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Komunitas pawb.social

they are not wrong

I am somewhat shocked our government would do something like that, even last year. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/billboard-tariffs-canada-1.7496882

Komunitas lemmy.world

MorgoFett

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Komunitas lemmy.world

The 1996 experience

Here’s the original sexy-dog version of Betty Boop cast as a sex worker a sailor visits in 1930. This stuff has been going in in cartoons for about as long as there have been cartoons.

Komunitas lemmy.world

ndr

B.S. Biology; M.S. in Bioinformatics. ❤️ tech, FOSS, Lana Del Rey, Linux, Fedora, KDE, but also ARM MacBooks & iOS. Good @ Python, forced to use R, learning Rust. 🎮 Prey (2017), Bioshock, Portal & Dead Space. Bi, more into guys atm. @hyfi:matrix.org also [email protected]

Komunitas hexbear.net

I don't like "networking" and it sucks because networking runs everything

here undergrad to grad is streamlined so i didn’t have to worry about this in my undergad and my grades were up, but in grad i basically flunked my first semester and it was agonizing to choose an advisor (partly because of the social anxiety induced delay that left me the last person without one). and having to devote even more time and energy to extra social interactions after lectures and homework was just too much for me to handle. this was my experience as well. and people around me kept insisting i was wrong and i could handle more but i got lazy somehow during one summer. it sucked. well it’s ongoing so technically it sucks.

Komunitas lemm.ee

OkGo

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Komunitas hexbear.net

Had a 1v9 argument about China and Cuba being socialist at my org

Imo you and your comrades are by the sound of it having issues where you confuse “socialist”, “dictatorship of the proletariat”, “anti-imperialist”, “nice to live in” and “progressive” for semisynonymous moral categories instead of seperate political-economic categories without moral weight. Also by instead of respecting democratic centralism and party discipline going and posting about it in public online spaces you are sorta in the wrong here imo. Instead of posting about this online you should do further investigation and discuss it further with your comrades while engaged in the work of leafletting or postering where youre less likely to be dogpiled Anyway, the capitalist mode of production is a different thing from the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The capitalist mode of production is M-C-M`, it is the laws of value and the production and circulation of commodities. “‘Accumulate, accumulate’ this is Moses and the Prophets” as Marx put it. The chinese economy operates, including in the state sector, on M-C-M’ and on the law of value and production and circulation of commodities. This is in contrast to the soviet union, whose plans followed M-C-M’, but did not allow things to circulate based on the laws of value but instead the needs of the economic plan (and this planning structure was itself a development of the war communism compromise, not what the bolsheviks had in mind in october 1917). And both of these are very different from Cuba’s economy, which is much closer to the lower stage of communism (socialism) than any other socialist project: they have made strides towards the abolition of the urban-rural divide, the divison between manual and mental labour, the metabolic rift and the commodity form. Whether china is a dictatorship of the proletariat or of the bourgeois is a seperate question from whether its economy is organised along capitalist lines, and this is an entirely seperate question from whether china’s interests are opposed to american imperialism and from the 4th question of their poverty reduction—which, you will note, is accompanied by increased investments of capital overseas, including to buy up land and resources to export food, minerals, etc to china. Bolivian and Ethiopian peasants arent much happier if their land is stolen or waters poisoned to supply china with cheaper food and lithium. By tying these questions together in a nebulous “is china socialist” (by which you mean “good” rather than any marxist analysis) you confuse the matter and make discussion impossible. China has reduced poverty in China during one of the greatest increases in global poverty in world history—see for example the massive land grabs and dispossesions in Africa from the 00s on. It remains to be seen whether China will dismantle the global systems of imperialist oppression (the institutions they joined in the 90s and 00s like the imf, wto, world bank etc) to allow the global population to also stop being fucked over, or take them over and merely reform them while BRICS becomes a new G20 or OECD. It remains to be seen whether they will return to supporting revolutionaries like the USSR and Cuba, or if they will continue to trade with Israel and the Phillipines and the USA while they commit genocides and snuff out revolutions. It remains to be seen if, as the USA collapses and oyher global south countries can increase their working and living conditions, China will accept these losses. But based on how China doesnt seem to do much about the industrial abuses their companies commit overseas (thinking especially of the big mining disaster in africa a while ago), my hopes are sadly at a record low atm. Imperialism is a world system, any participation in the global economy as a winner (and china is increasingly a winner) is participation in imperialism. You are the one deviating from lenin’s theory by turning it into a set of policies a nation can choose or reject. Youve turned critical support agaisnt imperialism into uncritical support against criticism. That said, your comrades are 100% wrong on Cuba imo, both bc of the supply situation and bc the USSR was much less helpful there than it could or should.have been (because, from Khrushchev on, the USSR also increasingly operates according to the laws of value and commodity circulation, or, as one of the leaders of the communist party of british guyana put it in the 60s when the soviets wouldnt give help developing their industry bc it wouldnt benefit soviet economy enough: “theyre just as businesslike on this [east] side of the iron curtain as the other”)

