Jon Johanning wrote:
>
> My experience is that someone who performs music, even on an amateur
> level, has a completely different understanding of it than someone who
> only listens. My older boy did eventually take up acoustic guitar and
> did a bit of a singer-songwriter thing, which is temporarily on the
> shelf, but which I hope he will get back to.
Which is why the "progress" of having music available to everyone who has an electric plug has had a negative impact on the development and appreciation of music. I never learned a musical instrument myself. My parents' attitude was "If you're not Mozart, what's the point?" But I did spend fifteen years learning belly dance. At the end of that time, learning to move to the many, many layers of intricate rhythmical patterns that form middle-eastern/north-african music, "rock" is a threadbare creature. I still enjoy it, but keep wandering where the other layers are.
Joanna