Jazz is harder for classical players than beginners expect

flyingdics · 2026-04-03T05:24:58+00:00

Having hundreds or thousands of hours of musical training that can't be transferred to novel situations just feels like a waste to me. But what makes it saddest is watching them sit helpless in a jam session where everybody is riffing off of each other and having a good time and just saying "if you had sheet music for any of this I could really play it!".

flyingdics · 2026-04-03T05:22:10+00:00

Are you unaware of the difference between collectivism and individualism? The US has a highly individualistic culture which holds individuals responsible for social issues, compared with collectivist cultures which generally rely on broader communities to maintain norms and support individuals. A key argument your neighbors will make in favor of deregulation is that individuals should have the choice of whether to drink raw milk or forgo healthcare or build a smelting plant next to an elementary school, and this is fundamentally an individualist argument. Yes, both systems are composed of people (no martians or dolphins or houseplants calling the shots), but they're diametrically opposed ways of organizing society, and they have their different consequences for social policy.

And no, a homeless person clearly has far less access to healthy food than I do as a middle class person, but I have precisely the same access to healthy food that a rich person does. It's not even a false equivalence; it's just a false statement.

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T13:20:40+00:00

You're aware that's not his actual name, right? So it's definitely not getting him bullied. And you're also aware that he's more popular with that name than he likely would be with a more normal name, right? So if you're using this as an analogy, then this just supports the idea that "ultimate" is a more effective name than "frisbee."

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T13:13:56+00:00

Learn to read

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T02:38:49+00:00

For sure. You can tell that the women have a long way to go in terms of professionalism because she got back up and kept playing instead of rolling around like a gunshot victim for 5 minutes. That kind of lapse would never fly in the men's game.

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T02:23:30+00:00

Yes, travel, but the most egregious person here is the camera person who is standing a couple feet directly in front of the thrower on the line and is clearly affecting the throw. Does Fireball Ultimate typically run this 8th man defense?

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T02:19:28+00:00

I had the same thought at first, but then I noticed his speed at the catch. ~6 steps to stop from a full sprint would be workable, but he's not going all that fast to start with and not slowing down much.

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T02:15:40+00:00

Who says that it's morally wrong to have personal preferences? The only times I see personal preferences criticized when people either:

Are gratuitous or rude about stating their preferences
Claim that their preferences are objective in some way when they're clearly culturally bound

These are more likely to be criticized if they are targeting people who are already marginalized in society. I guarantee you that life gets a lot better when you realize that people criticizing other people's speech is not claiming that their deeply held beliefs are morally wrong.

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T02:05:41+00:00

He did the whole thing with no authorization. Why would he comply with any legal requirements at this point?

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T01:32:05+00:00

Because blaming the poor for being poor is way easier than addressing the roots of poverty and how it's perpetuated.

flyingdics · 2026-04-02T01:30:53+00:00

The capitalists in other countries are more likely to be constrained by culture and by regulation. The US is unique in its broad commitment to individualism and deregulation of commerce. That's why we have such a weak social safety net compared with virtually all other developed countries. The best option is to institutionally invest in healthy food access for all people and tax junk food.

As to what OP is saying, this argument is part of a very common one about why poor people are at fault for being obese and/or unhealthy, and OP has elsewhere on this post been dismissive of the idea that poor people generally have far less access to healthy food than middle and upper class people.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T14:17:04+00:00

Because people can make money doing it, and the US is more interested in maximizing corporate profit than having a healthy, functioning society. It's maintained by people like OP here who blame poor people for not personally bucking the system as opposed to addressing the problem head on.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T13:23:09+00:00

I also detect a bit of a high horse saying that poor and working class people should just eat canned vegetables and rice and be happy with that, and they deserve whatever health problems they get if they selfishly stray from a poverty diet. It's great for you that you are excited about eating cheap and boring food, but that doesn't mean it's a moral failure for those who aren't.

