Mentally Oddcast Transcript: Roger Humphrey
Audio version of this podcast can be found here.
Vist our guest at Roger Humphrey dot com.
00:00:00.75
wednesdayleefriday
Hi friends, you are listening to The Mentally Oddcast brought to you by sometimes hilarious horror. My name is Wednesday Lee Friday and this week we have Roger Humphrey who is a guitarist and a music educator, a veteran and a dad.
00:00:17.05
wednesdayleefriday
He is a firm believer in the power of music to heal, and he's been teaching private guitar lessons for longer than I have been alive. Sorry, dude, you're even older than me. He's also a friend of mine from undergrad, which means he could probably dish on me if he wanted to, so I think I'll not give him a reason to do that. Hi, Rog. Thanks for being here.
00:00:40.20
Roger Humphrey
Hey, Wednesday, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
00:00:42.59
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, it is my pleasure. um we ah We actually like to start the show by asking guests to tell the story of their first horror movie. So let's hear it.
00:00:56.68
Roger Humphrey
um ah Truthfully, um i when I was a kid, we didn't go to horror movies at the movie house, but these all these old movies, ah so ah just the post silent era coming in from the 30s, they were replaying them on television, black and white back in the day when TV was in its infancy.
00:01:18.15
Roger Humphrey
And so I remember watching ah several, of you know, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, ah the original with Lon Chaney, which was a silent at the time and, you know, and and and
00:01:25.44
wednesdayleefriday
Okay.
00:01:31.39
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
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Roger Humphrey
music was added later so it's yeah so those are those are my earliest ones and then of course um three Stooges meet Frankenstein ah had had to toss that one in there yeah so oh
00:01:49.69
wednesdayleefriday
Well, there's all those great Abbott and Costello movies where they be meeting, you know, the universal monsters.
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Roger Humphrey
yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:01:56.53
wednesdayleefriday
It's so fun. um but So you actually mentioned the the old universal stuff, Frankenstein and and so forth. Music played such a big part in that.
00:02:08.64
wednesdayleefriday
Now, I was actually shocked like as a teenager when I found out
00:02:09.10
Roger Humphrey
Oh, yeah.
00:02:12.62
wednesdayleefriday
that when Dracula was shown in theaters, there was literally an orchestra like playing music along with the movies.
00:02:17.02
Roger Humphrey
Oh, yeah.
00:02:19.32
wednesdayleefriday
That's just fascinating.
00:02:20.71
Roger Humphrey
and there were there were And they they had in in in the smaller in the smaller movie houses, most of the towns had one, but they would have a local pianist come in and the scores would be sent ahead and the pianist would sight read a lot of that stuff while the movie was playing.
00:02:20.88
wednesdayleefriday
um
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Roger Humphrey
They would have somebody, you know, Mrs. Johnson from Next Door come in and play and play the music to the to the movie for people.
00:02:44.29
wednesdayleefriday
That's so wild because, I mean, before the internet, even more so than now, there are so many people walking around with just insane levels of talent and skill, and they just, you know, go on about their day like they don't deserve to be superstars.
00:02:58.09
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:03:00.14
wednesdayleefriday
um
00:03:02.50
Roger Humphrey
Well, I think ah one of the things that I've come across and is a number of people who their art is extraordinarily private. it is ah It is for them. you know And I have ah a fun story. I had a young boy who started taking lessons with me when he was seven. And he was a very talented, very motivated young student. He was really good at it.
00:03:28.88
Roger Humphrey
and And he was about 16 or so, and like I talked to his mom about it. He was very quiet. He was he wasn't he he wasn't a talker. Some kids really and really talk, but he never did. He wouldn't say two words to me in a half an hour. He'd smile a lot, not a lot, but he wouldn't speak a lot. And so anyway, um his his parents used to complain that they never heard him play. He'd go to his room and close the door, and they'd have to put their ear to the door to hear him play.
00:03:58.17
Roger Humphrey
Um, so one day I get a new student and he's about the same age and I find out he goes to the same school. I said, I got a student that goes to your school. Uh, do you know?
00:04:08.68
Roger Humphrey
And I mentioned his name and his kid looked at him me and he says, do I know him? He says, he's been like my best friend for the last eight years. And he says, he plays guitar and he had no idea.
00:04:16.93
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
00:04:19.78
Roger Humphrey
I mean, he had absolutely no idea. And, and, uh, so. I had to apologize to my students. I said, I outed you, dude. I didn't mean to. you know And I'll try not to do that again. you know but But yeah, with a lot of people, the music is something that they do for themselves.
00:04:43.09
Roger Humphrey
uh and the people closest to them may know that they do it but they minute it's entirely possible that they'll never hear them play or and a lot of them sing uh and and they just don't want anybody else to hear them sing public speaking is one of those things that scares the daylights out of people public singing will actually actually put them in a casket i mean it's just they they are absolutely terrified of it so
00:05:03.97
wednesdayleefriday
Oh my goodness. Yeah.
00:05:09.07
Roger Humphrey
they enjoy it and they'll go home and I'll close the bedroom door and it's their moment. It's also and and I kind of equate it in this way to to fishing and as a friend of mine used to say if you've got a a fishing pole in your hand and you're sitting in the middle of the lake it's a license to be left alone.
00:05:27.66
Roger Humphrey
And I think if if you're practicing music very often it's the same thing. i I'm going to go practice my guitar now and I go in or violin or whatever instrument you're playing and you go in and is it is a license to be left the heck alone. Just leave me alone, give me give me my time and and then we'll go forward from there.
00:05:45.18
wednesdayleefriday
Wow. See, that blows my mind because as a writer, I get very wrapped up in this culture that the validity of what you do is based predominantly on who is paying attention to it and how much money you're making at it. And what you have said is very much the antithesis of it, and I love it.
00:06:07.97
Roger Humphrey
Well, see, antithesis for me, because when I was a kid, um you know when I first started hearing music and I would see see musicians on television, I wanted to be them.
00:06:19.49
Roger Humphrey
That's what I wanted to do when I grew up.
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wednesdayleefriday
Mm-hmm.
00:06:21.28
Roger Humphrey
And and I felt that way. I asked for a guitar for Christmas for three years before I finally got one.
00:06:23.95
wednesdayleefriday
Oh wow!
00:06:27.19
Roger Humphrey
And I ultimately got one. Took lessons for about six months, and the guy fired me. My teacher fired me. Because I was really a terrible student. I didn't i don't like the structure of of taking the lessons.
00:06:39.86
Roger Humphrey
I love the structure of giving them, but I don't like the structure of taking them. I'm a terrible student. Sort of like doctors make the worst patients.
00:06:46.09
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
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Roger Humphrey
ah same you know A different page on the same book. So anyway, um
00:06:55.64
Roger Humphrey
I got this guitar and and and I was learning how to strum and sing. I wanted to be a singer when I grew up. And and and and so that's kind of what I wanted to do. and yeah know And I wanted people to look at me.
00:07:07.21
Roger Humphrey
I mean, that's you know kind of part of it. It's like, look at me, look at me, look what I can do.
00:07:09.36
wednesdayleefriday
Mmhmm.
00:07:10.46
Roger Humphrey
I want to play this song for you. Let me sing this song for you. And when I got students who didn't want anything to do with that at all, they didn't even want people to know that they played, it just absolutely fried my circuits. I mean, I thought, holy mackerel, i just like why are you even doing it? It took me a while to get my head around the fact that they do it. They do it for themselves. um and And I had an adult student who was just coming out of a divorce and he was taking lessons from me. and And he said, for him, he practiced every night for 30 to 40 minutes.
00:07:45.07
Roger Humphrey
And he said he said, I come right home from work. He lived alone, had his own apartment, lived alone. He says, I come home from work, and I walk into my bedroom, and I sit down, and I practice for 30 or 40 minutes.
00:07:56.36
Roger Humphrey
And he says, and that takes the place of stopping for a few beers after work.
00:08:01.71
wednesdayleefriday
Okay, yeah.
00:08:02.61
Roger Humphrey
He says, And he says, I can go in, I can practice guitar, and I don't care who's in my rear room mirror. so and
00:08:09.12
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
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Roger Humphrey
and
00:08:10.20
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:08:10.26
Roger Humphrey
and so And so anyway, that was his buffer between work and and home. And and he he said to me one day, he says, I didn't realize. how important that moment was to me. He says, until a couple of days ago, I came home from work and he says, and my girlfriend was there. She had let herself in and he says, and she was cooking supper. And so I said, what are you doing? She said, well, I thought I'd surprise you. Fix you me a moment. And he says, and it pissed me off.
00:08:37.95
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:08:38.70
Roger Humphrey
And he says, stay right there. He says, I'll be back in a while. And he says, I disappeared in the bedroom and had my guitar. And then I came back. I was able to enjoy her company. i he says yeah He says, that surprised me.
00:08:47.97
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:08:49.86
Roger Humphrey
He says, but I was a little put out by that. Like, how dare you interfere with my guitar time?
00:08:55.98
wednesdayleefriday
Wow, that is neat. I mean, I don't think I'd want to be the girlfriend in that situation, but I'm really not one for surprises. um You know, it, it's interesting because like to me, I've tried to play a few instruments and because I felt that I had no natural talent, it, uh, Oh, wow. Um, it didn't, uh, it didn't seem worth the the time and the effort to put it in knowing that I would never be great at it. And if I was going to do it, my, like I used to work at, at char, I worked at char for like five years selling violins and, uh,
00:09:37.23
wednesdayleefriday
First my my dream was like I'm gonna learn how to play a simple song like something a a seven-year-old would play and I would play it in front of people to show my mastery of this instrument and I didn't even get that far.
00:09:50.71
wednesdayleefriday
um And it occurs to me when you talk about people learning to play an instrument and keeping it just for themselves. Like, I do do that with ah with singing.
00:10:01.64
wednesdayleefriday
I sing all the time around the apartment. I when I had cats, I was always making up little songs about my cats. You know, real professional stuff. But the thing is, I love it.
00:10:10.67
Roger Humphrey
Of course.
00:10:12.71
wednesdayleefriday
And it feels great to like pretend to be a singer. But the idea of getting up on stage and actually singing, I think I would faint if if I actually had to do such a thing.
00:10:25.23
Roger Humphrey
Well, I think we have to draw a distinction here because um what you're talking about is learning how to perform. And for a lot of my students, it's not it's not about the performance. um it's they they They set these little goals and achieve them. But for them, it is the act of taking the lesson. It's the lesson itself. it's It's this doing something extra, achieving a goal and moving on. And to be very honest with you, a lot of my students, not all, but but most of my students, they'll work really hard to learn a song.
00:10:58.94
Roger Humphrey
And I can ask them three weeks later to play that song, and they can't hardly make it. They can't hardly make it through the first part of it. um It's big because they practice it, achieve it, move on to the next song.
00:11:04.36
wednesdayleefriday
Oh wow!
00:11:09.31
Roger Humphrey
And it's like people who put together a jigsaw puzzle and they'll spend weeks putting together jigsaw puzzle, look at it for about 10 minutes, bust it all apart, put it back in the box and and put the box in the closet, you know.
00:11:19.57
Roger Humphrey
And it's so it's the it's the it's the act of putting it together. it's it's It's that that they they're addicted to the process, not so much to the results. And and so they they play music not to be performers, not to impress anybody. And it took me keep in mind, i I was a long time figuring that out.
00:11:43.01
Roger Humphrey
But they they really, really, it's the process that they enjoy. and and and they enjoy and for And for most of them, thank God, they enjoy coming in and hanging out with me for a half an hour. and and but And a lot of times I think that's it. I mean, particularly with the children, ah but even with the adults, they will come in and and spend time with me. ah But they very obviously haven't practiced for weeks.
00:12:10.15
Roger Humphrey
yeah The only practice they do is when they come in and sit in front of me and I make them play. But they but but it's the process.
00:12:16.47
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
00:12:17.99
Roger Humphrey
They enjoy that. um
00:12:19.82
wednesdayleefriday
So I get that being a theater person that like you build this thing, you learn all your lines, you get up there, you do it. And then at the end of the performance is strike. So everybody who was involved goes in and just tears it the hell down and gets ready for the next thing.
00:12:34.76
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:12:35.21
wednesdayleefriday
But it seems like when I talk to people, ah from my theater days, we can still recite most of that stuff. you know um
00:12:45.91
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, but...
00:12:48.24
wednesdayleefriday
But I guess, I guess it's different with music because there's like some muscle memory involved, but not, I mean, I don't know.
00:12:48.22
Roger Humphrey
but
00:12:54.16
wednesdayleefriday
Is that, is that one of those disciplines where there comes a point where you're just not thinking about what you're doing anymore and it just becomes like a ah natural thing or is there always that sense of like the technical aspects?
00:13:07.73
Roger Humphrey
Well, there's the technical aspects are are there. you you try to get to a point The more you focus on the technical aspect, the less you can focus on the artistic. So the idea is to get it good enough so that you can kind of cruise from one section to another and focus primarily on ah your expression and and your your artistry and not not worried about, you know, there's always going to be a moment, you know, where there's just just some sort of a booger in there somewhere that you got to contend with. But but um ah a lot of muscle memory, a lot of hours go into playing up a simple piece. And and that's the part that people don't understand. I used to joke
00:13:49.76
Roger Humphrey
um when I when I used to do weddings and people would just make unbelievable demands and I'm sort of like well he's a classical guitar so he can play anything at the drop of a hat I was like well no given enough time maybe you know and and uh but and and I used to tell people I said you know the
00:14:01.55
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:14:11.35
Roger Humphrey
The thing about what we do ah in this particular case is that that we practice really hard and we work really hard to make it look easy. yeah And and so and it's and it's I think it's in theaters like that.
00:14:21.56
wednesdayleefriday
Okay. Yep.
00:14:26.31
Roger Humphrey
I mean, you get up there and you rehearse like a maniac for weeks putting it together. And people think that you just read the script Tuesday afternoon and was walked on walked on stage Friday night. you know and and yeah And obviously it doesn't work that way.
00:14:36.24
wednesdayleefriday
Yep. Yep.
00:14:39.48
Roger Humphrey
And I think people understand that at an intellectual level, but deep down inside they sort of feel it that way anyway. um and And they give too much credit to talent.
00:14:50.91
Roger Humphrey
Oh, I wish I was talented.
00:14:52.68
wednesdayleefriday
Natural talent.
00:14:52.80
Roger Humphrey
God, I wish I was naturally talented.
00:14:53.60
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah.