Komunitas lemm.ee

BagOfHeavyStones

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Komunitas feddit.uk

Vampires are lame as hell

Because the ones you’re thinking of, mostly older examples, are based around Bram Stoker’s novel or in the Hammer Horror vein. There are, however, many more examples than I can think of which aren’t like that at all. 30 days of night, the satanic rites of dracula, from dusk til dawn, Byzantium, blade, near dark, night watch, day watch, blood red sky, daybreakers, the last voyage of the demeter, cronos, Dracula untold. Whether you like it or not, vampires are sexy, scary, mysterious, and a quality monster. If we’re going to stop something, I’d like less of the done-to-death superhero movies. Now they’re trite.

Komunitas news.abolish.capital

The corporate lobbyists behind new defence secretary Dan Jarvis

New defence secretary Dan Jarvis has previously received around half a million pounds in donations from corporate lobbyists. So, as mainstream media outlets say the Labour right-winger “once looked like the future” and “is a fine choice“, let’s look into the dark money that’s been fuelling his political career. Jarvis and his local Labour Party in Barnsley have done such an awful job at countering Tory damage to the town in recent decades that it turned to Reform in the 2026 local elections. And when you look at where Jarvis’s funds come from, you can understand why the people of Barnsley might not exactly be his top political priority. 1 — Labour Together millionaires One major source of donations to Jarvis has been key Labour Together donor Martin Taylor. Taylor runs a hedge fund that invests in private healthcare. Fellow Labour Together donor and proud pro-Israel lobbyist Trevor Chinn also gave thousands of pounds to Jarvis. It seems likely that such support was at least in part because Jarvis was a parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel who even received money from the lobby group. Labour Together was a prominent vehicle for undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party and forcing vacuous corporate lackey Keir Starmer onto the country. Other beneficiaries of money from Labour Together or its donors have included high-profile cronies such as Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting, David Lammy, Shabana Mahmood, and Rachel Reeves. 2 — The “multimillionaire recruitment tycoon” with interests in private healthcare EveryDoctor explains that “multimillionaire recruitment tycoon Peter Hearn“: made his fortune through recruitment firms PSD and Odgers Berndtson Odgers Group Limited, where he resigned as a director in 2025, has offered: headhunting services to the NHS as well as the private healthcare sector. The firm has faced criticism for some of the senior executives it has helped recruit to the NHS. Former TalkTalk executive Dido Harding was headhunted by Odgers Berndtson to lead the NHS Test and Trace programme during the pandemic, which was later deemed to be ineffective by MPs. A fellow director at Odgers was Tory peer Virginia Bottomley. While Hearn clearly has a massive soft spot for Labour right-wingers Wes Streeting and Yvette Cooper, Dan Jarvis has been the other key recipient of Hearn’s money. They’ve all received money from Hearn’s OPD Group and MPM Connect Ltd. Labour campaign group Momentum once called MPM “dark money“, and Sky reported that: The company has no staff or website and is registered at an office in Hertfordshire where the secretary says she has never heard of them. EveryDoctor says Hearn’s OPD Group also “provides services to the NHS“. With Dan Jarvis, the lobby’s grip on government continues In 2016, Blairite strategist John McTernan said Jarvis: so clearly wants to be Leader of the Labour Party. Many on the right of the party mentioned his name “as a potential challenger to Jeremy Corbyn” early into Corbyn’s time as leader, with some of them even seeing him as “the party’s greatest hope“. Jarvis also reportedly had links to Blue Labour, whose whole argument is basically that Labour should be ‘more conservative‘. Jarvis has largely remained quiet in the last ten years, just accumulating corporate money and doing little of note for people in his constituency. But his move into the role of defence secretary may be a sign that his star on the Labour right is rising yet again. Considering that lobbyists’ empty vessel Keir Starmer has pushed Labour far to the right as leader, it’s unsurprising that Dan Jarvis fits neatly into the project. The question now is, exactly how much will Jarvis’s deep links to the corporate lobby influence Ministry of Defence policy at a time of already increasing military spending? Featured image via Carl Court/Getty Images By Ed Sykes From Canary via This RSS Feed.

