us know a lot more than we realize. In the absence of formal musical education, we make up our own references and terminology. We know what we mean but hardly anyone else would!

A quick set of examples, using "G" as the tonic. I'll give the ascription I used and then translate them into legitimate terminology:

"Go to the back chord of the key" Translation: "Go from G to D" or "Go from the tonic to to the 5 chord"

"Go to the forward chord of the key" Translation: "Go from G to C" or "Go from the tonic to the 4 chord"

"Go to the up chord of the key" - translation: "Go from G to A" or "Go from the tonic to the 2 chord"

There were dozens of others I made up. My point is, we probably know a lot more than we realize about music theory, we just know it by different ascriptions and terminology. Many of us find the technical terminology scary and daunting. I find that music, math and foreign languages (with the few exceptions that exist) are all very similar in one respect ... they all have an established syntax for the most part. In English, if we add "ed' to the end of most verbs, it makes it past tense almost every time. So we know what will usually happen when we add that "ed" at the end of a verb. In math, if we double the quantity of something, we will have twice as much. It's an accepted rule. In music, if we increase the fifth note of a chord by two half-steps, the major chord becomes a 6th chord, regardless of the nomenclature of the tonic chord. That syntax applies almost every time in in those three arenas. Realizing the syntax of music has dramatically increased my understanding of it.

I am far below your knowledge and skill level, but every time I listen to one of your compositions, I learn something knew. You're creative, think out of the box (sometimes way out of the box!) and most of all for me, you are innovative. Your superior skills and musical intellect don't intimidate or scare me ... they make me work my a$$ off so I can say, "Yep, now I'm one tenth as good as Dean, whereas six months ago I was only one eleventh as good. Thank you for making me work so damned hard!

What I enjoyed about this work by you is that your new arrangement of the chorus kept life in the song, re-energized it (much as a key modulation might) and kept my ears wanting to hear more because I know you're going to do something that blows me away. There's nothing hum-drum about your musical compositions. I never know what to expect in the next bar or the next verse, but I know it's gonna be great!

BTW, I was a teacher, too! I taught Geometric Optics (mostly has to do with the physics of light behavior) at the University of Missouri - St. Louis.

Wishing you well and looking forward to your next project!

Alan

(Di's sleeping but would want me to say "Hi" on her behalf, too)

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