00:14:56.37
Roger Humphrey
I work my buns off. I really do.
00:15:01.06
wednesdayleefriday
Well, that's the thing is even if you have natural talent, if you don't do anything to hone it, then I mean, i I would say honestly, I think I have a natural talent for writing.
00:15:01.13
Roger Humphrey
yeah
00:15:12.48
wednesdayleefriday
But I'm a better writer now than I was 30 years ago because I learned things and I practiced and I read and read and read. So I have to think music is similar, that even if you have some natural talent, there's always going to be a difference between people that learn and grow and develop and expose yourself to different styles. Because that's really super important. Because if you're not um like if you're just listening to what you like, there's going to be kind of a ah sameness to everything.
00:15:42.32
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:15:42.42
wednesdayleefriday
so and And that's I think that's even more true in music than it is in literature because I'll hear something that I've never heard before watching like I don't know the Eurovision song contest or something it'd just be like wow That is so contrary to what we're doing here.
00:15:59.49
wednesdayleefriday
Why didn't I know about this?
00:15:59.48
Roger Humphrey
Right. Right, right. there's and And that's the problem. with They started this, radio stations started this in the 70s. They started pigeonholing everything.
00:16:11.83
wednesdayleefriday
Mm-hmm
00:16:12.19
Roger Humphrey
I grew up with listening to radio stations and and you would have, in our case, we had just one local radio station, a local radio station, and a couple that were a little farther away, but they all had the same basic format, which is we'll do yeah We'll do the farm report. It's like WKARP.
00:16:29.25
Roger Humphrey
it are not to be k r wk r p And since the old TV show, they would do the farm report and then then they might, you know, on on on Friday nights, they might do an hour worth of pokers and they might, you know, and you'd get some Bing Crosby and and some big band stuff other times.
00:16:32.44
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:16:45.68
Roger Humphrey
and you'd get I can remember now for the kids, this is our rock and roll hour. you know and and so now and um And so you would get a little bit of everything and and we would get exposed as consumers to a little bit of everything.
00:16:52.05
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:16:59.83
Roger Humphrey
um and And then they started formatting these radio stations and it's and they've got them formatted down to you know like, but we only play songs with seven notes.
00:17:06.61
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:17:13.07
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:17:13.08
Roger Humphrey
second
00:17:14.50
wednesdayleefriday
Well, but I mean, they are so separated by genre.
00:17:17.50
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, right.
00:17:17.75
wednesdayleefriday
And I remember that, that starting like, you know, when I was in like junior high, maybe, so I guess that would have been late seventies, early eighties, that if you wanted, you know, rap music, you would listen to WJLB.
00:17:29.75
wednesdayleefriday
But if you wanted rock and roll, then you'd like listen to wheels or riff or whatever. and And, you know, then top 40 was like a different thing.
00:17:33.83
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:17:37.05
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:17:37.77
wednesdayleefriday
So you knew what you were going to get when you turned on a different station.
00:17:42.44
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:17:43.15
wednesdayleefriday
Whereas there really wasn't. And the thing is MTV could have been amazing at that. Just amazing at like introducing people to music from all over the world.
00:17:54.90
wednesdayleefriday
But they did, they made an American MTV and then they made separate MTV's for all the different, you know, there's, you know, Spanish and Italian and, you know, whatever, a bunch of different MTV's. But there were these opportunities to give people music from everywhere. And they all said, well, no, because we'll probably make more money if we brand it this way. And, you know, just overbranding everything. The same thing happened with movies.
00:18:21.68
wednesdayleefriday
And then it eventually changed because when there were video stores, you had to put all the movies into different categories and there was, you know, you had one category for a movie.
00:18:31.90
wednesdayleefriday
So you had to decide whether Jaws went in horror or action. You had to decide whether Alien was a a drama or or a sci-fi or, you know, and yeah we don't have to do that now because of streaming.
00:18:41.68
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:18:44.47
wednesdayleefriday
Because of streaming, everything is wherever you want it to be.
00:18:44.92
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:18:48.33
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, and and we have this situation with with streaming music that people create playlists now. So if you follow a particular curator, ah you can find just all kinds of stuff that's going to kind of push your buttons. And and and I'm sure there's somebody out there who's who's curating and putting in just everything but the kitchen sink. It's like, you know, just call it slumgullion.
00:19:14.41
Roger Humphrey
it's you know it's it you know it's like you know you poke a one minute and and and Tejano the next I mean uh and you know I mean I remember in high school we listened the music that we listened to on the radio that was popular back then.
00:19:27.87
Roger Humphrey
I mean, yes, that we had the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all that kind of stuff, but there was a lot of other stuff. We had ah ah a song that was very popular called Dominique, and and it was sung, but but it was it was French nuns that sang it, and they had a huge hit with it.
00:19:37.90
wednesdayleefriday
The French song?
00:19:42.30
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah, yep.
00:19:43.95
Roger Humphrey
Another one called Sukiyaki. I don't know who came up with that name because I'm sure this wasn't the original name, but the singer was Japanese, and he sung it in Japanese. and and it was one of these you know uh you know kind of japanese version of a country song you know she done left me and and and that kind of thing and but it was all sung in japanese and yeah and it was a huge hit nobody knew what the heck he was saying but they liked the way he said it
00:20:10.83
wednesdayleefriday
hu
00:20:11.87
Roger Humphrey
and And so, you know, and if you take a look at a lot of the music, like Tom Jones or Ray Charles were singing during the 60s, they were dipping their toe into the country music big time.
00:20:24.81
Roger Humphrey
Even the Beatles sang a buck going song. You know, so I mean, people were going across genres because they what they cared about was whether or not it was a good song. They didn't care about anything else.
00:20:33.72
wednesdayleefriday
Yes.
00:20:35.23
Roger Humphrey
it was Is this a good song? Today it's you know, is it a good rap song? Is it a good country song? Is it a good whatever song and Yeah in the country
00:20:43.85
wednesdayleefriday
Well, do you feel like people are more protective of genre than they used to be? Because I know that now when artists crossover, particularly black artists crossover, they get pushback on it.
00:20:56.28
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah. and And I don't get it because first of all, cowboys, we're not white. Like, I don't know who these people are that think that white guys are out, you know.
00:21:02.22
Roger Humphrey
Well, no, it's it no no it's it's it's no it's it's it's not it's not a his historic thing. but it's i Yeah, i don't I don't get it either, but I mean, there it is. um My protective probably, but but I think part of it is that to take okay I used to listen to music because I love music.
00:21:26.51
Roger Humphrey
and and and it was just ah And there were certain songs I liked and certain songs I didn't like. And I feel the same way about classical music today. Classical is not the only thing I listen to, but i it it takes up a ah large percentage of my my listening.
00:21:39.44
Roger Humphrey
and And, but, you know, classical music goes back like 500 years and and there's a lot of that stuff that I wouldn't give you a nickel for a basket full of it. and And so I, so am I protective of the genre? I don't know, maybe a little bit. I do like the older stuff more than, I mean, but there's new stuff being written every day.
00:21:59.83
Roger Humphrey
That's classical. um So the question is, yeah do I like it? Well, you know, it depends on the song.
00:22:04.87
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
00:22:05.18
Roger Humphrey
I go right. That's the way I was raised. You know, play the song for me. I'll let you know if I like it or not. um and and And people talk about all this music by this composer, that composer.
00:22:15.95
Roger Humphrey
It's like, yeah. You know, let's not get into that. I mean, I'm a big Beatles fans, but, you know, I go back to some of the older, album well, all our albums are older, but go back to one of the albums and listen, re-listen. And there are songs on there that I just can't wait till they're over till I can get to the good one.
00:22:29.65
Roger Humphrey
I mean, yeah. Yeah.
00:22:31.78
wednesdayleefriday
Well, you know, i I think that when I watched the Twilight Zone, because Twilight Zone is remembered for being one of the greatest shows in the history of television.
00:22:35.57
Roger Humphrey
Yeah.
00:22:40.13
wednesdayleefriday
And it is for about half the episodes and the other half are like, come on, Rod, get on with it.
00:22:45.43
Roger Humphrey
yeah
00:22:49.56
Roger Humphrey
Well, and yeah, and so I think people will mistakenly wrap their self-identity into the the crap that the, and we'll stay with country music for a moment, you know, there there is this this, you know, I wear plaid and I you know and like i like to go hunting, so therefore I'm a country music fan, you know, and it's like, really? just you know But they but they they wrap their self-identity up in this music.
00:23:19.26
Roger Humphrey
and And they'll dress accordingly, and they'll talk accordingly, and they'll even drink the proper beer.
00:23:21.50
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
00:23:26.20
Roger Humphrey
And I'm like, dude, really? yeah Just listen to the music and and get on with it. you know my father My father, as I was growing up, my father was a big Lawrence Welk fan, um and Lawrence Welk Show played in our house every week when it came on.
00:23:41.64
Roger Humphrey
And a typical teenage kid, particularly in my mid teens, I was just like gagging. Oh, Lawrence Welk.
00:23:49.12
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:23:50.81
Roger Humphrey
And I still go back.
00:23:51.06
wednesdayleefriday
Well, there's a bunch of old people standing around singing and then they were like bubbles everywhere for some reason.
00:23:57.02
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, well, that was the champagne sound. The champagne sounds of Lawrence Welk. Yeah. and And we could make fun of it. my man My dad made a comment, though. And keeping in mind, my dad came up with the big bands.
00:24:08.99
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
00:24:09.37
Roger Humphrey
That was his music growing up.
00:24:11.17
wednesdayleefriday
OK.
00:24:11.39
Roger Humphrey
And Lawrence Walt was, along with Guy Lombardo, kind of like the last of the big band, big the original big bands. And dad said, you know, he said, Lawrence Walt has some of the finest musicians in the world playing for him, and which is true. And he said, and said they he has his signature champagne sound.
00:24:34.54
Roger Humphrey
But he said he can imitate every other band that ever was. He can do a Dorsey song, he can do an Ellington song, he can go right down the line, and that band is good enough to cut it all the way across. And so the idea that that band could, you know, and then of course Myron Florin and they bring out the accordion and do a couple of pokers and things like that.
00:24:55.43
Roger Humphrey
But it the idea that that band had that kind of diversity made an impression on me. I thought, yeah, it's pretty cool. you know It's not necessarily what I want to do. But it gave me a new respect for the fact that this is what they wanted. And I realized that there were people like my father who recognized that skill um and and and were able to say, yeah, this Lawrence Welk stuff. Now, I go back and watch some of the old episodes now, bits and pieces of them on YouTube. And I'm still gagging.
00:25:25.38
Roger Humphrey
But so, I mean, I draw a line between or and there's to me in my mind, there's a difference between liking it and respecting it. I can respect it, but I don't like it very much.
00:25:36.86
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, sure, sure. I mean, that's kind of my take on country music in general, but that's certainly country is not the only genre that becomes, especially for teenagers, like a source of identity.
00:25:42.64
Roger Humphrey
Yeah.
00:25:48.99
wednesdayleefriday
I mean, hip hop is like that. Emo music is like that.
00:25:50.77
Roger Humphrey
yeah
00:25:52.19
wednesdayleefriday
Grunge was was definitely like that for a while.
00:25:52.23
Roger Humphrey
Right.
00:25:54.93
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, K-pop.
00:25:55.28
wednesdayleefriday
Um, yeah, yeah, definitely. And I mean, on the one hand, if it's helping you figure out what you like, and it makes you feel happy, like, especially again, as a, as a teenager, go for it, kid. Get into that music, make it part of your life. Let it be your philosophy. If that's what speaks to you.
00:26:17.47
wednesdayleefriday
But, you know, but also branch out. Don't don't close yourself off to other things just because you're into this one thing and you really like it. um It's interesting because when you talk about people that can play like any genre, the first person that comes to my mind is is Weird Al Yankovic and and his band, you know, John from Rita Schwartz and all those guys.
00:26:36.25
Roger Humphrey
Oh yeah No, i I haven't.
00:26:39.56
wednesdayleefriday
um And it's so it's funny because comedy is is one of those genres of of anything, not just music, where people think of it as being simple and less technically proficient. And I mean, I don't know if you've ever heard the song Hardware Store by Weird Al. That is not an easy song to sing at all.
00:27:02.21
Roger Humphrey
But the songs that I have heard him do. I mean, he's he's a very talented guy, and he's got a very, very funny sense of humor. And that can ah can be a wicked combination. But there was there was a guy in the late 60s and early 70s named Jim Stafford.
00:27:17.12
Roger Humphrey
and And he was an amazing guitar player. He played a nylon string guitar, but he played and sang. But he was also just the funniest guy.
00:27:30.46
Roger Humphrey
And and i would I would, every once in a while, ill go back and watch his his clips again. And they they he did he did ah kind of a take on a cowboy kind of song.
00:27:45.57
Roger Humphrey
kind of taken off on Marty Robbins or something like that about it but a girl who was out seeking for revenge and and and in the Old West, and her name was Kyle Pattie.
00:27:59.41
Roger Humphrey
And of course, that's the play on the the concept of Kyle Pattie is just, you know, right?
00:28:02.84
wednesdayleefriday
right right
00:28:04.04
Roger Humphrey
you know So that, and he did another one called Wildwood Weed. And it was kind of set to wildwood flower. but ah But it was kind of a talking blues kind of thing.
00:28:19.72
Roger Humphrey
And he sang and spoke. But it was talk about you know the revenue was coming because I heard he was growing some some funny stuff and maybe bootlegging and all that kind of stuff.
00:28:27.78
wednesdayleefriday
Right, right.
00:28:30.65
Roger Humphrey
And so finally, they couldn't they couldn't find anything. and And he said, and the tagline, of course, was, you know, you know I said goodbye to him and they said goodbye to me as I was sitting on that bale of wild woodweed.
00:28:44.61
Roger Humphrey
and so And so he the stuff was timely. you know You kind of have to put yourself in that frame of mind, but it was very funny. But he was also an amazing guitar player.
00:28:55.82
Roger Humphrey
He did some stuff that was just scary good on the guitar. Jim Stafford, if you ever get a chance to check him out, just take take him in.
00:29:01.87
wednesdayleefriday
and Okay.
00:29:04.38
Roger Humphrey
But that was back in the days also. and that people went on stage with the idea that they were going to entertain. but you know and And entertainment was the goal in and of itself. And and so you see that you don't always see that now. I see artists, too many, not all, but too many artists who walk up on stage. um And it's sort of like, I got a hit song, so you need to worship me.