Komunitas news.abolish.capital

'This Fight Isn't Over': Opponents Turn to State AGs After DOJ Approves Paramount-Warner Merger

The US Department of Justice on Friday approved Paramount Skydance Corporation’s megamerger with Warner Bros. Discovery, prompting opponents of the $110 billion deal to place their hopes of blocking it in the hands of Democratic state attorneys general. The DOJ’s Antitrust Division approved the merger without requiring divestitures or behavioral remedies—a significant win for billionaire Paramount CEO David Ellison. Analysts and critics had suggested the DOJ might require sales of some of the corporation’s numerous cable networks, streaming services, film and television studios, sports programming rights, or media outlets. The DOJ also reportedly declined to impose conduct restrictions on bundling, distribution, licensing commitments, and other areas. “If we had an uncorrupted Department of Justice, Paramount would not even have tried to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery, in plain violation of the law," Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in response to the news of the DOJ approval. “If it had, a Department of Justice that was doing its job would have rushed to court to block the merger the moment it was announced.” “Now, however, a compromised DOJ has rubber-stamped a merger that consolidates power for the Ellisons, one of [President Donald]Trump’s preferred oligarch families," Weissman added. “This merger will jack up prices for consumers, cost workers their jobs and, most importantly, limit the range of viewpoints permitted to air on the major media or appear in movies and creative outlets. Put simply, this is an anti-free speech merger." This is terrible news for every American who doesn’t want Trump-aligned billionaires to control what they watch and how much they pay.The Paramount-Warner Bros. deal has reeked of corruption and influence-peddling.This fight isn’t over. State AGs must block this merger. [image or embed] — Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) June 12, 2026 at 1:48 PM Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, said in a statement: “Despite all the talk about conducting a thorough investigation, the fix was in at the Trump Justice Department from the start. Paramount Skydance has fêted, flattered, and promised sweeping changes to news coverage to win the administration’s approval, despite evidence that giving one corporation this much media power—all the movie studios, cable channels, and newsrooms—will undermine competition, destroy jobs, slant the news, and endanger our democracy." “We’ve already seen how far Paramount and the Ellison family are willing to go to diminish a once-proud network and news organization like CBS, and they promise to do worse if they get their hands on Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, and all the rest," he added. “The Ellisons aren’t hiding their intentions, and no weak concessions will make this deal any better.” Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, warned earlier this week that approval of the merger would result in “the same kind of unprecedented pro-MAGA editorial control we have seen at CBS News and ‘60 Minutes.’” Raskin also contended that the merger could mean that “American consumers, who already pay an average $69 a month for streaming on top of $100 a month for cable and $78 for internet,” will pay “even more for sports, news, and entertainment.” As Politico’s Yasmin Khorram reported Friday: The [DOJ] decision… paves the way for Paramount to combine with the entertainment and media company behind a vast film and television studio, CNN, and the HBO Max streaming service, which would be combined with Paramount+ to create a new offering boasting about 200 million subscribers. The deal, which would upend the Hollywood ecosystem by combining two historic rival studios, is opposed by many in the entertainment industry who fear it could lead to mass layoffs, among other concerns. The DOJ’s reported approval of the merger does not necessarily mean the deal is done. Several states are weighing antitrust challenges, most notably California, where the office of Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta is conducting what he called a “vigorous” review of the proposed merger to determine how it would impact competition in entertainment, streaming, advertising, and labor markets. Reuters reported earlier this month that California, New York, and other states are preparing a lawsuit aimed at blocking the merger. “The good news is, this is not the last word on the matter," Weissman said. “Competition authorities in the states and other countries can still follow the law and stand up for the public interest against this media consolidation. Now that the federal government has abandoned antitrust enforcement in favor of cronyism and runaway consolidation, state attorneys general must step in to block this deal.” Aaron said that states “have strong case for blocking this merger, and many brave journalists, filmmakers, and workers in the entertainment industry have spoken out against the dangers of this deal despite threats to their livelihoods.” “They are warning us what will happen if this deal goes through, and we must listen,” he added. "The attorney generals have the evidence they need to stop this deal; now the public needs them to take action.” Last year’s merger between Paramount Global, Skydance Media, and National Amusements was itself opposed by critics who sounded similar alarms over corruption, antitrust issues, labor concerns, and attacks on editorial independence. CBS, a Paramount Global company, announced the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” during the merger review period. While Paramount claimed the cancellation was a financial decision, critics said its timing suggested at least indirect political pressure, given Colbert’s vocal criticism of Trump and the need for merger approval from the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chair Brendan Carr was appointed by Trump and has been dogged by allegations that he’s more loyal to the president’s agenda than to his agency’s stated mission. One of the biggest recurring flashpoints involves claims of corporate pressure and censorship at CBS’ venerable “60 Minutes” weekly current affairs program. Numerous former “60 Minutes” journalists and others have accused Bari Weiss—the right-wing podcaster who became CBS News editor-in-chief after the merger—of political censorship. Earlier this month, a coalition of press freedom groups warned that recent firings of “60 Minutes” journalists were a “grotesque effort taken straight from an authoritarian handbook” that posed a much wider threat to democracy, and highlighted that an approved Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger would hand control of CNN, a Warner Bros. company, to the same billionaire family that now owns CBS. The coalition argued that the merger “would open the door to improper political meddling in journalists’ editorial decisions" and “alter CNN’s editorial direction (not to mention meddle with HBO’s documentaries) to be more friendly to the [Trump] administration, threatening press freedom.” From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Komunitas lemmy.zip