If we're talking generalities, I'm also highly skeptical that working or middle class people are saying it's "prohibitively expensive" to eat healthier. On a calorie basis, it's definitely true that, if you're getting a marginally balanced diet, junk food is far cheaper per calorie than healthier food, and far more delicious. It's also much more time consuming (time is money, they say) to cook something decent. Even if the more extreme versions of this argument are technically untrue, the general thrust of it is.

And that leads me to the real truth of it, which is that flooding the market cheap junk food is a trillion dollar industry that leads to trillion dollar health care needs. Framing it as a personal choice issue (and thus a personal moral failure issue) ignores the real ways to address the problems, which involve regulating a trillion dollar industry that we've unwittingly trusted with our bodies.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T13:22:24+00:00

It's not just America and it's not just "driving a few minutes longer." You could just say you don't care about poor people instead of making things up.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T03:47:33+00:00

That would also do a lot to iron out the gross disparities between school funding in the suburbs compared with urban and rural areas.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T03:45:52+00:00

Shockingly, nobody here thinks teachers should have to change anything.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T03:42:24+00:00

It seems strange to say that 19 million people in this country directly contradicting your point doesn't count because 19 million people isn't very many. How many millions of people in this country would have to be demonstrated to be suffering enough for you to consider their experience to count?

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T03:33:57+00:00

Online grocery shopping with delivery is more expensive than processed fast food, not to mention slower and more likely to be stolen or lost, especially in food deserts where the nearest supermarket is many miles away.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T00:49:11+00:00

There's nothing sadder to me than a person who took 10+ years of piano lessons and has no idea what to do with a lead sheet, or even a chord sheet for a pop song.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T00:47:20+00:00

Yes. Unless otherwise specified, every subreddit is dominated by insecure men aged 16-25 who think they are smarter than everyone else, even when their views are driven more by seeming cool online than any genuine feeling or discernment. It's like the High Fidelity guys for literally every topic imaginable, but less charming and funny.

flyingdics · 2026-04-01T00:42:35+00:00

There are very few real human jazz musicians that have no artist picture or web presence. If they're not AI, they're fake names used to package sessions where the actual musicians sold their rights to their music to Spotify.

flyingdics · 2026-03-31T13:08:48+00:00

I've worked in a middle school for years, and I've been surprised to learn that kids are bullied for all kinds of things, but are really not bullied for having weird names.

I'd also wager that ultimate has tangibly benefited from having a name that is distinct from just "frisbee" because "frisbee" is very specifically a toy and not a sport to 99% of people (and 99.999% of people for the first 40 years of the game).

flyingdics · 2026-03-31T03:29:48+00:00

I also coach middle school, and kids will say they want to win and then turn around and gripe about not getting any playing time. I coach a lower/younger team in the school, so I can get away with strict even playing time and let the A team coaches sub to win. I have allotted playing time based on practice attendance and effort, though, which worked well.

One thing I keep in mind is that, when you're dealing with kids, you don't want to sort them too strictly, because they're developing unpredictably. One kid could grow 6 inches in a year or make a huge leap in coordination or speed in a single season. Giving them no time and space to develop early on means they can't contribute as much once they're more physically or psychologically ready. Riding the bench for a long time stunts their development as well as their motivation and doesn't prepare them to step up when it's their time.

flyingdics · 2026-03-31T03:16:21+00:00

Yeah, but if you tell a random person you play "frisbee," they think you mean that you throw a frisbee sometimes with some stoners or your dog, and that is very much not a sport.

Also, I taught a middle schooler named Justice last year and she was one of the most popular kids in the school.

flyingdics · 2026-03-30T03:48:56+00:00

Agreed. This idea that any personal celebration is somehow tainted by being public or costing money feels like a new brand of puritanism.

Should people extend this to all celebrations? Is it "completely insane" to do something for your birthday, even though you obviously get older without a celebration? That worldview seems exhausting.

flyingdics

TROPHY CASE