MELODY ASSISTANT HORIZONTAL VS. VERTICAL STAFF BLUETOOTH

Most of our potential shoppers, current tabletop radio owners, and novice testers alike were, almost without exception, insistent that AM reception was as crucial as FM (even those who admit that they never listen to AM), and if they had an opinion about Bluetooth connectivity and HD Radio reception, it was usually expressed as, вЂњThat would be nice, I guess, but it wouldnвЂ™t make or break a radio for me.вЂќ

AM reception was a must, while extras like Bluetooth and HD Radio were at the bottom of the list.

In fact, none of the people we interviewed even mentioned it until prompted, and only a couple of our hands-on test subjects commented on audio performance. For most shoppers, it seems, a good tabletop radio should be as pleasing to touch as it is to look at.

Solid tuning and good ergonomics were a major priority.

Interviewees also quite frequently mentioned that a variety of finish options would be preferable, though not essential. By a huge margin, the number one feature that most people mentioned first was design, with the words вЂњretroвЂќ and вЂњexecutive stylingвЂќ popping up time and again. Apart from some no no's like parallel 5ths and some do's like resolving the 7th down, there wasn't much focus on the horizontal line (at least in theory class). I'm having my bass students this week write a duet to get them to think vertically.Д®ven in college, it seemed the emphasis on strict 4 part writing was to end up with correct vertical harmony.

Perhaps a good exercise against that tendency is to write, or record, 16 measures of one part, then go back and create another that meshes with it, but in both cases the focus is on creating lines horizontally rather than thinking so much on vertical harmony. The plethora of 'pad' patches on keyboards doesn't help the mindset. If strings, brass, etc are recorded as an ensemble there is a strong tendency to end up with blocks of chords rather than individual flowing lines, everything changing on the bar line.

Most composing takes place at a piano/keyboard and the tendency, especially if it bypasses notation, is to play handfuls of notes in a pass. This is a good point and perhaps a part of the pattern. Obviously there are composer's who create great lines and players who are fantastic at seeing things vertically, but starting out it seems each has a challenge, just in a different direction. I listen to creations on this forum and see often that the pieces fit into the overall harmony, but the inner lines don't flow individually. I teach private bass lessons and am always on my students to think about how the part they are creating is fitting into the harmony around them. I remember handing out parts to an orchestra years ago and, although the parts made sense vertically, each part horizontally on their own made little sense.much more so with the inner voices.

In other words, are generally better at thinking horizontally, but poorer, at least at the outset, of thinking vertically.Д«eginning composer's seem to be better at thinking vertically, but horizontally they are weak. It seems players are good at seeing their part, but generally need to work on seeing how their part fits into the whole. I'm curious if you all think this makes sense.

Melody assistant horizontal vs. vertical staff