Xbox Gaming CSO Pitches Ads in Games as "Affordable Alternative"

We recently reported that Xbox seems to be having some troubles, with significant layoffs and a 100-day plan on the cards to bring the ship around. Some of Microsoft’s issues include plummeting revenue, an affordability crisis, and low adoption rates. According to Xbox Gaming’s Chief Stragety Officer, Matthew Ball, ad-supported tiers may be one potential tool to help improve things at Xbox. In an interview with The Game Business, Ball addresses the rising costs of gaming, saying that “the costs have gone up way too high on development, and at the same point, everyone feels terrible with prices going up on hardware or software or microtransactions. That is a challenge. It’s not good if that is the only option.” He goes on to compare it to streaming, noting that the vast majority of new streaming subscriptions in recent years have been on supported subscription tiers. The comparison to ad-supported streaming services suggests Ball is mostly talking about services like Xbox Game Pass, where there have been rumors of ad-supported tiers, or potentially even steeper subsidies for console hardware—an area Xbox is leaning into more and more since Asha Sharma took over as CEO in early 2026.

Komunitas lemmy.world

TheOnlyMego

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Komunitas poliversity.it

When the Open Social Web Hybridizes: Raccoon for Friendica is a new app... Mastodon. And it even has a little Lemmy in it! That's why the Free Software + Fediverse duo is such a valuable resource.