00:29:33.56
wednesdayleefriday
yeah ah Yeah, yeah, definitely.
00:29:33.89
Roger Humphrey
yeah Right? Right? and And it's all genres. I don't care who it is. ah My paparazzi was like that.
00:29:41.62
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:29:41.69
Roger Humphrey
yeah So so you you just can't point to any particular style. But ah but but yeah.
00:29:48.98
wednesdayleefriday
Cough, Kid Rock, cough. um yeah Well, I think, I think rapid particular, I know you just said you can't point to one particular style, but I think that some genres are more prone to grandiosity as performance, you know, and and I find that with, I find it more with men than with women, but even that's not necessarily true because, you know, Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, I mean, these these chicks, we have an attitude.
00:30:21.23
Roger Humphrey
So yeah, so it so it go back to those days and it was more about what can I what can i do for you? how can i How can I make you laugh or how can I make you cry?
00:30:31.03
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:30:31.39
Roger Humphrey
you how can i How can I move you? and and and and hence And it was it was more of along those lines. I think I've i've noticed one of my one of my secret little things that I do when nobody's watching is I like to watch reaction videos.
00:30:52.58
Roger Humphrey
on you know and people going back to the 50s and the 60s and the 70s, watching the videos from these old TV shows and such, are these people playing? And the first thing, there're they're stunned that these people can sing that well without auto tone.
00:31:08.86
Roger Humphrey
they're absolutely i mean they're they're they just they're in total amazement uh but also just the the i mean the number of people that i've seen getting excited about somebody like frank sonatra and that whole and the whole rat pack it's everything about that because uh i there's there's this one couple that i watch uh
00:31:09.20
wednesdayleefriday
Yes.
00:31:29.51
Roger Humphrey
and and he's you know And he was watching the Rat Pack and he he you know did a video. I forget what it was. and Maybe it was Dean Martin you know doing Everybody Loves Somebody or something. you know and or Or Frank Sinatra in one of his. But he said, he said he said if I could sing like that, I'd wear a tuxedo too.
00:31:51.61
Roger Humphrey
And his wife his wife says, if you could sing like that, I'd make you wear a tuxedo every day.
00:31:56.34
wednesdayleefriday
Right?
00:31:57.65
Roger Humphrey
you know but we got you know And this is this is on my generation. We got away from looking nice and started looking like crap on stage. We thought it was OK. And we never kind of never really got back to looking nice again.
00:32:10.24
Roger Humphrey
you know not and we got We got back to to costumes, but not necessarily dressing up.
00:32:11.19
wednesdayleefriday
yeah to To being in sharp, yeah.
00:32:15.81
Roger Humphrey
i mean i look at Yeah, yeah there's there's a difference between, I mean, I take a look at somebody, I'll call out Taylor Swift, for example, but she's not the owner.
00:32:26.18
Roger Humphrey
Lizzo, you mentioned her name. It's the same idea. What they wear on stage is certainly not. I mean, there's there's such a thing as stage clothing, and I get that, but but what they're wearing is just not even close to streetwear.
00:32:33.27
wednesdayleefriday
who
00:32:36.16
Roger Humphrey
It looks more like a bathing suit.
00:32:37.65
wednesdayleefriday
Right, right, you wouldn't go out in it.
00:32:39.41
Roger Humphrey
No, no, no, no. and hence And I understand it. I mean, from a technical standpoint, with all that they're doing on stage and the running around and all that kind of stuff and the size of these stages that they have to cover, I totally get that.
00:32:51.32
Roger Humphrey
You take a look at a smaller stage and something like Frank Sinatra, he wasn't covering, you know, 40 yards of plywood. I mean, you know, and so he he didn't have to run, you know, like, I mean, look at Mick Jagger today compared to, you know, look at Frank Sinatra.
00:32:58.38
wednesdayleefriday
and
00:33:07.52
wednesdayleefriday
Yep.
00:33:08.90
Roger Humphrey
and and And so he just didn't have that much acreage you know to to to deal with. so So that part I get, but nevertheless, you kind of miss those days. Sinatra just used to refer to himself as a saloon singer. and And he was right. I thought he was just being modest at the time and and and maybe a little silly, but I look back on it and I don't know. He really was a saloon singer. This is a guy that could sit down, and Tony Bennett's the same way, sit down with a piano player,
00:33:38.06
Roger Humphrey
and and and sing to a room of 150 people, you know, who were who were having drinks and and and do very well. it He just was lucky enough to be able to take that to a concert stage, but that's really all he was doing. and But they they really focused on entertainment and they and there was a certain style and people, you know, it's not style anymore, it's it's costuming, which is a different thing entirely.
00:34:04.60
wednesdayleefriday
It's interesting because I keep thinking, you know, who would really, really agree with you about all this is Seth MacFarlane. And I don't know if you know, but.
00:34:13.10
Roger Humphrey
yeah i think so Yeah, I know exactly who he is. Yeah, you're right, because he he he is really kind of a slave to that generation.
00:34:19.91
wednesdayleefriday
he yeah He loves like show tunes and like that kind of performance because he did that one episode where Brian and ah Frank Sinatra Jr.
00:34:30.02
wednesdayleefriday
opened a club and they they just go sing there. I don't know. Have have you heard his album? his his ah
00:34:35.87
Roger Humphrey
No, I knew he made it, but I haven't.
00:34:38.33
wednesdayleefriday
It is marvelous. I just, I love it so much. And it it's such a great example of what you're talking about. Just about someone modern bringing that style of music to contemporary ah people. And especially when you get like, kiss because of the show, you know, like Family Guy in particular,
00:34:58.63
wednesdayleefriday
people get exposed to that kind of music. So you have teenagers like wanting to sing barbershop all of a sudden because they saw it on Family Guy.
00:35:07.53
Roger Humphrey
but
00:35:07.75
wednesdayleefriday
And that is just delightful. I love that so much.
00:35:09.84
Roger Humphrey
Yeah. Right, right. Well, music plays such an important part in our lives. And and you find that thing, and and like you to your point, learning about this stuff. you know There's music out there that you've never heard of. and And if you had heard of it, you probably turned your nose up because it was unfamiliar.
00:35:31.30
Roger Humphrey
ah on my podcast, i I interviewed a guy named Shahan Arzruni. I have a hard time with that. He's Armenian. and And he just released a CD of all, it's called Buy Women and it's all Armenian female composers.
00:35:53.04
Roger Humphrey
and for written for solo piano and and it sounds very esoteric and it sounds like When you hear the title, it sounds like it'd be pretty exotic. It really isn't it's absolutely gorgeous very mainstream kinds of things and and And he plays it with such sensitivity. It's beautiful. He's a wonderful guy. He's he's about my generation and he's been around a long time and But but We get it in our mind that this this It's Armenian women got how good can it be or how weird is this gonna be or something like that?
00:36:30.46
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:36:31.15
Roger Humphrey
and it And it turns out to be not It's really good and not weird. It's just very very very nice music It's instrumental music which most people aren't used to listening to but but it's it's really nice so we get caught up in these genres and we get our identity hung up in there and and then we're afraid it's like a little kid who's afraid to try a different flavor of ice cream because they might not like it you know it's yeah and it's like jeez well has it always has but yeah
00:36:53.19
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep. Well. We're kind of living in a world where the word foreign has a sort of negative connotation, regardless of of the context, you know?
00:37:07.96
Roger Humphrey
I grew up, yeah ah yeah I was a little kid in the 50s and foreign was was was that was, that was a trigger word right there.
00:37:08.15
wednesdayleefriday
Gosh, does it?
00:37:14.78
Roger Humphrey
I was like, uh oh, that's foreign. yeah oh yeah yeah yeah there were certainly there Yes and no, I mean in the 60s foreign meant uh uh England and and the British invasion and everybody wanted to go to Carnaby Street and get dressed and you know or Saville Row or something like that so foreign meant that uh foreign in Italy meant you know good food and and great fashion and and amazing art.
00:37:41.42
Roger Humphrey
um French, you know you know, Eiffel Tower and and and great wine.
00:37:45.33
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:37:46.88
Roger Humphrey
and I mean, so Foreign had that, and there was that part of it, but the rest of it, you know, it's like, you know, I don't know how to explain it.
00:37:47.85
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:37:57.10
Roger Humphrey
It it's it didn't have yeah depending on where the foreign was you know but but you know post-war years and all that kind of stuff there was some aspect aspects of it and and and racism certainly was was a part of that anybody who acted a little different wasn't just being black, for example, in the case of racism, but it was the culture and and and white people didn't get it. And so therefore it must be bad or it must be weird. That's my favorite word, weird.
00:38:30.73
Roger Humphrey
that
00:38:30.92
wednesdayleefriday
Well, that word is having a resurgence right now, isn't it?
00:38:33.32
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, it is. but it's But that was sarcasm on my part.
00:38:34.27
wednesdayleefriday
My goodness.
00:38:36.16
Roger Humphrey
I don't care for the word. a the Although in this particular in this particular context, it's kind of fun.
00:38:41.68
wednesdayleefriday
Yep.
00:38:42.04
Roger Humphrey
But but but no. but So anything that was that was unfamiliar was weird. And anything that was weird was not good. And and so it it took a while.
00:38:54.89
Roger Humphrey
I mean, people didn't mind you know, Italian food, you know, because everybody had spaghetti and pizza and they figured out, they figured.
00:39:04.52
wednesdayleefriday
Well, you know, I'm thinking of one of my favorite non-horror movies, It's a Wonderful Life. And there is a point where Mr. Potter is talking about the poor people that buy homes in Bailey Park, and he refers to them as a bunch of garlic eaters.
00:39:21.90
wednesdayleefriday
And he says it with such loathing in his voice.
00:39:23.11
Roger Humphrey
Wow. Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:39:26.17
wednesdayleefriday
And that's so funny to me, because obviously today we're like, what kind of a soul it's ass doesn't like garlic?
00:39:26.19
Roger Humphrey
Yeah.
00:39:31.93
wednesdayleefriday
How does that even happen? What are you, a vampire? I'm...
00:39:34.56
Roger Humphrey
yeah Yeah, yeah. it's it's so so So things certainly have changed, but but there you know there was yeah there was that that stuff is out there all the time. So I don't want to listen to that music because it's weird. I don't want to eat that food because it's weird. I mean i might you know i might like French wine, but God, snails? Are you kidding me?
00:39:55.37
wednesdayleefriday
Well, and that's why like the arts, you know, creatives in general have like a responsibility slash opportunity to bring all of that like to the people, you know?
00:40:10.78
wednesdayleefriday
um Because every time like, I mean, we were just saying about Seth MacFarlane and there'll be a song on the show. And then suddenly, even though the song is 30 years old, everybody wants to hear it.
00:40:21.59
wednesdayleefriday
Like, why is everyone suddenly listening to Surfin' Bird again? Oh, because it was on the show.
00:40:26.38
Roger Humphrey
god What a song, terrible, terrible, terrible.
00:40:27.57
wednesdayleefriday
You know, same with Disney.
00:40:28.86
Roger Humphrey
terrible
00:40:30.04
wednesdayleefriday
And that's why Disney, I think more than most companies, has a responsibility to get their shit right when they do historical movies or or shows. You know, so people don't think that Pocahontas grew up and fell in love with John Smith because what the fuck?
00:40:46.20
wednesdayleefriday
um but But I don't wanna get too off track, cause I could rant about Disney all day long. um i'm I'm curious to know, we've talked a lot about music and and how um it it helps people. What about things like, I mean, like like grief, for example. I know you've had some or some experience with that. um and And I assume that the music helps you through that. I mean, what what do you wanna say about that?
00:41:15.66
Roger Humphrey
um Yeah, it's it's it's an interesting question. um i've i've We've all had hard times. A movie that I just rewatched for about the umpteenth time recently was Guardians of the Galaxy.
00:41:29.65
wednesdayleefriday
Uh-huh.
00:41:29.70
Roger Humphrey
yeah And Rocket yells at the other guy, and he says, oh, boo-hoo, we've all had somebody die, which is totally...
00:41:37.39
wednesdayleefriday
Oh my god, did you see the one with Rocket's backstory? Holy crap, that's the saddest thing I've ever seen in a Marvel movie.
00:41:42.85
Roger Humphrey
yeah right so anyway anyway having so having said that uh the point is well taken though that we've we've all had things that we've had to deal with yours are probably different from mine but they they affect us you know in a negative way nevertheless so for me the for me and i can't speak for anybody else i can tell you how music uh has gotten me through it and what it is that that that when my when my son, actually stepson, passed away 12 years ago. um And and and i got it was a double hit. The first hit was him passing. I was the only father he knew from the time he was three years old. And we were close. We used to do stuff together, and um particularly when he was a teenager.
00:42:31.63
Roger Humphrey
And and ah so so we were pretty close. So when he died, it it and I was there when he died. And and so to to see his dead lifeless form laying on the floor was was an absolutely horrific sight.
00:42:49.63
Roger Humphrey
um and and But then the then the the the other whammy was when when people would say, well, he was just your stepson, right?
00:43:00.73
wednesdayleefriday
Oh god, what the hell?
00:43:03.17
Roger Humphrey
Oh yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and, and, and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not a terribly violent person, but I was, I was warping to the idea.
00:43:04.41
wednesdayleefriday
That's gross, man.
00:43:12.87
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah, that's that's unconscionable. I can't imagine the
00:43:14.60
Roger Humphrey
Oh yeah. Yeah. It was just your stepson.
00:43:17.17
wednesdayleefriday
The moral vacancy of, of I mean, ugh.
00:43:17.42
Roger Humphrey
Yeah. Right? so so So having to deal with that, so the music for me, and music is, and and like every teenager, i had my I had my issues.
00:43:28.30
Roger Humphrey
I don't think there's a teenager. and i And I thought I was the only one. I thought all the other kids were cooler than me.
00:43:31.65
wednesdayleefriday
Mm-hmm.
00:43:33.22
Roger Humphrey
And you know and we all go through that.
00:43:33.99
wednesdayleefriday
Yep.
