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CHORD EASY
(full version $3.00, short version $1.00 from Light Living Library / PO Box 190-ce / Philomath, OR / 97370 USA)
Review by Randy Osborne
A lot of work went into this – page upon page of meticulous explanation in small typescript, with diagrams of guitar fingerings. “Talent is not needed,” Em Turner assures us on the first page. “If you can play or sing a melody, you can chord or harmonize it.” I’m taking Em’s word on the matter because I get stupefied as soon as I see a sentence like, “Instead of remembering the tones in each chord, or keeping a list handy: Notice that the B tone of Gj is 4 tone intervals higher than G.”
Chord Easy is for serious musicians and makes me want to be one, although obviously not to such an extent that I might actually acquire an instrument and practice.
Affixed to the outside of
Chord Easy by tiny strips of tape is a catalog that describes another publication,
Dwelling Portably, which seems to be about camping in its various forms. I haven’t seen
DP itself but the telegraphic outlines of various issues’ contents are like haikus, and plenty intriguing. In the September 2001 issue: “Napping in parks and terminals, p. 7” and “Car nap on city street hassled, p. 8.” Advice, too, about living even more rustically. Pants, it turns out, make an “expedient backpack” and assorted materials are tested for catching menstrual flow (which is believed by some to attract bears; this is explored in another issue). “Pesty rodents eaten. Taste varies more within than between species. Hornets trapped, cooked, eaten, p. 12.” Get
DP for $1 from PO Box 190-L, also Philomath.
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