When the Open Social Web Hybridizes: Raccoon for Friendica is a new app… Mastodon. And it even has a little Lemmy in it! That’s why the Free Software + Fediverse duo is such a valuable resource. @fediverse Raccoon 1.0 was finally released for Android in recent days, a rather innovative client originally created for #Friendica, but which has now become one of the most innovative apps for the user experience on #Mastodon. The app is available for Android (already on the Play Store and Izzidroid, and will soon be available on F-Droid), but a #Debian package has also been released. An iOS version remains to be seen for its success. The app introduces some very important innovations to the federated app landscape. 1. Navigate the Fediverse from an app, even without creating an account Raccoon is the only app that lets you browse the Fediverse even without an account. When you install it, you can select any Friendica or Mastodon instance and “leverage” its local public and federated timelines. This way, users can explore multiple instances before choosing which one to open an account on. Of course, even after adding an account (the app manages multiple accounts), you can browse the timelines of servers other than the one you signed up to. 2. “Browse through” messages: “swipe” navigation Unlike all other social apps (both those for the Fediverse and those for commercial social networks), #RaccoonForFriendica lets you open a post in your timeline and continue browsing through previous and next posts by simply swiping left and right. This is a truly interesting ergonomic innovation. 3. Finally a formatting bar in social apps Since the app was created for Friendica, it features a built-in formatting toolbar reminiscent of Lemmy clients (in fact, the developer @janTeko first experimented with app development with a Lemmy app). The formatting toolbar can also be used for Mastodon instances running the Glitch-soc fork, such as infosec.exchange, tech.lgbt, and my poliversity.it instance, which was the one the developer experimented with. In addition to being more immediate, writing formatted posts is also made easier by a “preview” function that helps avoid errors in Markdown or BBCode coding. 4. Finally, Mastodon users will be able to enjoy Fediverse groups too. As you may know, Mastodon doesn’t support the display of group posts. Even if you select a group, you’ll still see a single timeline where top posts alternate with replies. Searching for a thread on Mastodon is therefore very complicated, but the #Raccoon developer has found a way to enable “topic” viewing across all accounts that are “activitypub groups,” be they #Lemmy, #NodeBB, Piefed, Mbin, Peertube, Wordpress, Mobilizon, Flipboard, etc. This idea also came about thanks to the fact that the developer had previously tried his hand at developing an app for Lemmy and was able to experiment with the formatting bars and display of Lemmy “communities,” which are nothing other than “#activitypub groups.” 5. Other interesting features Among other features, you can view the HTML code of messages; send scheduled posts; fully configure the interface; support for writing in HTML, useful both for Mastodon Glitch-soc and for writing WordPress posts by integrating the plugin “Activitypub for Wordpress” from @pfefferle and the “Enable Mastodon App” plugin from @alex integrate translation libraries 6. What’s still missing? The app features all the features found in most other Mastodon apps, except one: the correct handling of Mastodon posts that quote other posts. These are still displayed in a fairly primitive way. The developer is trying to decide whether to adapt to Mastodon specifications or reinterpret the feature in a more personalized way. It must be said that, unfortunately, the implementation of quoted messages (already present in Friendica for ages) was implemented by Mastodon very late, only in recent months, and in a very “personal” way that many other software developers did not appreciate. 7. Raccoon is an app that will benefit users who already use Mastodon but also those who have never “tried” the Fediverse This app has been under development for almost two years, and the beta version is just over a year old. However, version 1.0 has resolved all previously encountered issues. Based on user feedback, the developer will evaluate whether to create an iOS version and even a Windows version. Anyone who wishes to allow reporting of application errors can enable anonymous crash reports. 8. Links and Resources This is the developer’s profile: https://androiddev.social/users/janTeko This is the app repository: https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/ This is the Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livefast.eattrash.raccoonforfriendica This is the link on IzzyDroid (the app will be released on F-Droid soon, but is currently under review): https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.livefast.eattrash.raccoonforfriendica Here is the developer’s blog: https://livefasteattrashraccoon.github.io/blog/ Finally, from here you can download the .apk or .deb package without using the online stores. line: https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/releases/latest/ One last recommendation The public’s response will be important to enable the further development of this app. If you want to test it on Mastodon, I recommend using instances running the glitch-soc fork. Among these, I’d recommend the infosec.exchange instance, which is well managed by @jerry. And of course, but only if you communicate in Italian or Esperanto, I’d be happy to host you on my poliversity.it instance. Regarding Friendica, I recommend two instances: friendica.world, managed by @ruud and featuring a rather lively timeline, and, of course, social.trom.tf, excellently managed by @tio. If you communicate in Italian, I’d be happy to host you on my poliverso.org instance. Greetings to all and let me know if you need further information, if you have tried the app and how you found it. Francesco You can also interact with me through the Mastodon account @informapirata and the Friendica account @notizie

Komunitas sh.itjust.works

Life in your 30s

No, I must disagree. Most of my friends are right in the centre. Many are starting families, but are also working on careers and are well intentioned gym goers who I speak to less and less because life is too busy.

Komunitas lemmy.world

bmcgonag

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Komunitas lemmy.world

The Daily Check-in for Saturday June 13th - Just For Today, We are NOT Drinking!

Good morning, fellow sobernauts, IWNDWYT, 😁! We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we’re here together! Welcome to the 24 hour pledge! I’m pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same. Maybe you’re new to c/stop drinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you’re like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you’ve been sober for a long time and want to inspire others. It doesn’t matter if you’re still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, let’s not drink alcohol!

Komunitas hexbear.net

It's that time again: I'm having trouble imagining humanity in it's current state as ever building a half decent society. My faith in humanity be running low

I definitely have those thoughts but then I go around and end up meeting random strangers who are so nice and I remember how everywhere I’ve ever been there are really nice people who are willing to go out of their way to help people. There are certainly way too many people who are really against good and maybe you’ve found yourself physically located in an area where they are highly concentrated but I promise it’s not even a majority of people, it’s just that the average nice person isn’t as visible because they are probably working some job they hate or doing chores or aren’t allowed to live in your area or something

Komunitas lemmy.world

EliteDragonX

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Komunitas lemmy.world

Shopworker sacked for tackling suspected bacon thief

No it’s not. What kind of hokey, pie-eyed, olde tyme colonial school child view of capitalism are you desperately holding onto? The customer gets charged the maximum they will pay, regardless of any other circumstance. You and I are going to get charged a certain amount regardless. Theft comes from their bottom line. If you don’t steal, you’re only giving more money to the rich.

