A frew things about this musics (in real-life now):

· first, why all the bad spellings and grammer? Why not? You navigated the site up to this point just fine – you clearly understood enough of what was written, and the rest doesn’t matter.

What our “style” of music is often called: Gay (sometimes spelled differently like ghey, gaieY!, etc… for reasons of disambiguation about to become apparent).

You guys are gay? – Yes! But not homosexual (not that there’s anything wrong with that). “Gay” actually has at least 3 definitions.

· The original definition meant happy, carefree, spontaneously energetic; with usage like “I’m feeling so gay right now I’m going to fly a kite” or “he’s so gay – he’s always smiling and laughing so much it’s contagious.”

· The second meaning is homosexual, and gays decided to call themselves gay because it had that joyful, un-oppressed, and generally desirable original definition.

· The third meaning is the 90’s highschooler meaning; when they called something “gay” (“man that movie was gay” “look at that guy wearing the gay hat!”). This “gay” is synonymous with the word “queer,” again, not in the homosexual sense. It means unusual or deviant from normal expectations. This definition also generally describes our music, although this “gay” can be used with a negative connotation; as if something unusual is therefore not acceptable or good. We would disagree.

Now that that grey area is cleared up, lets move on to what gay music tends to refer to.

1. Gay music is closely tied to jazz. What’s jazz? Here’s a good layman’s explanation (by a layman):

“Jazz is synthetic and social, bringing many voices and people together. It is eclectic, borrowing from everywhere and everything, from childhood nursery and folk songs to Australian aboriginal music. It is pluralistic. There is no correct form of jazz. It is improvisational, spontaneous, all of those voices responding to one another (and to the audience), building upon but never bound by what has come before. It is complex, it thrives on counterpoint, and it is richly random and unpredictable.” -- Robert Solomon

Added to this definition is that jazz SWINGS! Gay music is all of the above. It is very highly improvisational (although not always totally), spontaneous, and swings (but not always in the bluesy/jazzy “dOo dah dOo dat” way). It is also very richly random and has no “correct” form.

2. Gay music is like folk music. Folk music is participatory—you don't have to be a great musician to be a folk artist. And finally, it’s based on a and thrives with a sense of community.

Gay music is open to both the super-experienced and the musically illiterate. Self-consciousness about one’s talents (or lack thereof) is an un-joyful block to many creative arts. Gay music necessitates, if not a renunciation of self-consciousness, a temporary suspension of one’s internal criticisms about his musical self-worth (and others’ as well). All one needs to do is to relax their musical preconceptions, listen, try to contribute joyfully, and flow with what’s going on.

3. Gay music is played with a sense of flow. Flow comes with concentration on the present state of the jam, which provides immediate feedback (you pay attention to whether you’re digging the jam). Flow means effortless action, in the sense that what you contribute to the jam needs not be either “easy” or “hard” in terms of your abilities.

Flow means fluidity, acceptance of change, rather than smoothness. Indeed some jams can be incredibly stunted and rough. In fact, jams and some licks you hear are normally considered very awkward. That’s just considered gay to some players – fun and funny. (partially borrowed from “flow” wikipedia)

4. Gay music is played with good humor. As discussed, preconceived notions of what is “good” or “bad” are left at the door; good humor results. This does not mean that all gay music is comedic, like “haha funny.” Humor is the quality in the jams of evoking amusement. It can make you laugh, feel joyful, or just smile with how ridiculous it (the jams, and therefore the basic creative forces in real life) can get.

5. “Anything Goes” is correct for the jams. Jams are played with NO INTENDED EFFECT at their best – i.e. they are spontaneous. But sometimes jams just don’t “do it” for the listener (including participants in said jam) when given a second look. That’s fine. While there are no set qualities to abide by, no rules making something “good” or “bad,” it doesn’t mean a listener or player should force liking a particular piece. If a certain jam “doesn’t do it for you” then that’s it, that’s fine. (by the way, shouldn’t that be how we judge all music?)

6. While no genre (as in country, rock, etc…) is intended (or stuck to) in gay music, here’s a list of a few genres which jams sometimes sound like (keep in mind they never fully fall into any of the genres):

· Jazz – check out Steve and Joe or Schoon Trio in the jazz section.

· Avant-garde – Check out many different types of things in “somevarietiesjamsdownloads” section.

· Free jazz – Somevarieitesjamsdownloads

· Classical – check out Steen/rob casio duos, jamsdownloads, among others.

· Pop – check out Dj Triers, and jamsdownloads, other complete albums.

· Rock – jamsdownloads, other complete albums, among others.

That’s the best explonashin so fars – look for dieffrent types of clears up of gray areans to come!