Shirin Delsooz

My Life Adventures and Thoughts

The Good Side of TPL

I think I was a little bit too harsh in my open letter to the TPL. Now that I think about it, I feel like one of those do-nothing ungrateful citizens that always expects miracles from some tax dollars.

In all fairness, I think we could all use a bit of critiquing, but we should not oversee the good. So here it goes…

Thank you TPL, for still being my number one informational resource!

I make extensive use of your music library collection that’s always updated with the latest in pop, and Canadian independent music in both CD and music score format. I am always delighted to find what I was looking for in the large music score readily available as if no one knew about it before– like it was my own secret. I’ll never forget how shocked I was to see so much Jann Arden!

Also, the reels and reels of newspapers dating from hundreds of years ago are neatly organized and beats any trip to a historical museum. I could sit for hours reading and looking at the pictures of the city I lived in a hundred years ago today, and it’s made possible because of the donations and taxes that go into the library.

There are also a lot of neat features about the library that not a lot of people don’t know or take advantage of. Did you know they lend out pedometers for free? And museum passes too?

That’s not to mention the countless workshops and activities to engage the community.  There’s everything ranging from movie night to just learning Microsoft word.

They even renovated their Dufferin location to simulate the Starbuck’s experience. This library with its sleek modern interior allows its visitors to eat INSIDE while using their laptops with music played in the background. You don’t have to pay $6 for a grande, this joint is for free!

I probably didn’t even list a fraction of all that the Toronto Public Library has to offer but anyone in Toronto can tell you it’s great. And I get angry at those who ruin it for others with their book hoarding and accruing unpaid big fines! Not cool.

Anyway, the place is great, that I really hope I can get more involved with the library community… maybe as a workshop leader on blogging?

My open letter to the Toronto Public Library head honchos

Today I was disappointed to discover the music practice rooms in the Toronto Reference Library were complete duds.

What you call a practice room appears to me as a make shift room hastily put together by wooden boards and some glue. If this was an attempt to barricade sound, could the three walls at least meet the ceiling?

I suppose the ‘music’ in the TRL’s practice room denotes the two Casio keyboards awkwardly put together quite literally side by side. Surely no one will hear a peep with the headphones permanently attached. But could the TRL at least acknowledge how awkward it was for me to play away Fur Elise when a complete stranger was allowed to barge in and play the keyboard next to me? Surely anyone with any musical inclination can agree practice in its most blandest of forms requires privacy and space- the library’s traditional stacked study desk arrangement does not apply.

Being able to only play the provided keyboards in a room officially dubbed ‘piano/practice room’ completely disregards other musicians. Why can’t guitars, violins and other acoustic instruments be played inside without being in violation of having to be heard by the entire library? Why does the library give preference in accommodating keyboard players?

As it stands now there are no other public spaces for musicians to play in privacy other than the North York Central Library where a fee is charged by the hour. If the library is a resource for learning, I think it is imperative to dedicate at least a room as small as 7 square feet in at least one of the downtown branches to better provide for its music community.

I hope you will agree! And I think I should also let you know I will be posting this letter on my blog so my musician readers will also become aware of this issue.

Thank you,

Van Delsooz

A ray of light

Once upon a time, deep in a gloomy hole of a dive where pint guzzling and stupor meanderings remained prevalent to the better end of the night, a mysterious man in a top hat and curly mustache came up on the stage playing the guitar singing, ‘it’s great to be a human…’.

Under a jumpy jovial chord progression he continued, “Wanna know why it’s great to be a human?” Because you get to hang out with your friends, because your parents love you, because you get to like stuff!

Everyone looked up distraught suddenly reminiscing on cheery early days of apple juice, crayons, and sunshine…

“How have children received your music so far?”

“I played at a birthday party once for 1 year olds, they didn’t seem to get it,”

An on-listener jumped in on the conversation, “It has an adult appeal to it, you know.”

Doctor Key’s really hit a soft spot in my heart when and where I least expected it, the 460!

You can listen to a clip of this song here:

http://dirtystaccato.com/It’s_Great_To_Be_A_Human.mp3

Or check out his site:

http://www.dirtystacatto.com

The trouble with folk music…

In the past few months, I got really lost in the world

I wonder what Mick Maloney has to say on the subject

I wonder what Mick Maloney has to say on the subject

of folk music, cramming as many songs as I can in my head, memorizing as many tunes on the mandolin.

I consult thesession.org as being the official go-to for scores of all tunes. But unfortunately, not everyone sees eye to eye with this.

When playing with others, I discover they tend to play different variations. They don’t use thesession.org scores, nor do they read any score at all! They learn by ‘ear’. An oral tradition of sorts!

This I discovered this fact to be the fundamental difference between folk music, and classical music. Classical music demands every note to be followed. Classical musicians work tirelessly to emulate the original sound while folk players add their own variations to their folk tunes passing it down to future generation players who also make it their own, so on and so forth until the tune doesn’t sound remotely close to how it originally was composed!

Some people find this to be the charm of folk music, but it bothers me… profoundly. It’s maybe because I come from a formal background, where everything has to be official and written on paper with no detail spared.

Apparently my whole approach is wrong. I’m in fact not supposed to sit and practice the tunes. If I want to learn them, I must try to play along with the musicians on the fly, with a skillfully trained ear. It seems like a cool talent to have, but it also seems rather… loose.

You can say you are able to play by ear, but you can’t capture every little detail! Naturally you add your own spin to the song, taking away the spirit of it!

I could try to have an open mind, but I just can’t bring myself to it. I’ll stubbornly play the songs as they were originally meant to be played, and the fellow players will eventually just have to learn how to play by ear with the official scores as set out by thesession.org
… I hope that’s not bad etiquette…

The difficulty of being a lady musician

I’m concerned about the lack of women in the local music scene!

The only women I see are the bartenders and if there are any ‘musicians’ that do come, they are ‘singers’ or at best three chord ‘singer songwriters’!  Where are the female drummers, bassists, and guitarists?  Once in a blue moon there are female musicians and I grasp onto them and beg them to stay so much! But they don’t come back!

I’ve tried to think of the many reasons as to why this could be. Maybe female musicians are not too keen to linger around bars with all the dudes. Maybe female musicians do not feel accepted? Maybe they do not have the confidence? These were some of the repercussions I had when I started out.

There are many unspoken troubles a female musician has to face.  For instance, it is so hard to find people to jam with. The dynamic tends to be a close one and guys tend to abuse it. How can a female be comfortable jamming in a room alone with a guy if she has this understandable fear sitting in the back of her mind?

Then there is also the problem of not having enough role models out there.  It’s barricaded by a front line in the music industry- sound engineers, technicians and dj’s who are all men!  Even at the record store and instrument stores most of the sales people are men.  I had a friend who once told me not to go to Steve’s music store because they are not too fond of women and beginners. The music industry is surrounded by men!

To break into this circle to the actual production side of music is quite a feat!  How often have you heard of a record selling female producer?  I can’t even think of one.  Once in a while we hear of a bassist in some band, or a keyboardist, or a violinist, but its not ever equal or remotely close to the number of men!

Ya that blows. But I won’t let it deter me, nor will I use it as an excuse and be lazy with practice. It’s just a mere observation and hopefully things will change, and it slowly has…