Komunitas mander.xyz

Smeagol666

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Komunitas lemmy.world

‘This is oligarchy’: Nearly 100 billionaires are funding Susan Collins’ reelection bid

I learned about the fuckin thing in grade school history in the goddamn rural Midwest. You’re just saying that most people are really stupid. You’ve got a big fuckin blind spot for fascist imagery and it’s got you doing nazi apologism. Ignorance isn’t a goddamn excuse in a lot of situations and this is one of them. Nobody accidentally gets a nazi tattoo because it’s not fuckin easy to find a tattoo shop that tolerates nazi imagery in the first place and the ones that do are fuckin nazi shops. Ignorance does not get to be an excuse for tattooing a goddamn death’s head on you. No. If you knew anything about tattoo culture you’d know him getting in the first place very nearly guarantees he knew what it was. I’d still prefer him over Susan Collins but he’s either lying or really fucking dumb and these are the only two options. Or he was forced to join a prison gang, so I guess three options but I’m pretty sure it’s not the third. It is impossible to accidentally get a nazi tattoo.

Komunitas sopuli.xyz

enchantedgoldapple

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Komunitas lemmy.world

BigGovernment

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Komunitas sh.itjust.works

Music education: thoughts and experiences?

I’ve struggled to be musical all my life–took lessons, took college classes, did ear training, etc. I think I finally cracked the code, and it’s surprisingly simple: Learn to play melodies by ear (starts with singing) Learn only enough theory to: know your way around your instrument (scales, arpeggios) understand chords understand song structure Experiment (ie have fun!) The most anal formal exercise I’d recommend is learning to hear relative scale degrees (two very good apps available for that)–though I think that skill would be developed by transcribing (playing by ear), it’s helpful for your confidence level to have graded exercises you can have some success with. But my experience with most of my music teachers is they fall into one of two traps: For classical music, it’s: Learn how to translate written notes into notes on your instrument. Go to 1. For instance: I was taking clarinet lessons and I remember my teacher saying goodbye to his last student–a kid–and the teacher said, “If you bring me the sheet music for it, we can learn to play it.” And I thought what a missed opportunity that was for that girl to learn to hear and transcribe music–obviously not a skill he thought was important to the teacher at all. And I’d understand now wanting to do that for piano, which is really complicated, but learning to play a melody by ear on a single note instrument is a very achievable goal, especially when you have someone that can tell you what key it’s in and what the first note is. The trap for jazz music is: Learn what are the “right” notes to play. Play them in any random order. I used to blame teachers for just being bad at their jobs, but I think students (and maybe parents/administrators) are also to blame. I ran across a senior guy who was trying to get back into piano. He’d played for a few years and it was clear he had no idea of how to be musical–no idea of how to construct a simple bass line, no knowledge of how to define a chord. So I said, “Hey, I’ll work with you even though I don’t play piano, I think you need to learn this song and just play the root and the five in the left hand, and sing the melody while you play, and use a metronome.” What an amazing exercise I thought: it would help teach him timing, develop his ear, develop his feel, let him be expressive with his voice, let him embody the melody, lear to work the bass, etc. Aren’t I brilliant teacher? You know what this guy did? He pulled out his phone to show me some recordings he did of him playing the song the way his music teacher had written it out for him; it was what I expected–just haltingly reading the music with no sense of time. I wasn’t sure, but I think he wanted me to praise him for playing such a complex piece. For him, and maybe for a lot of students (and certainly for parents and administrators), they don’t actually want to master music, they want to impress people. And maybe for the musically disinclined, haltingly playing a complex written piece is more impressive than a 2-note bassline in time with an expressive voiceline sensitive to dynamic; since most people in charge of music education (parents and school administrators) don’t know music, maybe they would promote a teacher who taught the former and fire a teacher who taught the latter… For jazz programs, I think they’ve got a lot of theory they’ve got to cram into the kids heads, and we can learn theory a lot faster than we can develop musically, so if you’re going to be judged on “performance” of your students, you’ll be rewarded for having them be able to pass essentially paper exams set to music more than for having them skillfully play pentatonic blues. I don’t know what the answer is, but for some reason, actually mastering music is very low on the list for both teachers and students. What’s all y’all’s experience with music and music education?