00:43:34.83
Roger Humphrey
We all go through that. For me, the music What it did for me was it gave me, when I said a moment ago, some of my students, it's they hide from the world. It's their their buffer. For me, it gave me permission to grieve. It gave me permission to feel sad. It gave me a place to go where I could play sad songs, whether I was performing and playing on the guitar or singing them, or if I was just listening to them. It gave me a place that I could go
00:44:06.72
Roger Humphrey
and and And it was okay to be sad. It was okay to grieve. It was okay to be angry. All of these things. And I didn't have anybody next to me going, get over it, or there, there, it'll be okay, or I know how you must feel. No, you don't. kind Let's go suck an egg andly meal um just and And it gave me that place that I could go By myself, I mean, there's times when you want to be with other people and during during these times. There's times when you need the the warmth and the compassion and empathy from other people. But there are times when you just need to be alone um and have a good cry or to be angry or you know combinations of that.
00:44:50.86
wednesdayleefriday
Just to feel your things that you're feeling.
00:44:50.89
Roger Humphrey
and
00:44:52.78
wednesdayleefriday
and
00:44:52.76
Roger Humphrey
Right, and this gave me the permission to do that. It wasn't just a place to do it. It was a place where, with music, I could do it with encouragement. You know, I can remember having a girl break up with me that I was really fond of when I was in high school, as as we all are. right
00:45:10.14
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
00:45:10.73
Roger Humphrey
and and And she just dumped me without any warning note. Just, well, see you later pal. I'm done, you know?
00:45:15.49
wednesdayleefriday
Oh.
00:45:16.56
Roger Humphrey
And yeah, okay. So my heart was broken. Everybody's had their heart broke at one time. And my heart was broken and driving home, you know, and feeling crappy. And I turned the radio on and there was a song came on.
00:45:27.92
Roger Humphrey
It was some sad song. And it was, you know, and it was just one of those, Oh, woe is me songs. And I went, Oh yeah. And I turned it right up, you know.
00:45:35.96
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep.
00:45:37.21
Roger Humphrey
and and And it gave me an opportunity to think my way through it. It gave me an opportunity, and it also reminded me that that it didn't just happen to me, that people go through this all the time.
00:45:48.75
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah.
00:45:49.43
Roger Humphrey
as my My son passing is is a tragic thing, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody, but there are others who share that story. um ah And some of the details may be different, but they share that story that they've had a child pass.
00:46:03.11
Roger Humphrey
and and so And I know that. And so I could i have this permission, if you will, to to grieve and to get over it and do all that kind of stuff.
00:46:14.83
Roger Humphrey
ah when When we have happy music, yeah you're playing happy dance music at a wedding or you know whatever, and you're up there just making a fool of yourself and doing that, that music sort of gives you the permission to do that.
00:46:25.62
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep.
00:46:26.31
Roger Humphrey
And is so music speaks to that in that way. And for a teenager, well, pre-teen and going into college, those years are so formative and those years so much happens to you in from the age of 12 until the age of 21.
00:46:44.34
Roger Humphrey
You go through so much. ah you You learn so much more about life and you you moved most people have moved out of their family home by that point and are living on their own or living with roommates or whatever.
00:46:55.88
Roger Humphrey
Mom isn't cooking for them anymore, that kind of thing.
00:46:58.23
wednesdayleefriday
Oh
00:46:59.12
Roger Humphrey
and and And so all of the things that you go through, and this this music is in the background. It's it's ah it's it's as a part of your life. remember to it I remember in an interview somebody asked me once many, many years ago, this is one of those gotcha questions.
00:47:07.53
wednesdayleefriday
yeah!
00:47:13.19
Roger Humphrey
They they were trying to you call me out or something. They said, well, in your opinion, what's the best music that's ever, you know what's the best kind of music ever kind of thing? and and And they're just waiting for me to step in it so they can bury it, right?
00:47:25.98
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
00:47:27.17
Roger Humphrey
and i And I said, oh, that's simple. I said, that's the music you went to high school on. you know none of the The music will never be any better than that.
00:47:32.84
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah. Right.
00:47:37.03
Roger Humphrey
Because every generation will go, oh, god, they just don't write music like that anymore. And some of us are going, thank you. But it's it's just just a matter of taste.
00:47:48.61
Roger Humphrey
But that music is what was there when you had your first kiss. That music was there the first you The music went was there when you first started finding out about sex and discovered that yeah you did have a sexual preference.
00:47:53.72
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:48:06.15
Roger Humphrey
That music was there when you found started to decide maybe what you wanted to be when you grew up. All these songs were in the background. and and And you sang along with them, you listened to them, and they were all a part of your life. So today, a lot of that music is not so much the way you and I consume music. A lot of that music is through video games.
00:48:26.36
wednesdayleefriday
Oh yeah, that's true.
00:48:28.00
Roger Humphrey
I mean, a lot of it, a lot of it. I interviewed recently a guy who, that's what he does. He writes music for video games.
00:48:34.79
wednesdayleefriday
Nice.
00:48:36.01
Roger Humphrey
you know so i mean that's and And I've had students that, and you can actually buy classical guitar arrangements of some of these video songs. They're out there. I've had students learn these things.
00:48:46.50
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
00:48:48.26
Roger Humphrey
You know, so that's, that's, ah that's an area that people don't realize that, that, that people are consuming music by way of, you know, by way of, well, you know, we think of film scores, but, but by way of video games too.
00:48:48.67
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
00:49:00.60
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah, well, because they're scored just like movies now.
00:49:00.87
Roger Humphrey
That's a, that's a, yeah.
00:49:03.28
wednesdayleefriday
I mean, so much money goes into the production of those.
00:49:03.62
Roger Humphrey
And it's, it's. Oh, it's ah it's a huge it's a huge thing. It's a big thing. so So music is a part of our lives at all levels. It's it's ceremonial. We get married to music. We get buried to music. yeah at And and and it's yeah we worship with music. you know it's It's very much a part of our lives. We we we party to music. it's We work with music.
00:49:33.37
Roger Humphrey
It's it helps us relax. It's it does any number of things. That's a part of our lives and and That's one of the things I tried to explain to my students is don't just listen to one kind of music because you don't just have that one kind of life Your day is busy.
00:49:47.89
Roger Humphrey
You know, there's times when you need to relax.
00:49:48.75
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah.
00:49:49.77
Roger Humphrey
There are times when you want to party and I I Wouldn't want to listen to some rowdy rock and roll or rowdy country music when I'm trying to go to bed at night But at the same time, you know, the the quiet box stuff is not something I necessarily want to listen to at 11 o'clock in the morning.
00:49:57.89
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:50:05.07
wednesdayleefriday
and
00:50:05.90
Roger Humphrey
You know, it's it's a different part of the day and i've got I have different things that I want, different things I'm trying to accomplish or trying to do or trying to unwind, you know, things like that.
00:50:16.91
wednesdayleefriday
That's so funny that you say that because I um but you know i use Apple stuff. ah And so I set my alarm to to play a song when I wake up in the morning.
00:50:28.62
Roger Humphrey
Uh-huh.
00:50:28.86
wednesdayleefriday
And when I first started doing it, I was setting it to play songs that I like. And I realized really quickly, no, I don't want to hear that song first thing in the morning.
00:50:39.50
wednesdayleefriday
and have that be the thing that's in my head while i'm like brushing my teeth and whatnot like no i need to pick a different song for that and just the fact that like we need to be kind of cognizant of what we're listening to and when in the same way that we want to be careful about things like hydration because.
00:50:58.95
Roger Humphrey
Oh, yeah.
00:50:59.02
wednesdayleefriday
It impacts our mood and we might not even realize, or like, you know, aromatherapy, those little things that kind of go into the background. Like my husband is super into movie scores. He listens to them a lot. And I do too, like now, but when we met, I didn't really listen to movie scores as much because the score's job isn't to get my attention. It's to carry me through the action and help me experience the film better.
00:51:29.84
wednesdayleefriday
So I don't I think like paying attention to it is kind of defeating the purpose of it. But that's the thing when you're a creative type, you consume art in such a way that you're also thinking about what the artist might have been thinking.
00:51:44.93
wednesdayleefriday
Do you do you find that with music?
00:51:45.40
Roger Humphrey
right yes yes i actually uh years ago i was actually writing um uh i was scoring documentaries and and uh and uh that's going back a long way and uh the the the short story is that uh i went to college uh went back to went to community college to start learning filmmaking so that i could understand better um how
00:51:54.82
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, wow.
00:52:13.95
Roger Humphrey
how I could serve that that community because they didn't have any kind of a school for scoring film at that time in in the area. um U of M had ah one guy who was teaching some of it and I had already scored a few films and a couple of them popped up, a couple of them won awards at different film festivals and things like that. Mostly it was hard to get any any work at all because the filmmakers never had any money for for music. they So they would have there's There's a phrase in the in the business that's called a needle drop. And it it's it's no longer physically applicable, but they still have the the phrase of what it is, is they would buy these albums and and with those you had the rights to any of the music used to use any of the music on there. and And what they would do is, and there's just a zillion different little songs on there. um Little bits and pieces, little bits, little of that drama music, something like that. And it's all very generic.
00:53:13.49
Roger Humphrey
And what they would do is they would drop the needle on the record and and then they would record that music and place it into the film. you know And so that was called needle drop and they still do it today.
00:53:25.52
Roger Humphrey
It's all, you know, you buy a package of music and it's all very generic. But every once in a while, it could be.
00:53:29.68
wednesdayleefriday
Isn't that what what Night of the Living Dead is? i'm I'm sure that that's because I know I've heard stories that they like went to the library and and got albums from there.
00:53:37.27
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:53:37.84
wednesdayleefriday
And then yeah, because it's the same. It's in like a lot of movies from that era when you watch like late 60s horror movies.
00:53:44.37
Roger Humphrey
Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah they no um and they didn't have any money.
00:53:45.68
wednesdayleefriday
It's the same music.
00:53:48.33
Roger Humphrey
you know they these they yeah know The studios certainly weren't going to give them money for something like that. So so it it was hard for me to get gigs because these guys, they'd spend all their money on film and processing and and they never had any money left over in the budget for music other than once in a while.
00:54:00.15
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:54:05.09
Roger Humphrey
So but when I went to school actually the business changed and and and I won't go into the detail but it kind of left me standing by the roadside and so so like I kind of I had to shift gears. But but um I watched PBS had a thing one night kind of filling some time in and it was a a guy from University of Michigan doing a film writing or a score film score composing thing for like a half an hour. how And he taught it, so he was doing this demonstration. And so I thought, okay, I've done a few of these things, so let me see what this guy's got to offer, because I'm always up for learning something. and And he went up there and he had synthesizers. And this is the early day of synthesizers. We're going back to late 70s.
00:54:56.09
Roger Humphrey
And he was doing it with synthesizers and he had an old ah silent movie that he was who's going to score because it was in public domain at that point. He didn't have to worry about copyrights.
00:55:08.05
Roger Humphrey
And so he played that, it was a show in the film and then he then he would write this music and he was doing it. And he would explain, okay, I did this here because of this and I did this here because of that and I'm listening to this and I'm going, it sounds like crap. And he was just doing like a little well three or four minute segment of it, that's all he was doing.
00:55:27.20
Roger Humphrey
So then when he got it all done, he put it all together and played it back so you could hear the whole thing and watch the film while it went on. And I thought, this is a guy who's never had to make a profit.
00:55:38.31
wednesdayleefriday
yeah Right.
00:55:38.82
Roger Humphrey
so Because it was the worst conglomeration. It peopled and it it was the same thing. it's like If people are listening to the music, you're you're not doing your job. I mean, it's just that simple. I remember ah picking up a couple of my students wanted to learn some of the Star Wars music many years ago. And so I bought a book.
00:56:00.64
Roger Humphrey
And I was kind of going through it, and I looked, and I said, what's this song, and what's this song? And I went, oh yeah. it took I had to kind of go back and research it, and I'd hear it, and I'd go, oh yeah, now I remember. Because it was, you remember the scene in the movie, but the the music, now without that music, the scene is terrible. And Steven Spielberg talks about, you know, when when John Williams, he hired John Williams to write the score for Jaws.
00:56:27.99
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, yeah, and he didn't like it.
00:56:29.09
Roger Humphrey
and
00:56:29.55
wednesdayleefriday
He thought it was too simple.
00:56:31.20
Roger Humphrey
Yes, how it's terrible until he saw the music or heard the music and saw the film at this put together at the same time that little opening sequence and he went, holy crap.
00:56:40.13
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:56:41.56
Roger Humphrey
and But but it's it's one of those things where
00:56:41.81
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:56:45.70
Roger Humphrey
You know, so they went for a while. Every once in a while, they'll go Hollywood will go through a phase where they try to get you know at least one or two pop songs out of the out of the so out of the movie so that they can help recover their losses.
00:56:56.54
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
00:56:57.81
Roger Humphrey
But but but ah but yeah, it's typically, it's it's It's music that you you you you don't really recall. it's the The trick is to write it in such a way that it builds the film up and it enhances the film without getting in the way.
00:57:18.48
wednesdayleefriday
Yes. Yeah, and there are some people that do that just so well. I mean, Bear McCreary is like that. Ramen Jwadi, who did Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
00:57:27.06
Roger Humphrey
Oh, yeah.
00:57:29.25
wednesdayleefriday
Like, they're just... I mean... it's it It's interesting because people that you wouldn't think could do it turn out to be able to do it. like I think of Trent Reznor as very much a front man, but when he did the the soundtrack to that social network movie, I was shocked. I didn't realize until the end, I was like, wait, I thought Trent Reznor was doing music for this. I didn't hear anything Reznor-y in this movie, but yeah, turns out like most musicians, he's a lot of different things.
00:57:58.97
Roger Humphrey
Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, ah to I mean, Hans Zimmer, yeah hey play you know, so yeah, it's that's that that kind of thing.
00:58:03.93
wednesdayleefriday
ah Yeah, totally, totally.
00:58:09.43
Roger Humphrey
And John william john Williams was is was was a session pianist.
00:58:09.86
wednesdayleefriday
um
00:58:13.84
Roger Humphrey
And and he he was on the, he played the piano on the original recording of the Think Panther for Henry Mancini.
00:58:22.31
wednesdayleefriday
No way, I did not know that.
00:58:23.33
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:58:25.85
wednesdayleefriday
Well, you know, you mentioned your podcast and we're and I i definitely want to give you time to talk about that a little bit. You talk to creatives as well.
00:58:34.05
Roger Humphrey
Right. um Well, the podcast, I laugh about it, but it wasn't so funny a year and a half ago. um my My podcast started out with the idea that I've been hanging out with creative people since I was in my early teens, 14, 15 years old, my friends. I had guitars and we were playing Peter Paul and Mary stuff and trying to write our own songs badly and all that kind of stuff. and and And so I've always thought that the conversations that we had were always interesting, ah that that they seemed to be inquisitive, talked about different things. ah First time I heard honestly heard about the injustices done to Native Americans was through friends of mine who were creative people. i you know My idea of was was John Wayne, Cowboys and Indians and that kind of thing. I honestly didn't know.
