@Wombat_en_Fuego said:

@wforwumbo said:

@Wombat_en_Fuego said:

Wow. I feel a tad bit smarter just because of reading this. I am so clueless about music (keys, methods of taping, etc.), so I love reading this stuff simply to gain some appreciation for what the community does for us. I always assumed the tapers' section was just a bunch of dudes putting microphones in the air. Boy, was I wrong, and gladly so.

Glad to discuss any and all of the things contained within this post (and more!) in-depth. Give me the time of day and I'll keep ranting on and on about Phish and why I love the music so much. Though again, I want to highlight I'm not necessarily correct - these are just my thoughts and notes, open for critique and discussion.

Taping for me is part science, part art - I have the science side down, and I'm actively developing the art of taping. One reason I called out Craig in this post, is he's been teaching me LOTS about taping as an art form and how to use intuition rather than equations to dictate taping methods, though he isn't the only one to do so (hint hint - stay posted for the second installment in this series!). We tend to be a pretty friendly bunch, so long as you respect our (admittedly scarily expensive) gear, silence, and dancing space in the section while we're trying to record the show.

We all want to provide a service to the fanbase and produce stellar recordings for you, the community at large, to enjoy.

I absolutely love your passion for it. I feel like such an idiot when I can't "discern" the start of Maze from Bowie or the start of Rift from Scent. I can listen to them against each other a thousand times and I still get it wrong live. I also can't seem to hear teases unless they are super obvious. And I'm not exactly new to Phish, as I've been listening since '97. How you all can talk about it how you do amazes me, and I love hearing/reading it. I will definitely look for more future installments!

There’s a quote from one of my favorite tv series, 30 Rock. Tracy Morgan asks Alec Baldwin: “you like Phil Collins?” To which Baldwin responds with “I have two ears and a heart, don’t I?” My opinions on Phil Collins’ music non-withstanding, this succinctly summarizes how I feel about the greater picture of Phish’s music. We can try to intellectualize it as much as humanly possible - and I fear much of what I write may end up coming across as such, which really isn’t my intent - but at the end of the day, we all love this band and the music. The jams make us *feel* a certain way, and that feeling and experience are unique to every single one of us. And that’s one of a number of things that brings us together, is the fact that despite our difference in perception and experience, we are all still here at the end of the day for the music. Some of my writing is an attempt to explain how I feel, and correlate anything I can to why I feel the way I do when I spin Phish jams. But that doesn’t make me any smarter or dumber than anyone else that’s also into this band. You LOVE this band, and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.

To quote a group consuming *lots* of my stereo time for the past few months, the Dead: “If you get confused, listen to the music play!”