Monthly Archives: January 2009

The Reading Conundrum

Posted on January 31, 2009 by guitarsophist

The book for last week’s seminar meeting was Reading Rhetorically by John Bean, Virginia Chappell, and Alice Gillam.  As I noted in another post, this is designed as a freshman text, but I tend to use it as a teacher … Continue reading →

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Virtual Amplifiers and Effects

Posted on January 27, 2009 by guitarsophist

Recording real guitar amplifiers can be a big hassle. If you’ve got a studio and you are making an important record, I’m sure it is the way to go. Until fairly recently, it was the only thing you could do … Continue reading →

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Students as Pundits

Posted on January 24, 2009 by guitarsophist

More than 30 years ago the California State University implemented the English Placement Test (EPT) as an instrument for placing students in appropriate composition courses.  The test was innovative at the time because it was one of the early large-scale … Continue reading →

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A New World of Orality?

Posted on January 21, 2009 by guitarsophist

In my seminar last night we discussed Walter Ong’s concepts of primary and secondary orality. Primary orality is the state of a society that has never known or developed literacy. The history of the group, lineages, myths, stories, and customs … Continue reading →

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Is Literacy a Good Thing?

Posted on January 20, 2009 by guitarsophist

Our culture associates high levels of literacy with intelligence, civilization, and knowledge.  Much of our educational system is devoted to teaching and developing literacy.  We admire people who read quickly and who have read many books.  We scorn those who … Continue reading →

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In Particular Pursuit of Tone

Posted on January 17, 2009 by guitarsophist

I have a 2005 Fender “Special Edition” Standard Telecaster.  So far, in search of noise reduction I have replaced the stock pickups with Guitar Fetish GFS Li’l Punchers XL, and less than a year later in search of a more … Continue reading →

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Hiragana

Posted on January 14, 2009 by guitarsophist

Last night was the second meeting of the “Pedagogies of Reading” seminar.  The main event was to be the first two sections of Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid, but I had too many lead in activities, so we barely … Continue reading →

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Teaching Online

Posted on January 12, 2009 by guitarsophist

My “Pedagogies of Reading” seminar this quarter is scheduled to meet on Tuesdays from 5:30-9:20.  I have never found four-hour evening seminars to be productive, either as a teacher or a student.  By the time we begin, I have been … Continue reading →

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Cheap Guitars and Vintage Mystique

Posted on January 10, 2009 by guitarsophist

Back in the ’60’s it was simple.  If you if you were going to play electric guitar you had to have a Gibson, a Fender, or a Rickenbacker.  If you played acoustic, you had to have a Gibson, a Martin, … Continue reading →

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The Practice of Songwriting

Posted on January 9, 2009 by guitarsophist

Like most singer-songwriters, I started out with the “strum and hum” method.  I was about 17.  I was living in a back house on my parent’s property, and my girlfriend had gone off on a trip across the country.  I … Continue reading →

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