Just now read your music post Wave. Damn relative pitch sounds like a pretty good thing to get as far as superpower lottery is concerned. I got crossing my ankles behind my head instead. I can identify whether a following note is higher or lower pitch than the previous one with about 96% accuracy and thats how far my musical talents go LOL.
rhythm is also a complete mystery to me. Well I can make a simple rhythm, I just cant really hear one. The one time I was dancing, people were doing shit like counting 123 123 123 for steps while listening to the song but I just couldnt find any relation between the numbers and the sounds. But presumably there was some, as I was seemingly the only person who couldnt get it.
Also, 4 wins 4 losses sounds like a damn good result for a casual player at GP. Nice work, and good luck on the side events.
On July 24 2017 09:37 Scip wrote: Just now read your music post Wave. Damn relative pitch sounds like a pretty good thing to get as far as superpower lottery is concerned. I got crossing my ankles behind my head instead. I can identify whether a following note is higher or lower pitch than the previous one with about 96% accuracy and thats how far my musical talents go LOL.
rhythm is also a complete mystery to me. Well I can make a simple rhythm, I just cant really hear one. The one time I was dancing, people were doing shit like counting 123 123 123 for steps while listening to the song but I just couldnt find any relation between the numbers and the sounds. But presumably there was some, as I was seemingly the only person who couldnt get it.
Also, 4 wins 4 losses sounds like a damn good result for a casual player at GP. Nice work, and good luck on the side events.
Thanks Scip.
Relative pitch can be trained, and I'd argue that likely anyone who has been trained in music to any degree (instrument, vocal, etc) has some measure of relative pitch. It comes with the territory. It's perfect pitch that's the true superpower. I also imagine since it's been years since I've really played piano to any thorough degree mine has probably fallen off somewhat.
Big writeup still in the works for my GP weekend but before Music Monday begins tomorrow I have another topic for those who still bother to visit the forum.
Story: My friend and I are waiting to cash in some of our prize tickets at the GP. We bought a deal where for $150 you get $200 worth of 'side event' vouchers that you can use throughout the GP. Problem is, I stayed in at the main event for longer than I expected so we had like $70 worth of vouchers we weren't able to use. So we're stading in line waiting to cash in some prize tickets and attempting to hock some of the rest of our vouchers for 75% of their value. We ask someone standing next to us and we're talking back and forth, and this person offers us a voucher for 3 booster packs for a few of our prize tickets. My friend says to me: 'Well why don't we just offer a voucher or two?' I say' He doesn't want that,' at which point I am corrected by said person to 'She.'
Now this person was large, had rainbow hair, was wearing effeminate clothing. Assuming she is trans, she was obviously pre-op (or whatever the going term is these days, I truly can't follow). I just said 'Sorry,' and we carried on the conversation. Now I'm assuming this person gets it all the time, and she wasn't visibly upset or anything (though I've heard some stories where arguably innocent mistakes are taken out of proportion....but I digress.)
My thing is, being around the event this weekend there were a much larger proportion of trans people that I am accustomed to seeing basically anywhere else. This also tends to go for local game stores I attend as well. I know there are various women involved in the pro scene in Magic as well, and a fair number of them are trans as well (you'll have to look this one up to know the names specifically. I think one now works at WotC as well.)
What is it about Magic specifically that either seems to attract a relatively higher proportion of trans people or allows them to be comfortable enough in that specific setting? I feel like there must be something about the demographic and I'm curious to know if anyone has any insight in the matter. (I think Reddit gets onto this from time to time, but good lord does that conversation turn toxic quickly).
My understanding is that perfect pitch can actually be trained as well but you pretty much have to be a music professional to get enough practice to keep it up and you can lose it within a month. Unless, of course, your perfect pitch was naturally gifted to you in which case you're the envy of mundane musicians.
I remember being in college choir and after months of practice 5 days a week I still had trouble reading music, especially large intervals, but I knew exactly where in my vocal range all of our pieces started. I miss having that much time to practice music, especially in a serious choir format where you're all on a team together and just create something none of you could hope to do by yourselves.
edit: It's monday on the east coast, so here's a piece that I absolutely loved in choir but we never ended up singing it in concert because it didn't get enough practice.
