Do It Yourself

An old man, long ago retired, decided to give up his loudspeakers. Old loudspeakers but respectable ones. He felt he didn’t need them any more, and furthermore he had forgotten how to connect them to his system. He who once was really involved in Hi-Fi.

After having sold his speakers he wanted to dispense with his turntable and the rest of system, including all the LPs he had, and even the dearest one he constantly played when the system was still in a working condition. So I asked him: What now? Will he stop enjoying music in his life entirely?

Not saying anything he turned on his heels, went to another room and quickly returned. “I have this”, he said and showed a rather cheap looking music-making toy. He put the mouthpiece between his lips and blew out some well-known melodies. He then pressed a button and played again, now with another wind instrument.

It was Casio DH-200, a saxophone kind of MIDI wind controller. It transmits the full range of after-touch data in response to one’s breath, as well as variable velocity in response to how hard one attacks a note. Battery/AC powered DH-200 sports a built-in sound generator, amplifier, and speaker with volume control. The built-in synth features six sounds: saxophone, trumpet, synth-reed, oboe, clarinet, and flute. It is also possible to transpose (2 octaves), play the horn without needing to blow into it (the Breath switch), and connect the device to headphones, and via MIDI OUT to a synth.

It was a wonderful moment. As a young man he had played a wind instrument in a dance orchestra, and the ability was still there. I soon realized that he didn’t loose anything meaningful by selling his Hi-Fi setup. He had all the music he needs, music that speaks with an active voice, and comes from inside him.

As long as we can we should make music by ourselves. It’s so much better than simply listen to it, no matter how pleasurable it occasionally is to listen to music made by gifted musicians. Just like it is so much smarter to play football (soccer), if one can, rather than watch it on TV.

The connection with the music is on a different qualitative level when it springs directly from our hands. An old wisdom, this time taught by an old man without a Hi-Fi system.

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