00:59:26.99
Roger Humphrey
And so my our conversations I always thought were informative and inquisitive and funny at times and and and outrageous at other times. And so I thought, well, I'll have a podcast and i'll I'll invite my friends on and we'll talk about stuff in general, wherever the conversation goes.
00:59:40.68
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
00:59:43.70
Roger Humphrey
And and I'm sure people will enjoy listening in. And I couldn't have been more wrong.
00:59:49.86
wednesdayleefriday
ah
00:59:51.93
Roger Humphrey
Nobody. I mean, even my family's going, no, we've heard you talk, we know.
00:59:57.94
wednesdayleefriday
Well, but the the landscape for podcasts, there's so many people podcasting now that it seems like you need to be very, very specific in order to get people's attention.
01:00:07.13
Roger Humphrey
Right. And, and so what happened was, um, I was asking people to be on the pod and it's gotten to a point where I couldn't even get people to come on. I was getting ghost. Yeah, come on.
01:00:17.51
Roger Humphrey
Well, let's schedule it. Well, okay. Yeah. Uh, no, I'm busy next Wednesday, but you know, it's just, you know, and so, so a year ago, February or March, thereabouts, I was so tired.
01:00:20.78
wednesdayleefriday
Aww.
01:00:25.30
wednesdayleefriday
Aww.
01:00:26.97
Roger Humphrey
I thought, you know, uh, I've got like three scru- subscribers and I think I'm related to two of them. And you know, so I thought, why am I even bother- and I was, and I would, I would, you know, do like, you know,
01:00:39.08
Roger Humphrey
We do 90 to 120 minute interviews and then I would spend the next three days editing the thing to get it down to some sort of manageable episode. I'm not Joe Rogan, nobody's gonna listen to me for three hours.
01:00:51.42
wednesdayleefriday
ah
01:00:51.53
Roger Humphrey
And so, and so any, well there is that.
01:00:52.73
wednesdayleefriday
No one should listen to Joe Rogan for three hours.
01:00:56.81
Roger Humphrey
So anyway, um but but I was thinking, why am I putting in all of this time and effort and and I'm worried about meeting these deadlines that I've set for myself.
01:01:09.24
Roger Humphrey
And i this is just baloney, you know, uh, my subscribers, all three of my subscribers will never miss it. I'm not going to worry about it. And so I just stopped producing. I just, I just walked away from it. I told my wife and I, with no announcement, no, nothing. I just said, that's it. I'm done. And that summer, early summer, I got a, uh, uh, email from a friend of mine who was a singer songwriter said, did you still want me to be on your podcast?
01:01:38.87
Roger Humphrey
Well, I didn't want to say no, because that sounds rude. like yeah so Yeah, sure.
01:01:41.72
wednesdayleefriday
Right. yeah
01:01:44.42
Roger Humphrey
Why not? So I figured I'd do another one, throw another episode out there, and my three subscribers will be surprised. and so Anyway, um so I went ahead and recorded it.
01:01:55.59
Roger Humphrey
We did it, and I recorded it. But I decided I wasn't going to put it out until September. I thought, just take the summer off, and wait until September, and then I'll put it out then.
01:02:04.35
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah, I think wasn't I on around that time?
01:02:04.49
Roger Humphrey
And yeah, yeah.
01:02:07.56
wednesdayleefriday
Because I think it was a while so in between like when we recorded and when it went up.
01:02:07.86
Roger Humphrey
you
01:02:11.80
Roger Humphrey
Right. Right. It was. And so I'd have to look it up to find out for sure. But yeah. So anyway, that's kind of what I did. And in the meantime, I started thinking about it. I thought, you know, I think I want to resurrect this thing. But what I want to do, preferably, is I want to focus on people in fine arts mostly.
01:02:37.43
Roger Humphrey
you know, singer-songwriter once in a while, maybe, but mostly I want to people involved in fine arts, not necessarily all creatives. There are people behind the scenes that that I think deserve a nod also.
01:02:48.70
wednesdayleefriday
Mhmm.
01:02:53.25
Roger Humphrey
And so somehow, I think that's about the time I approached you. I'm not sure, it was that last, that was like a year ago, September or something like that.
01:03:00.70
wednesdayleefriday
Probably, yeah.
01:03:01.23
Roger Humphrey
or last september it would be but about a year ago anyway and so anyway uh... and then i got a hold of a couple of other people and those people turned me into some other people and uh... now it's not one hundred percent fine arts but it's mostly fine arts uh... but i uh... i interviewed a guy named uh... uh... nicolas galuses who heads up the the the guitar program, created the guitar program for Eastman School in Rochester, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. And he's also the co-chairman of the strings department. And Nick's about my age, maybe a little younger, and he's been around a minute or two. And he's extreme he's he's a big fish in a small pond. He's a very, very, very famous guy within the the small world of classical guitar, classical music. Tours all over the world, and so he he he
01:03:56.52
Roger Humphrey
he agreed to be on it and that gave me some some street cred so to speak and I was able to get a couple of other people classical guitars who were also composers on and that they in turn got me hooked up with some other people and then couple of painters and a couple of uh...
01:04:12.63
Roger Humphrey
uh... couple of authors and it's just kind of been snowballing and i interviewed uh... it'll uh... the interview will be out uh... probably towards the end of september i'm not sure uh...
01:04:25.73
Roger Humphrey
but uh... a woman composer her name is diller on side of a nova she's from was beca stan and she's very very successful in europe ah and here too to some extent they did a uh...
01:04:38.63
Roger Humphrey
They honored her a few months ago at Carnegie Hall, so I mean, you know, she's that good.
01:04:43.23
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
01:04:44.06
Roger Humphrey
And and yeah and I thanked her profusely when we finished the interview for taking the time to be on it. And she in turn thanked me because she said there are no podcasts out there for artisans.
01:04:56.48
Roger Humphrey
you you You might find a piano podcast, or you might find an art podcast. But in terms of just general fine arts, you know kind of the Ed Sullivan of the fine arts business, um there's nobody out there doing it. And so the idea that she could come on and express herself, and and we could talk about that kind of stuff meant a lot to her. so it's and And I'm up to about six subscribers now.
01:05:24.72
Roger Humphrey
so
01:05:26.63
wednesdayleefriday
Well, but I mean, if, if you, your work, like i I go through this a lot because again, I'm a writer, but I'm not extremely widely read and the, my books in particular are not as as widely read. I think my sex articles are much more widely read, but, but that's the thing is that even if you're only helping a small number of people or validating a small number of people.
01:05:52.50
wednesdayleefriday
That's, I mean, that's a good use of your time. you know it' I don't think you would ever say like, well, I've only made a profound difference in X amount of number of people's lives.
01:06:03.12
wednesdayleefriday
I wish it was more than that but because making a profound difference in someone's life or validating someone who really needs and deserves that, even if it's one person, I mean, you're married, you know what a how much of a difference impacting one person makes.
01:06:16.46
Roger Humphrey
Oh, yeah.
01:06:17.95
wednesdayleefriday
you know
01:06:17.94
Roger Humphrey
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, in this particular case, for me, it's I decided and that summer, some year ago, that that if this thing was going to die, I was was going to die in my terms.
01:06:35.55
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep.
01:06:35.61
Roger Humphrey
And that I was going to, you know, instead of just interviewing anybody that would say yes, I was going to absolutely focus more on the other. And if it didn't work, then it didn't work. But these are the people that I enjoy talking to the most. I really, really, really enjoy speaking with with people in the fine arts and not to denigrate anybody else in any of the other artistic endeavors that are going on.
01:07:01.11
Roger Humphrey
you know i I appreciate the effort and the talent that it takes to do other other artistic things, whether it's playing a bar band or whatever. but but ah and And I will not say a disparaging word about any of that. but But the idea of walking out in the middle of a bare stage as a classical guitarist and playing to 150 or 200 people is a different thing than playing Brown Eyed Girl to a room full of drugs.
01:07:30.33
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep.
01:07:30.51
Roger Humphrey
it's just it's it's just ah it's just a different It's just a different critter. and so it's yeah and But also talking to authors. i mean Authors don't get that many opportunities to do podcasts, I don't think.
01:07:43.45
Roger Humphrey
And so when they come on, it gives them an opportunity to talk about their work and and the way they do things. And I just i find it interesting. you know Every author is different. Every musician is different.
01:07:51.75
wednesdayleefriday
Mm-hmm. Oh yeah.
01:07:53.57
Roger Humphrey
Composers are different. you know And i just kind I just feel like I'm a hog rolling in it. yeah so I'm a tall clover here, you know so for me it's fun.
01:08:04.10
Roger Humphrey
and and so it's it's less about Now it's less about making a difference, it's
01:08:11.74
Roger Humphrey
building up following. So my god, there are 14-year-old girls on the startup podcast today and we'll have 15 million viewers by tomorrow.
01:08:19.04
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
01:08:19.28
Roger Humphrey
you know but what but and and And you sort of have to understand that when you get into it. But I joke about it a little bit because I find it humorous.
01:08:31.33
Roger Humphrey
But at the same time, I find it deadly serious that that I am touching on the fine arts and there are people who are enjoying and what's happened is that I've and I started doing videos in February I switched from just audio format to video as well so it's on YouTube and that's increased my audience quite a bit and and people enjoy it but I i think the vast majority still are are listening
01:08:50.11
wednesdayleefriday
Oh.
01:08:57.06
Roger Humphrey
and And I had one person that I know professionally that that she decided she wanted to listen to it because I was interviewing somebody that that she found interesting.
01:09:10.04
Roger Humphrey
And she listened to it and she decided she really liked it. And God, I started doing this pod. I'm going into my sixth season with this thing. And so she's got...
01:09:17.32
wednesdayleefriday
Wow, that's great.
01:09:19.12
Roger Humphrey
so she's listening So she's going back and she's listening to like an episode almost every night going back to old episodes. And and she let' it's that's that's her cookie at the end of the day. She sits down, she unwinds for 30 or 40 minutes and listens to an episode. yeah I have other people that put it on when they're driving in their cars on the way to work or on the way home from work and things like that. so So that's working out, and and I'm enjoying doing that.
01:09:46.78
Roger Humphrey
And then i I was talking to my broker, and I say that like I'm ah a bazillionaire. I got a guy who invests two decals for me because I'm trying to make 12 cents.
01:09:58.08
Roger Humphrey
and and and and But he's he's a friend, and I've known him for several years.
01:09:58.51
wednesdayleefriday
Great!
01:10:03.62
Roger Humphrey
And but i when I retired and had my 401k, I kind of had to do some park it somewhere and figure out what to do. So he's been right right there with me, helping me out. and and And so we were talking and he was talking about this stock or that stock and he mentioned a couple of things and I looked at him and I said, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I just haven't got a clue what you're talking about. And and so he was explaining it to me and I said, you know what? I said, we ought to do a podcast. what like And And I said, we ought to do a podcast about this kind of stuff.
01:10:39.38
Roger Humphrey
Well, he said, I'd have to go to my companies and make sure that I, no you don't. I said, I'm not going to ask you to sell stocks. I'm not going to ask you to pitch anything. I said, no financial advice whatsoever. I said, but when you say stocks and bonds, do you realize people don't know the difference?
01:10:56.76
Roger Humphrey
they don't know the difference between a stock and a bond.
01:10:58.89
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
01:10:58.89
Roger Humphrey
They don't know what a mid cap is. i yeah I don't know what a mid cap is. i don't I don't get this. I don't understand how you know markets will move this way when somebody says something weird.
01:11:09.18
Roger Humphrey
you know It's just like, how is how is this, what's going on? And so I said, I think we ought to do a series of you know a limited series of episodes talking about you know just understanding these terms and how the market works so that people who are curious because most people are afraid to ask, and they don't know who to ask anyway, but they're afraid to ask.
01:11:31.67
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
01:11:32.23
Roger Humphrey
I don't want to ask a stockbroker because then he's going to start selling me crap.
01:11:35.50
wednesdayleefriday
right
01:11:35.69
Roger Humphrey
yeah know and And so the idea of just being able to hear and and learn, and if it's in a podcast, they come back and re-listen again. and And we'll do it just audio only. And so that's what we're going to do. We're we're still trying to hammer out the details. and and And I just don't want to rush into it. I want to do it right. but it's And I've gone online. There's really not much of anything. out There's a couple of things out there, but I don't particularly care for them. I think we can do a better job. And and so and and I think that we can fill a niche.
01:12:10.05
Roger Humphrey
I think i think there's ah there's a gap there. I said something like i said something to my granddaughter, who's 24.
01:12:13.33
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah, definitely.
01:12:19.21
Roger Humphrey
We mentioned it ah at ah had ah had a wedding recently. and and And she said, oh my god, she said, I would so listen to that. And I said, really? And she says, yeah, she says, I have a 401k. And she said, I could tell you two things about it.
01:12:30.90
Roger Humphrey
She says, one, I have it. And two, I can tell you how much I'm putting in my, from my check every time. But she says, that's all I know.
01:12:36.39
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
01:12:37.57
Roger Humphrey
That's all I know. I have no idea what it is. And and and so, I mean, bless her heart, she's got one. She's saving up for retirement. but But, because a lot of people don't.
01:12:47.92
Roger Humphrey
But I thought, you know, there are people, there are people,
01:12:49.60
wednesdayleefriday
Really? Oh no.
01:12:51.78
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, and but there are people there are people out there who, who
01:12:58.51
Roger Humphrey
the stock market, the concept of the stock market scares the hell out of them. And stock prices going up and down and all that kind of stuff. and and
01:13:07.89
wednesdayleefriday
Well, it seems like one of the things that i I know about the stock market is that I would stay away from it because anytime I see it depicted, It seems like you could lose everything you have because of things that are completely outside your control.
01:13:24.66
wednesdayleefriday
But i'll i get again, I don't understand it.
01:13:24.65
Roger Humphrey
and and And well, no, at the edge it's it's it's true as far as it goes.
01:13:26.87
wednesdayleefriday
Maybe that's not true. Maybe those people made dumb choices.
01:13:34.52
Roger Humphrey
You know, I mean, it's it's like describing sex as being missionary position only. Well, that can be.
01:13:44.52
Roger Humphrey
But it can be more.
