X-rated Bob wrote:
30 odd years ago I read bedtime stories to a friend of mine's kids. I thought even then that it was a bit archaic.
[rant]
Archaic ??? Readng bedtime stories is the beginning of a love of reading, and the love of reading is the basis for all education, and education is increasingly critical in an ever-more automated world. Simply put, if you aren't educated in the future, a robot's got your job. And if you don't like reading, education's going to be an uphill slog.
My brother and sister-in-law read to their kids, and I certainly would if/when I have any. My girlfriend's parents come from a more old-fashioned Indian education background and they had her reading Dickens by herself before she went to primary school.
And speaking of their tradition, her old man sings - used to play guitar too and play in bands doing Beatles and Dylan and stuff in Trivandrum in the early '70s. But in the Indian classical tradition, like it has become in the Anglo tradition in the last 60 years only, you are considered either musical/a singer, or not. If not, you don't bother. This is definitely sad.
My parents played no instruments, and are not obsessive about music like I am. But my mother used to sing in the car (and later in the choir ?) and the message I got was that you can make music just to entertain yourself. So I've always sung. When I was exposed to the broader South African public after my apartheid upbringing, I realised something incredible. Virtually everyone sings. It's only in my culture that most people say, "I'm tone deaf. I can't hold a tune." In the rest of the South African cultures it's as rare to not sing as it is to sing in my culture.
It blew my mind watching complete strangers meet and break into four-part harmonies ??? Among my friends I'm one of the best singers. Among my colleagues, I'm one of the worst.
But I know how this happens. I think I said before, but I met an old Welsh guy in Cyprus who, astonished that any twenty-something (back then) would be remotely interested - described how he remembered his father and his brothers coming up the road from the pits, making the valley ring with their harmony singing. The mines closed, more expensive forms of entertainment became affordable, and both singing and rugby declined markedly in quality and numbers of participants.
It's a terrible shame. In fact, one of the only things that I dislike about the collapse of orthodox church-going, is the death of the singing tradition in my culture. It makes me go >☹ when I go to funerals and I, the atheist, am the only one who can carry the tune of these ultra-famous anthemic hymns - everybody else murmuring tonelessly.
But for all this rant, I don't know what's to be done. The tradition this forum represents is a lot of people developing skills to entertain. But it's still a minority thing. We play to passive audiences - even at events I have at my house in which everyone may participate it's the people with the skills playing to entertain those who don't. The singalong is gone.
[/rant]