There was a time where I felt I was pretty close to getting perfect pitch, but I'll never have that much time to throw into music again :/
For like a year it was pretty much all I did though. I'd like to think those were good times, but I bet if I did it again now I would absolutely hate it.
On July 24 2017 09:37 Scip wrote: Just now read your music post Wave. Damn relative pitch sounds like a pretty good thing to get as far as superpower lottery is concerned. I got crossing my ankles behind my head instead. I can identify whether a following note is higher or lower pitch than the previous one with about 96% accuracy and thats how far my musical talents go LOL.
rhythm is also a complete mystery to me. Well I can make a simple rhythm, I just cant really hear one. The one time I was dancing, people were doing shit like counting 123 123 123 for steps while listening to the song but I just couldnt find any relation between the numbers and the sounds. But presumably there was some, as I was seemingly the only person who couldnt get it.
Also, 4 wins 4 losses sounds like a damn good result for a casual player at GP. Nice work, and good luck on the side events.
I have relative pitch, rhythm, and a high tenor. What I don't have is a choir young enough to allow my choir director to try any piece that makes me work for it. My wife and I are literally two decades younger than the next youngest, who's a good decade younger than the next.
Basically we're a decade short of being an old folk's home rather than a church choir.
Na, was just sleeping. I sleep too much. Or rather too much during the day, not enough during the night. >>
You read reddit enough to see all these stories of people with social anxiety, panic attacks, etc. who found some sort of haven in magic where people are kind and patient with them, they share a hobby, and all that. I assume that you can find a correlation between activities seen as "nerdy" and things susceptible to make people uneased, shunned, or generally feeling isolated as teenagers or young adults (such as gender/sexuality matters) so that they're more likely to turn to or be accepted in circles already populated by people "outside the norm."
On July 24 2017 12:08 WaveofShadow wrote: What is it about Magic specifically that either seems to attract a relatively higher proportion of trans people or allows them to be comfortable enough in that specific setting? I feel like there must be something about the demographic and I'm curious to know if anyone has any insight in the matter. (I think Reddit gets onto this from time to time, but good lord does that conversation turn toxic quickly).
From some conversations. a lot of trans folk feel a sense of safety in a nerdy hobby because people tend to be a lot more accepting of people with a similar hobby in nerd-y settings, usually this includes online games where they can express themselves without any judgement at all but MTG literally accepts anyone and takes a hard line against shaming or bigotry, which makes the space safer for folk who are otherwise targeted for bullshit.
There are a TON of LGBTQ Tabletop gamers for a similar reason. a lot of groups just dont accept that hateful shit. and have 0 tolerance for it. so it's a lot easier to find a group, especially with the internet to help coordinate.
but there are always the "Game Store" stereotypical people. The ones that make every DnD campaign about semi-consensual with random NPCs or PCs played by women or rape, Or the overtly racist card game player stuff. So a lot of folk steer well clear of that setting. But MTG events have pretty solid guidelines for throwing out terrible people.
Pretty much Nerdy hobbyists = accepting of other hobbyist. Wizards tries to create a safer setting for otherwise targeted groups. And Escapism through games is especially helpful for people who have difficult lives for whatever reason. you also see a lot of people with depression/anxiety in tournaments and in TTRPG groups
I haven't actually seen/heard/interacted with a single person who said they were trans in real life, but I don't know whether that's because I'm a sheltered white boy or whether the percentage is just really low.
I think your more likely to see trans people the higher your socio-economic class.
When you poor you don't have time to worry about that shit, you just working 80 hrs a week to put a roof over your head with food on the table.
In those circumstances even if you gender disphoric as fuck like chances are you worried about other things to devote the resources and time to an identity crisis. Even with free Medicare the opportunity costs of getting diagnosed are unreal.
Not only do you not have time, but coming out as (insert anything other than the cultural norm here) can have a very negative impact on your job/career opportunities. I know people who kept the fact they played WoW a secret because the corporate culture where they worked was such that letting that slip would have killed their careers, and that's just the "wrong" choice of hobby.
I'm pretty sure it's turning the frogs gay not the fish. Fish were gay to begin with. At least frogs are like cows of the lizard world so they were alright until the government starting turning them gay.
To be real Trans people are a very tiny minority so chances are you won't interact with one in your lifetime or if you do come across you may never know.
EPT
