Art vs. Nature / Mistletoe / Intonation

March 01, 2006, 03:57 pm

When I was in the seventh grade, we had to take these state-wide tests and one part of the test involved reading an article about something and writing a short essay answer in reponse to a question about the article.

One of the articles I had to read was someone arguing that “Nature immitates art because until an artist depicts something in nature, since no one is aware of it, it doesn't exist.” I could be totally wrong or misread or something, since I was a seventh grader and definitely didn't really care. I'm sure I responded with some smartass comment.

One year ago, mistletoe did not have a significant presence in my world. Oh sure, I knew that it existed and that should you find yourself under some around Christmastime, you might have to do some kissin'. But I really didn't know what it looked like or where it grew or anything about it.

Maybe six or eight months ago, Nickie pointed out some mistletoe to me. I think we were out for a walk in the Summer and she showed me where it was growing at the top of some tree. Since then, I've seen it probably every day. It's all over the place here! I see hundreds of mistletoe plants in trees on the way to work, in our neighborhood, when I'm driving anyplace... That shit is ubiquitous!

Around the same time, I heard Sam Cooke for the first time. I'm sure I'd heard him before (probably Wonderful World), but I'd never really listened. Since then I've been listening to it a lot, and now I hear intonation way better than I have (of course, just hearing pitch better doesn't mean you can actually sing in pitch better, as there's the other part of the problem, controlling your voice to hit the note, blah blah blah... listen to me preach to the choir).

So my world has been turned upside-down. Everywhere I go, I see these damn vampire plants. In all the music that I listen to, I'm noticing how out of tune people are. It's not really bothering me, but I'm just noticing... like, “c'mon, are you ever going to stop being flat and just hit the note?”

I imagine it might be annoying for people with perfect pitch. I'd bet that some might purposely avoid music and avoid being a musician (or even being around musicians) in attempts to avoid poor intonation.

I'm glad that I'm hearing better. If I'm going to be singing or playing slide guitar or singing saw or a string instrument or anything that requires constant attention to intonation, I'd rather be able to hear it than not.