01:13:44.89
wednesdayleefriday
of
01:13:45.40
Roger Humphrey
It can be something else. And so it's it's the same idea of the stock market. What you just described is absolutely true. But it's not limited to that. And you don't even have to wait in that end of the pool.
01:13:56.98
Roger Humphrey
you know there are other and so that's the that's the purpose of a podcast like this is what people know and then then you can make an informed decision. You know, then you can say, no, I'm staying out.
01:14:07.29
Roger Humphrey
OK, fine, stay out. Or you might say, you know what, this might be worth you know looking into, and so on and so forth.
01:14:13.15
wednesdayleefriday
Mhm.
01:14:13.40
Roger Humphrey
But but the the goal of the podcast is educational, to let people know what this is about. So so that's kind of the the goal of the the creative conversations that I do with the artist.
01:14:26.13
Roger Humphrey
Creative conversations with Roger Humphrey. um I do that with the artists and and and creative people. And that is, in many cases, it's it's information more so than entertainment.
01:14:38.19
wednesdayleefriday
Mhm.
01:14:38.96
Roger Humphrey
And and and that's the way that this this other podcast, which is yet to be titled, um where that that new in it yeah that's that one, again, it's it's designed to be educational.
01:14:39.37
wednesdayleefriday
Mhm.
01:14:52.09
Roger Humphrey
It's informative. Without trying to sell anybody anything without trying to peddle anything we're not even gonna sell you a t-shirt, you know, I Have a paid yes, I do I do um for that's for the not for t-shirts or anything like that, but's but but
01:15:00.74
wednesdayleefriday
Well, you have a Patreon for that, right?
01:15:11.33
wednesdayleefriday
You should. You have a great logo. You should definitely sell t-shirts of it.
01:15:15.67
Roger Humphrey
Oh, I do. It's just not on Patreon. um <unk>ve i've got I've got to go back and revisit that a little bit, though. But anyway, that said, um the Patreon page was created to serve um my, originally created to serve my existing students, and I expanded it out to the to the general public. um and And there are three fundamental levels. It's a subscription service for people who don't know.
01:15:46.04
Roger Humphrey
um And there are there are three basic levels to it. The first is I put out two two original um arrangements.
01:15:59.10
Roger Humphrey
of songs almost every week. I started this, it'll be two years in October and I was looking at stuff today and I think I have put up 144 different arrangements in the last two years that are that are all unique to Patreon.
01:16:03.09
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah.
01:16:18.93
Roger Humphrey
they won't You won't find them anywhere else. um and and Half of those are for ukulele and the other half are ah for guitar. and And some, you strum and sing, a lot of lot of that on ukulele.
01:16:33.62
Roger Humphrey
So I strum and sing, and a lot of that is, a lot of the guitar stuff is just solo guitar. Not all of them, but most of it's just solo guitar. And um and that the the the choice of music is all over the map.
01:16:48.82
wednesdayleefriday
Yes, it's so eclectic.
01:16:49.01
Roger Humphrey
The two songs, oh, it is. I i put up two so two new songs today. One was an old hymn that I did as a solo for the ukulele. and the other is was a solo, but it's ah it's a classical piece that I did an arrangement of.
01:17:05.30
Roger Humphrey
um And so, but I've done, gosh, I've done piano old folk songs, I've done classical stuff, I've done country music, I've done Beatles, i've um it's just all over the damn map.
01:17:17.59
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
01:17:19.70
Roger Humphrey
um And I did it in part because my students, I had students that um from day one I'm teaching little kids and I'm teaching them Basic folk songs coming around the mountain and things like that and they've never ever heard these songs ever Because that's not That's part of it But also in school when they have music in school a lot of times or when they do music on TV for the children's programs now They'll they'll take those melodies, but they'll put different words to them
01:17:36.76
wednesdayleefriday
Wow. Cause you know why? Cause people don't watch Bugs Bunny anymore.
01:17:51.78
wednesdayleefriday
Oh.
01:17:52.96
Roger Humphrey
and And so the kids may know may know the melody, but they don't know those words.
01:17:55.41
wednesdayleefriday
Huh.
01:17:56.20
Roger Humphrey
They don't know those songs. and and But ah but the kids you know so i thought these kids have to learn this music. This is a part of our American heritage. I don't want to get too high on the soapbox here, but I'll step up a little bit.
01:18:08.93
Roger Humphrey
yeah and And it is a part of our heritage. It's a part of of of who we are as a people. And, and so, and these, and these are nice songs and these are great songs for the kids to learn on.
01:18:19.38
Roger Humphrey
So doing that. And then I thought, you know, the the kids started asking me if I would do arrangements of different songs that they liked. And it got to a point where I was doing a lot of arrangements for free.
01:18:31.15
Roger Humphrey
for And I think, you know, I'm spending a lot of time for free. yes And so I thought, you know, if I do the Patreon page, they can subscribe and what they give.
01:18:35.40
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah.
01:18:43.45
Roger Humphrey
for three bucks a month. I mean, you can't get a cup of coffee for three bucks hardly anymore. For three bucks a month, they can listen to to the songs that I put out. and and and you know and and i think I don't know if they're downloadable, but they can certainly listen to them.
01:18:59.05
Roger Humphrey
um and and And you can go back to as many of these songs as you wanna listen to. you know So you don't have to just, you're not just stuck with what I put out today. You can go back to what I put out last month or last year even.
01:19:09.14
wednesdayleefriday
Right, right.
01:19:12.90
Roger Humphrey
um and And so for three bucks a month, you can just sit and listen. So you don't have to be a player of any kind, just listen to the music. And these are all home recordings. I'm not going in, you know, decent equipment and I'm okay. But I, i you know, anyway, for for five bucks a month, if you're a player, you can you can download the sheet music to those pieces.
01:19:35.26
Roger Humphrey
And so I create the sheet music and it's done in standard notes and what they call tablatures as well for people who are guitarists they'll understand.
01:19:40.95
wednesdayleefriday
Uh-huh.
01:19:44.68
Roger Humphrey
um And so you can listen to it and download it as well. So you can have it and you can have a physical copy of it, you can print it off. for eight bucks a month you get all of that plus plus um I do a video tutorial for each one of those songs so that you can go in and say oh Roger says what if i put my if I do this fingering this way I can do it this way I can strum this way you know and I mean for the for the the the the classical piece mary widow walts mary Mary Widow's Waltz that I i did today
01:20:00.97
wednesdayleefriday
Oh wow!
01:20:21.67
Roger Humphrey
The song lasts, I think, about a minute and a half, maybe if it's that one. The video tutorial is is four minutes and change. you i sorry it it it it can get It can get into detail.
01:20:32.29
wednesdayleefriday
Okay.
01:20:35.09
Roger Humphrey
So anyway, I know that's a lot of money. And then there's a free tier, because I'm trying to hook people. I'm not going to lie.
01:20:44.03
Roger Humphrey
ah But there is a free tier and what that is you you do have to subscribe but it's a free subscription and every About every month ish I will put up a song in its entirety for everybody to listen to And it's just me playing, it's usually a classical piece, but it doesn't have to be.
01:21:02.78
Roger Humphrey
It's not restricted to that. Can't download it. There's no, you know, but you can just kick back and listen to it and enjoy it. So, so it's, it's, and it's, it's, it's on the free tier, but anybody, any, any of the other subscribers can, can listen to it also.
01:21:09.89
wednesdayleefriday
Cool.
01:21:18.57
Roger Humphrey
And so that keeps me busy along with the podcast.
01:21:22.09
wednesdayleefriday
Sure. I actually love that you put the music out in Tabulator because When I was making the rounds trying to try a bunch of different instruments and see which ones I might be good at, one of them was a lap dulcimer.
01:21:34.67
Roger Humphrey
Oh.
01:21:37.23
wednesdayleefriday
A lot of people play that and they use tablature music for that rather than like reading music.
01:21:39.93
Roger Humphrey
Uh-huh. Great.
01:21:43.10
wednesdayleefriday
I can read music because I played flute in junior high, but again, I i don't have a talent for it. so It doesn't, it doesn't like stay with you forever.
01:21:53.17
wednesdayleefriday
But I love your Patreon. I subscribe to it.
01:21:55.71
Roger Humphrey
I appreciate that.
01:21:55.93
wednesdayleefriday
And I love getting those little emails and like, Oh, new songs. Yay. um
01:22:03.07
Roger Humphrey
and And thank you. I appreciate that. yeah and and And the comments were always nice anytime you put those up. It's very encouraging to know that there's somebody out there actually listening.
01:22:08.47
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
01:22:11.98
Roger Humphrey
and but ah But yeah, that's that's between that and and the podcast and the new podcast.
01:22:13.22
wednesdayleefriday
Totally.
01:22:19.87
Roger Humphrey
And then I have a handful of students yet, but not many. i mean i I hate the phrase, but I'm in the twilight of life.
01:22:27.42
wednesdayleefriday
yeah Right?
01:22:29.00
Roger Humphrey
ah and and But one one has to one has to recognize reality. you I'm 76 years old. and and And it makes me feel good that I'm still doing this stuff. And there people half my age go, wow, how do you do that? yeah It's like, I ain't telling. I'm not going to teach you how to read cursive either.
01:22:53.46
wednesdayleefriday
yeah Here's the clock. Guess what time it says.
01:23:00.31
Roger Humphrey
so old age has its benefits. So not many, but a few.
01:23:02.99
wednesdayleefriday
Right? Well, see, that's the thing. Like, I went all the way through undergrad without the internet, which, I mean, that's that's a life skill right there.
01:23:10.00
Roger Humphrey
Yeah.
01:23:12.21
wednesdayleefriday
Like, I'm not saying everyone should have to know the Dewey decimal system or use a card catalog, but I'm glad I can, because if I'm in some Burgess Meredith end of the world situation, I will want to be able to find my way around the library, that's for sure.
01:23:20.27
Roger Humphrey
Yeah.
01:23:26.63
wednesdayleefriday
um So let me ask you this.
01:23:28.40
Roger Humphrey
Well, yeah. Yeah.
01:23:29.91
wednesdayleefriday
um For someone who is completely non-musical, who wants to learn an instrument, what would you say are the easiest, simplest instruments to get a basic understanding of for someone who you really doesn't know anything about music?
01:23:45.08
Roger Humphrey
Okay, it's that's that's a good question. what What I would suggest is, and this is going to surprise you, I would suggest a ukulele. and and and And the reason I suggest it is is is this. Number one, with the ukulele. you can ah eucaleve To begin with, a you like a ukulele. let Let me say that again in English. A ukulele.
01:24:08.93
Roger Humphrey
is um is a legitimate instrument. It really is. ah And it's one of the things with the Patreon page that I'm trying to put across is that but the these these arrangements, like the the hymn today, there's no singing involved. This is this is the um ah the melody along with harmony notes. So it's yeah it's it's legit. But mostly what you want to do is you most people just want to play um and and sing songs. and ah And you can get started, I mean honest to Pete, with a ukulele you can start with one finger on one string, um on the bottom string actually, on one fret,
01:24:53.54
Roger Humphrey
And you can and and just strum the strum the strings and sing row, row, row your bow. And you can go all the way through. And there's a couple of others um that you that you can do as well. um So Frere Jacques, it's another one. It's a one chord song. So you can start off with one finger on one string pushing down and strumming it any old way you want to and sing in any key that you want to as long. I mean, you can do whatever you want. And you can get started.
01:25:20.89
Roger Humphrey
and and and And then you just build on that from there. And ukulele is a pretty nice little instrument. Now, if you decide later on, now keep in mind, you can get a playable ukulele, playable ukulele, that doesn't sound too bad and it would do you fine for less than 100 bucks.
01:25:41.94
Roger Humphrey
And so you can get it, and and that's new. You can probably get used ones for half of that. so So you can get into one, they're not a lot of money, they can they can be a lot of money, just like anything else.
01:25:52.82
wednesdayleefriday
Sure.
01:25:53.84
Roger Humphrey
but But you can get into, and and i and I emphasize the word playable, you know.
01:25:57.89
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
01:25:58.88
Roger Humphrey
You can get the toys for like $20 or something like that, and they're painted pink. But but if you step if if you step up a little bit, if you step up a little bit and go a couple, but and a lot of those are almost impossible to tune and things like that.
01:26:07.91
wednesdayleefriday
Well, yeah, at shower, actually, we had ah an expression where they would refer to a violin shaped object as opposed to an instrument that you would play.
01:26:10.85
Roger Humphrey
but
01:26:19.68
Roger Humphrey
yeah Yeah, yeah, and and so but but I would say because it it it doesn't take a great deal of talent. Now, I have a friend of mine that used to say that the guitar was the easiest instrument in the world to learn how to play badly, and one of the most difficult to learn how to play well. But I think with the ukulele, you know, they're they're inexpensive. ah They don't take up much space. um ah God, I hate to, I hate to shill, and I beg your pardon for this, but on my website, rogerhumfrey.com,
01:26:54.35
wednesdayleefriday
he
01:26:56.07
Roger Humphrey
there I actually have a beginning ukulele course for adults who are too busy and too on talent to learn how to play. um and And it is a ah downloadable sheet music and and video lessons that you can watch and re-watch.
01:27:14.02
Roger Humphrey
And and you and itll itll it's almost three months worth of lessons and it's like 30 bucks.
01:27:20.14
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, wow. That's super affordable.
01:27:22.69
Roger Humphrey
So I mean, it's it's very inexpensive and and and I've had adults download it. It hasn't necessarily been a big seller, but I have had downloaded, ah do excuse me, adults who have downloaded it and they they write me back and go, my God, this is fun. I'm having a lot of fun doing this.
01:27:39.14
Roger Humphrey
Um, and, and, and they're successful.
01:27:39.33
wednesdayleefriday
Yay.
01:27:41.47
Roger Humphrey
So, so that's, you know, something to consider. So that's the other thing with adults learning an instrument like this is a the expense, you know, do I want to do I have the time to to go to a class and shell out.
01:27:52.15
wednesdayleefriday
hu
01:27:57.14
Roger Humphrey
60 or 80 bucks or 100 bucks to to do an eight-week or 12-week class.
01:27:59.02
wednesdayleefriday
Right, right.
01:28:02.27
Roger Humphrey
um do i have Do I have a time on my schedule and can I make it every week? You know, and adults get busy, adult-ish, and doing adult things, you know.
01:28:11.20
wednesdayleefriday
Yeah.
01:28:12.37
Roger Humphrey
and And so this is an opportunity, you know, for i specific. I actually wrote this for a friend of mine. who lives in northern Michigan I don't see and she wanted to learn how to play and so I've been kicking the idea around so I spent a few months and I produced it you know and did the videos here in my office and and I created all the music and laid it all out and did the whole thing And then i I hired somebody to help me put it in the proper format so it could be downloaded. But but and that was like her first first thing that she said to me. She said, my god, she says, this is fun. I'm having a ball. i Literally, she bought she bought it. And three days later, i'm I'm hearing back from her. She's already playing songs. And she says, I just didn't think I'd be able to do this. So it's yeah, it it it that would be my my first
01:29:05.71
Roger Humphrey
My first suggestion would be something like that. big you know the the The tricky part is tuning it, but it's not, there there are tricks, and I address that in the in the method. But but yeah, you know you can do that. And that'll give you a good foundation, a good ah a good working knowledge of the instrument. And then it's just learning more stuff. And a lot of that you can do on your own. You don't need,
01:29:31.37
Roger Humphrey
I mean, sometimes we need the week by week lessons just because we need somebody to talk to and let us know we're doing okay.
01:29:36.24
wednesdayleefriday
Mmhmm.
01:29:36.39
Roger Humphrey
But ah but aside from that, from a technical standpoint, yeah there's a ton of stuff that you could do. The Patreon page, now five bucks a month, which is cheaper than a lesson, five bucks a month and you're gonna you're gonna have you know the songs, eight bucks a month for the for the whole package.
01:29:51.61
Roger Humphrey
And you've got so new songs to work on all the time. Now, flat out, you're not gonna like every song that's on the Patreon page. Nobody does nobody does but me.
01:30:00.80
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
01:30:02.94
Roger Humphrey
But, you know, you're not the idea that you've got a lot to choose from, you know, and if you don't want to just play melodies, and you then you can play, you know, you can strum and sing.
01:30:07.38
wednesdayleefriday
Great.
01:30:13.73
Roger Humphrey
If you don't want to sing, you can just play the melodies. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nobody says you have to strum and sing. You can just play the melodies. And that's all, and that's done in tablature as well. As a matter of fact, that entire method is all tablature.
01:30:25.50
Roger Humphrey
There's no note reading in that at all.
01:30:26.92
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, wow, cool.
01:30:28.27
Roger Humphrey
And, yeah, yeah. and and Well, I've talked with other people. Tablature used to be kind of a dirty word ah with with a lot of guitar players.
01:30:39.51
wednesdayleefriday
Well, that's the thing is that some people say that, oh, it's lazy and you didn't, you know, it's, it's like a gate keeping thing. But someone like me looks at that and says, look, do you want people to be exposed to music or not?
01:30:51.84
wednesdayleefriday
Do you want to give people this, these opportunities or not? Because learning how to read music and understanding like all the notes and all the symbolism, that's not necessarily an afternoon's work.
01:31:04.68
wednesdayleefriday
Like there's a lot that goes into being able to know it in a functional way.
01:31:06.11
Roger Humphrey
Well, it's but all you you're talking about conveying information, and that's just two different vehicles, um really.
01:31:13.30
wednesdayleefriday
Mm hmm.
01:31:16.15
Roger Humphrey
and And by the way, tablature, particularly on guitars and and and ukuleles, tablature predates standard notation.
01:31:26.34
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep.
01:31:26.56
Roger Humphrey
ah Guitar music guitar music ah was was published Well, the earliest publications I'm aware of is in 1536. And that was specifically Renaissance guitar, which was a four-string instrument um and tuned not unlike a ukulele. um and and And that was all done in tablature. They didn't start, and they had a boatload of music that was published
01:31:59.20
Roger Humphrey
ah through the Renaissance and through the Baroque era and they didn't start actually doing notation and and and bringing the guitar into the mainstream until, you know, the late 1700s during the time of Mozart. So so the idea that that that tablature is somehow cheating, it's not. And there honestly are times that the tablature does a better job of conveying the information than standard notation. does
01:32:27.38
wednesdayleefriday
Interesting.
01:32:27.66
Roger Humphrey
And other times, the standard notation does a better job. And it depends on what you want as a player. A tablature doesn't do a particularly good job of conveying rhythms.
01:32:41.89
Roger Humphrey
But for most people who are playing,
01:32:42.62
wednesdayleefriday
Great, right.
01:32:43.64
Roger Humphrey
You already know what the song sounds like anyway, so who cares.
01:32:45.74
wednesdayleefriday
right
01:32:47.50
Roger Humphrey
yeah it's so it's it's It's really not it's not a big issue. i yeah i used to be I used to be a snob and and I changed my mind and everything that I put out now.
01:33:00.55
Roger Humphrey
with very few exceptions, everything that I put out ah for solo instruments, whether advanced whether it's advanced stuff or or or not, if it's student stuff, it comes in both forms. and To be honest with you, ah on the computer, with the with the computer program that I use, it's three clicks. And I'm not kidding, it is it is simply three clicks to to create the tabs from the standard notation.
01:33:29.79
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
01:33:30.83
Roger Humphrey
That's for the whole song.
01:33:33.07
wednesdayleefriday
That's amazing.
01:33:34.57
Roger Humphrey
I mean, yeah, I mean, literally, all I have to do is click the beginning, click the ending, hit copy, click click the beginning where I wanted to to go in the in in the in the tab step and hit hit paste.
01:33:48.15
wednesdayleefriday
I see.
01:33:50.41
Roger Humphrey
Boom, it's done. i have to I do have to go back and tweak it every once in a while. It was a little bit fast, we tweaked, but not very much.
01:33:58.50
wednesdayleefriday
see Well, cool.
01:34:01.38
Roger Humphrey
So yes,
01:34:01.54
wednesdayleefriday
So it sounds like anyone, like literally anyone could learn how to play an instrument if they applied themselves. but there's There's really no one that is not suited to it.
01:34:11.07
Roger Humphrey
yes. and i right and i will And I will go back to what we talked about a while ago, and that is learn to embrace the the process. don't don't Don't practice so that you can perform, or don't practice so that you can impress.
01:34:29.74
Roger Humphrey
Practice because the practicing itself is is is the is the ends. That's not the means to the end. That's the end. it's the Learn to embrace the practice. Learn to embrace the learning.
01:34:40.94
Roger Humphrey
and and it's like Again, like I say said about the jigsaw puzzles, people put those things together. Don't do it so they can look at a pretty picture. It's the process that they enjoy.
01:34:50.96
wednesdayleefriday
Right, right, because the picture's already on the box.
01:34:52.46
Roger Humphrey
And so it so so you can you can play as badly as as you want. And instead of holding yourself up to somebody else's standard, you know whether it's legit or otherwise, you can you can the only standard is, you know did I have fun today? you know Did I learn something today? Am I a little bit better today than I was yesterday?
01:35:17.55
Roger Humphrey
and And if I don't practice it for a week or two, how much did I forget and how quickly will it come back?
01:35:23.48
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
01:35:23.51
Roger Humphrey
ah Because you will forget. I mean, it's I do. if If I don't practice for a couple of days, I can tell immediately. if if i I will occasionally take the weekend off and not practice at all on Saturday and Sunday.
01:35:36.22
Roger Humphrey
And I can feel it in my hands on Monday morning, absolutely flat out. And even though I don't perform anymore, I still practice every day. and and Because I think I'm getting better. but
01:35:49.66
Roger Humphrey
but But it's just something I build into it. I don't get disappointed because I don't sound as good on Monday as I did on Friday. It's just part of the process. I understand that. It's going to be that way. and But I also know from experience that it comes back quite quickly. I have students who have who studied music, played marching band when they were in high school. And 25 years later, they decide they want to play guitar and I'm going to teach them how to read notes. Like, oh my God, I did once, but I've totally forgotten everything. I have to totally relearn it. No, you don't. You'd be surprised how much of that you retain. I start showing, so I remember that. Well, I remember that. Oh yeah, that's, I remember what that did. Oh yeah. Well, doesn't that mean, you know, and it just, all this stuff just bubbles to the surface. So once you get used to that and that, that concept of it doing that,
01:36:38.69
Roger Humphrey
Then.
01:36:42.34
Roger Humphrey
then then the process is easier because your expectations are are are are adjusted to reality. And so that's, ah to me, that's the important part is just having realistic expectations. and you And if you don't know what they are, then you won't know when when you have them. I mean, it takes sometimes, just take somebody to hold your hands and go, this is what to expect. And then you go, oh, okay. That's a little easier at that point.
01:37:08.13
Roger Humphrey
you know
01:37:08.73
wednesdayleefriday
Okay, cool. That makes sense.
01:37:10.85
Roger Humphrey
So so yeah everybody everybody can learn. and And you learn at your own speed. you learn And that's the other thing. ah They say children learn quicker or better or something than adults do.
01:37:26.91
Roger Humphrey
And I'm here to call BS on that. um Children learn differently. and And children are used to failure. and They try it.
01:37:37.00
wednesdayleefriday
and they're gonna be less inhibited.
01:37:39.08
Roger Humphrey
Exactly. Because they're they don't, they just try it. And if it doesn't come out, they try it again. And if you show them something, then they try it again. Oh, not quite like that. Let's do it this way. If I do that with an adult, they're devastated.
01:37:50.50
Roger Humphrey
Oh my God, I'm stupid. I'm terrible. I'm dumb. I'm too on talented.
01:37:53.34
wednesdayleefriday
Well, yeah, we've taught to be embarrassed at not getting things right that the first try and that's just well and not only that but ah Creatives in general we compare ourselves to other people people we admire as you know I went to college with a Fantastic writer whose career if if you're playing the better game the better or worse game You know, he he's doing better career wise than I am and his work is so fucking good so
01:37:55.92
Roger Humphrey
Yeah. Right.
01:38:05.16
Roger Humphrey
Absolutely. Yeah.
01:38:22.49
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, and the same and the same guy that you're talking about was in my guitar class. And now, I'm i'm looking at what he he does with his podcast, and I feel like a total idiot.
01:38:32.74
Roger Humphrey
I want to take lessons from him.
01:38:34.40
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
01:38:35.56
Roger Humphrey
Yeah.
01:38:35.99
wednesdayleefriday
But that's the thing when you comparing yourself to other people is a recipe for unhappiness and probably failure because you're going to feel like a failure because you're not somebody else.
01:38:39.60
Roger Humphrey
Yeah. Oh, yeah. absolutely Yeah.
01:38:45.85
wednesdayleefriday
When you were never supposed to be, you were always supposed to be yourself.
01:38:46.22
Roger Humphrey
Right. right So to to as we take a look at this, if you want it particularly as an adult, if you want to define successfully learning an instrument, focus on the word learning. And it's and and the learning is an ongoing process that never ends. Hell, I'm still learning. i've been doing i' been I started taking lessons when I was 10.
01:39:12.00
Roger Humphrey
you know And like I said before, I'm 76, so that means I've been whacking away at this thing for 66 years. and and And I still feel like an idiot. i just you know There are days I just feel like I should just set the thing on fire and walk away.
01:39:27.89
Roger Humphrey
um but so when When you're learning at home, don't say, oh, well, you know, I only know one song or I only know three chords or I can play three chords, but only one of them.
01:39:41.91
Roger Humphrey
Well, you know, things like that.
01:39:43.14
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
01:39:44.11
Roger Humphrey
It's it's easy. It is the easiest thing in the world to do is to beat yourself up and and. It's what you have to do, is step back, say, OK.
01:39:55.42
Roger Humphrey
You know, ah ah I've done this with my students all the time. ah we're We're in book four, and I'll say, let's go back and play something in book one. And I'll pull something. And I'll go, well, that's pretty easy.
01:40:05.75
Roger Humphrey
I say, yeah, you remember when you first learned it? You thought it was the hardest thing in the world. You were too stupid to ever learn how to play this instrument. And they get all red in the face. Yeah, I remember. yeah Because we're always living on the edge.
01:40:14.14
wednesdayleefriday
Yep, yep.
01:40:16.55
Roger Humphrey
You know, we're always learning the new thing. and and but But just take the time when you're learning it to go, okay, you know I'm um um on song number three and I could only play song number one two weeks ago or something. you know So I guess I'm making some progress. And then it's that's encouraging to know that you're making progress. But you know is is this stuff that you want to play in a concert? no Probably not. But is it fun? Yeah, kind of.
01:40:43.24
Roger Humphrey
ah kind of So so at at that point, who gives a flying thing? I mean.
01:40:48.77
wednesdayleefriday
Right, right. um So we're actually nearing the end of our time and I want to make sure and ask if there's anything that you wanted to talk about that I did not ask about.
01:41:01.52
Roger Humphrey
ah not really I think we we got off deeper into guitar education and music education than I thought that we would, but no i don't I don't know that there was anything specific that I wanted to get into.
01:41:12.48
wednesdayleefriday
Okay.
01:41:12.58
Roger Humphrey
um it's it's I've been teaching for a lot of years and I enjoy it, and I don't perform anymore. and And the reason for that is that I have developed some tremors in my hands.
01:41:28.40
Roger Humphrey
Nothing serious. And and it's not Parkinson's. I've checked. It is. It's actually a reaction to some heart medications. that i might So I don't play.
01:41:38.52
wednesdayleefriday
Oh.
01:41:41.63
Roger Humphrey
as I don't practice as hard as I used to. I practice every day. I try to play at least one piece by Bach every day because I'm absolutely in love with this guy's music. A quick side story there. they asked that When they they put Voyager 1 into space and they put that gold record in there to kind of give people an an indication of what the sounds of Earth would be like. So if it was ever intercepted by some aliens.
01:42:08.88
Roger Humphrey
And one of the things they put on there was music by Chuck Berry. yet on all like And so I thought it was pretty cool. But they did not put any music on there by J.S. Bach. And they were asked, the the guy who helped put that program together was asked, why didnt quite didn't you put any music by J.S. Bach on there? And he said, well that would just be bragging.
01:42:28.75
Roger Humphrey
let and
01:42:30.65
wednesdayleefriday
That's true. That is true.
01:42:31.63
Roger Humphrey
And and and that's that's so i so I play a little something by Bach every day. I listen to some more by Bach every day. But I don't play as well today as I used to because I don't practice as much. It's you know it's it's it's ah it's it's an easy equation.
01:42:47.50
Roger Humphrey
um but But I still play every day and I enjoy it. But it gives me, by not practicing as much, it gives me time to do some of the other things that I've never been able to do. I was never able to do a lot of the lot of the things that i've done I've been doing the last couple of years because I just didn't have the time and the day.
01:43:03.74
Roger Humphrey
There was a time when you knew me, ah I was teaching a pretty healthy load at Olivette College. I was also teaching at Elma College. I was also teaching at my home and I was teaching at a music store in Lansing. And a combination of all of that, I was teaching, um well, I maxed it out. At one point I was teaching 93 private students every week In addition to that, I was teaching five different classes and I was conducting two different performing ensembles, one children and one adult guitar ensemble and arranging music for those. And I was driving almost 700 miles a week to do all of that.
01:43:50.89
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
01:43:52.18
Roger Humphrey
Yeah, yeah, I have a friend friend of mine who said that, he says, when I told him i was I was only teaching like four days a week, he said, God, dude, he says, you invented the 27-hour workday. He said, he said, but yeah, I like to stay busy, but that that that was that was insane. but But ah at at one point, and you have to understand as a classical guitarist and somebody particularly who also specialized in teaching young children, and I did, I've i've written methods on how to, you know, teaching young children. um And I was the only guy in mid-Michigan doing that.
01:44:34.47
Roger Humphrey
you You had, yeah I was it.
01:44:34.66
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, wow.
01:44:36.81
Roger Humphrey
I had at one point students from as far away as as Houghton Lake and as far south as Jackson. That's like a 200 mile spread there. ah and And people coming to me in various locations.
01:44:50.51
Roger Humphrey
Plus, you know, at Olivette College, Olivette College is 80 miles from where I live. 82 miles from my driveway to that parking lot.
01:44:59.37
wednesdayleefriday
See, man, that's not even burning the candle at both ends, man.
01:44:59.48
Roger Humphrey
and
01:45:02.77
wednesdayleefriday
That's just chucking the candle in the fire.
01:45:06.71
Roger Humphrey
That's, and yeah, you know. and And I turned down other positions. I mean, I had people at other colleges calling me up and asking me if I'd come to start a program there. I went, no. I don't wanna.
01:45:18.52
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
01:45:20.30
Roger Humphrey
But they were calling me because there was nobody else. There was no one else. Now, a few years into the program, particularly at Olivette, because I created the majors program there. And a few and few years into that, we had a couple of we had a couple people graduating that I could have,
01:45:34.87
Roger Humphrey
I could have referred, yeah had the request continued to come. but but um yeah i was i would so um Now I'm down to about a dozen students. Everybody's online. I don't leave this house unless I absolutely have to anymore.
01:45:48.94
Roger Humphrey
and And I don't get, and i don't gig but i do I am able to record because ah if I screw it up, I can do another take, which, you know, when you're performing, you can't, you're just kind of there.
01:46:00.94
wednesdayleefriday
Mm-hmm. Yep.
01:46:04.67
Roger Humphrey
You know, so so if the and if the hands are, and the the shakiness of the hands doesn't last. It's usually temporary. It might last for 20 minutes. It might last for an hour. So if it's if it's a rough morning, I'll tackle it in the afternoon or something.
01:46:17.88
Roger Humphrey
And so i can I can still work in that regard. I can still play and I can still do things like that, but I just can't go out and and do, you know, anywhere from one to four hours.
01:46:28.31
Roger Humphrey
My hands just won't do it anymore. But but but but that's freeing me up to to write these methods and...
01:46:30.70
wednesdayleefriday
I see.
01:46:37.78
Roger Humphrey
Oh, God, I gotta to tell you. i A few years ago, I wrote a series of six advanced studies for for the left hand for the guitar. and and this is These are for advanced players, college level and up.
01:46:56.06
Roger Humphrey
and and
01:46:59.29
Roger Humphrey
And I'd forgotten about them and I came across them in some other papers. Some papers that had gotten moved and I thought, oh, I should probably take these and just kind of refinger them and and and kind of retype set them because they they look kind of sloppy and all that kind of stuff. and But I was missing one page from from the fourth one. So yesterday,
01:47:23.46
Roger Humphrey
I went scrounging around and thought, well, I wonder if I've got that you know somewhere in the computer. So I went looking through my computer files. And I found all six of them there. Oh, wow.
01:47:34.12
Roger Humphrey
How about that? They're all there. They're all complete, everything. So i I brought it up the page.
01:47:38.73
wednesdayleefriday
Nice.
01:47:39.65
Roger Humphrey
And it was completely retyped set and in tablature as well. And everything about it had been refingered. And I had done all six of them already.
01:47:47.93
wednesdayleefriday
Wow.
01:47:49.42
Roger Humphrey
And so then I thought, well, at the very least, what I should do, I have a ah tab on my website, rogerhomefree.com. ah that but It's called Resources, and it's all free stuff. You can just go in there and download stuff. There's also another tab in there. It's just video tips on a variety of different things. But the Resources page is a little bit of everything. just it's just scattered It's blank manuscript. It's chord charts. It's different.
01:48:20.25
Roger Humphrey
a method book on how to read music and so on and so forth. ah So anyway, I thought, well, maybe I ought to put it on that. So I went in there to open the resources page up and hell, it's already there.
01:48:33.84
Roger Humphrey
Hey, Wednesday, getting old sucks.
01:48:33.97
wednesdayleefriday
ah
01:48:37.04
Roger Humphrey
ah
01:48:38.23
wednesdayleefriday
ah Well, I told you i'm I'm almost the same age as old people and it freaks me out Dude dude, ah I have so been there man Yep,
01:48:40.95
Roger Humphrey
i have to
01:48:45.27
Roger Humphrey
Oh, I'll tell you what. you know When you got to make but you have a note on the wall that says, did you put on your pants?
01:48:57.24
Roger Humphrey
so it's it's It's just old. you know I watched a comedian on TV the other night.
01:49:01.82
wednesdayleefriday
yep
01:49:04.59
Roger Humphrey
He was talking about being old. he is at And he he he said, I asked Siri about what my life expectancy was. And she changed the subject. so
01:49:19.11
Roger Humphrey
There you go.
01:49:20.30
wednesdayleefriday
yeah
01:49:21.81
Roger Humphrey
So yeah, that's that's hilarious.
01:49:21.94
wednesdayleefriday
Oh my goodness.
01:49:24.28
Roger Humphrey
But but yeah, you know, it is what it is. So anyway, that if anybody's interested is on that resources tab of my page and.
01:49:32.39
wednesdayleefriday
Well, we'll have a link to your website in the episode description.
01:49:35.43
Roger Humphrey
Thank you. also Also on the website is a link to the Patreon page and a link to the to to my podcast, Creative Conversations.
01:49:43.41
wednesdayleefriday
Okay. So one stop shop.
01:49:45.74
Roger Humphrey
So yeah, one stop shopping. You go on in there and and and a variety of other things. like and You don't have to um subscribe to anything that's on there. on that you know you can you can go You can go and download all of that free stuff and I'll never know you were there.
01:50:00.54
Roger Humphrey
It would be nice if you did subscribe, but they don't have to. um its they But I invite people to just go in there and like, tromp around, see what you find.
01:50:10.65
Roger Humphrey
And I hope you'll like it.
01:50:11.92
wednesdayleefriday
Right on.
01:50:11.91
Roger Humphrey
so
01:50:13.51
wednesdayleefriday
Well, before we get to the Mad Lib, is there anything you want to ask me? Because I do give guests a chance to ask me a question if they want to.
01:50:21.62
Roger Humphrey
I think the only question I would ask you is is what new projects are you working on right now?
01:50:27.44
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, oh gosh. Um, what a great question. No, I'm, uh, I'm finishing up book three in the savior trilogy, which is my ill conceived book series about Don Jr. Oh, I mean about a prominent son of a prominent political figure who is emphatically not anyone you've ever heard of. Um, so I'm working on that and that's going to finish up the trilogy.
01:50:50.62
wednesdayleefriday
And, uh, I'm also getting another short collection together and, you know, H and I together are writing a, uh, he's actually mapped it out, but it's like a choose your own adventure style story that we actually called, um, the series is going to be called you brought this on yourself.
01:50:50.69
Roger Humphrey
Oh, that's cool.
01:51:03.49
Roger Humphrey
Oh.
01:51:08.51
wednesdayleefriday
And it's a bunch of that, that style of story where you're, you're choosing.
01:51:08.75
Roger Humphrey
Oh.
01:51:12.61
wednesdayleefriday
And it's, it's an interesting challenge for me as a writer because. The perspective on those books is second person perspective, which is not a way that I am accustomed to writing. I always write in first person. Well, I shouldn't say always, but predominantly I write in first person. So I do sometimes write in third person when the story calls for it, but but second person, like writing toward you, like the you in parentheses is is pretty challenging. So that's that's pretty much what I'm working on now.
01:51:46.51
Roger Humphrey
That sounds like fun. It sounds like you're stretching a little bit. So point point quite quite when you start releasing that stuff, I want you to come back on my podcast and and we can...
01:51:49.48
wednesdayleefriday
Well, that's me.
01:51:54.89
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, right on. Well, you know, we do have the magazine, um sometimes hilarious horror, and I'm always writing new shorts for that. We're quarterly, so we release four times a year.
01:52:06.76
wednesdayleefriday
and We're on coffee, actually. So that's KO-FI slash sometimes hilarious horror. So if you want to support us like, you know, with money or whatever, that's a good place to do that. Um, and also just to, you know, subscribe and see stories. I put up my stories for free. We have contributors. I don't give away their stories for free.
01:52:27.10
wednesdayleefriday
but they are in the magazine. And then I put up shorts. I actually finished one recently for the last issue. The thing is, every time a fat woman is a writer, eventually she will write a piece called Fat Bitch, regardless of genre.
01:52:42.77
wednesdayleefriday
like Eventually it will happen.
01:52:43.20
Roger Humphrey
ah
01:52:45.81
wednesdayleefriday
and And it took me a while, but I finally did did mine, and it was in our last issue. So that was pretty fun.
01:52:53.57
Roger Humphrey
um'm I'm glad you got it out of your system.
01:52:55.21
wednesdayleefriday
right right um so hey so it's time for the mad lib are you ready for this all right first up looks like i need one two three four five singular nouns
01:52:55.56
Roger Humphrey
yeah Sure.
01:53:12.12
Roger Humphrey
Five singular nouns. Okay. ah Clock. ah Television.
01:53:25.24
Roger Humphrey
Automobile.
01:53:27.99
Roger Humphrey
Microphone, because I'm looking at it. And picture frame.
01:53:35.30
wednesdayleefriday
All right. Hang on. Writing, writing, writing.
01:53:38.40
Roger Humphrey
Was that random enough?
01:53:40.30
wednesdayleefriday
Sure. Absolutely. I need, okay, one plural noun.
01:53:47.82
Roger Humphrey
One plural noun. Toys.
01:53:55.17
wednesdayleefriday
Okay. Adjectives. I need one, two, three, four, five adjectives.
01:54:03.32
Roger Humphrey
So adjectives. Okay. Chubby. um Green. Wavy. Long.
01:54:28.71
Roger Humphrey
And transparent.
01:54:36.53
wednesdayleefriday
Okay, I need a part of the body plural.
01:54:41.25
Roger Humphrey
Oh, ears.
01:54:43.97
wednesdayleefriday
And two verbs.
01:54:46.15
Roger Humphrey
To make up your mind.
01:54:46.62
wednesdayleefriday
Nope, three, three verbs. I know, right? I'm such a liar. Why do I lie?
01:54:53.95
Roger Humphrey
Three verbs, um, quickly.
01:55:00.75
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, that's an adverb, which is fine because we do need an adverb.
01:55:04.35
Roger Humphrey
Okay, sorry about that. So a verb, it's an action word.
01:55:08.33
wednesdayleefriday
Right.
01:55:09.31
Roger Humphrey
Action word, let's see. Run.
01:55:13.38
wednesdayleefriday
Uh-huh.
01:55:14.94
Roger Humphrey
Blank.
01:55:19.34
Roger Humphrey
Oh, and slobber.
01:55:22.39
wednesdayleefriday
And I need one more verb that ends in I-N-G.
01:55:27.43
Roger Humphrey
Verb that ends in ing. Sing.
01:55:34.82
wednesdayleefriday
All right.
01:55:34.85
Roger Humphrey
or singing singing, whichever works best for your story.
01:55:36.00
wednesdayleefriday
Yep. Got it. Got it. And a celebrity.
01:55:41.49
Roger Humphrey
A celebrity. Oh, is this just somebody famous, a celebrity?
01:55:47.38
wednesdayleefriday
Yep. Anybody famous.
01:55:49.53
Roger Humphrey
Anybody famous, okay. ah Let me think on that for a moment.
01:55:57.73
Roger Humphrey
Let me see, Paul McCartney.
01:56:06.50
wednesdayleefriday
All right, sweet. So this story is called Let's Get Packing. If you are going to a sleepover at a friend's clock, here is a chubby list of things to put in your overnight television.
01:56:21.97
wednesdayleefriday
Green pajamas and a change of toys for the next day.
01:56:25.77
Roger Humphrey
hahaha
01:56:25.95
wednesdayleefriday
ah A tooth automobile for brushing your ears. Some CDs so you and your friends can run to your favorite wavy tunes. Magazines with someone like Paul McCartney on the cover. Yeah, I think you're going to have to eBay that. um And articles on how to blink quickly. Wow. um A long microphone light will help you to slobber in the dark while you stay up singing into the wee hours of the picture frame. If you follow this checklist, you should have a really transparent sleepover.
01:57:05.67
wednesdayleefriday
I still don't know if I'm legally allowed to do Mad Libs on my show, but come at me, Mattel.
01:57:10.12
Roger Humphrey
What the hell?
01:57:11.81
wednesdayleefriday
Is it Mattel now? I don't even know if it still is. Raj, I'm so glad you could be here. I had such a fun time talking to you.
01:57:18.57
Roger Humphrey
Me too. That was a good time.
01:57:20.65
wednesdayleefriday
Right? Thank you so much.
01:57:21.48
Roger Humphrey
Nope. I was afraid that we wouldn't have anything to talk about.
01:57:24.94
wednesdayleefriday
Oh, come on.
01:57:24.92
Roger Humphrey
Silly me.
01:57:25.70
wednesdayleefriday
Right? ah That is silly you. We didn't even get to half the questions on the list, for heaven's sake. um So hey, to our listeners, I just want to say thanks to everybody. We just told you how to support us over to the coffee. So, you know, help yourself to that. And we'll see everybody next week.
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