It is ridiculous how specific people get in these threads, like you've all taken Music Theory 401 or something haha. I've spent most of my life playing various instruments and I'm still surprised at this... I guess most people who have the energy to get through something like architecture school had the energy to participate in a few extra-curricular musical activities pre-building-madness.

So, for my excellent musical conventions:

1. Way stripped down guitar and voice compositions. I've been listening to a lot of iron and wine lately. I used to _love_ dashboard confessional (I know, I know), and I still do love his first two albums, and I have a version of "Hands Down" that he played at this dive bar called "The Creepy Crawl" in St. Louis before he went into the studio and ruined it, first with layers and layers of over-production, then with an entire back-up band. I can't believe how he just completely abandoned the format that created such powerful songs and such a large following.

2. Technicality in any sense. There is too much "crap-it-out-and-put-it-on-the-shelves" stuff, by far. If I can respect it for the talent and effort taken to create it, odds are I will enjoy listening to it.

3. Word to the vocal harmonies.

high five to iron and wine

Um, hard to say - probably this one.

I went to one of those musical conventions in Aspen. There were too many New Age peddlers, not enough standard music.

1. guitars + delay pedals = good times

2. bass lines with "holes" (played with aforementioned fender p)

3. feedback in most forms

4. double word to the vocal harmonies

5. the good ol' I-IV-V chord progression

garpike -- have you played the good hurt recently? i played there a few times when they first opened...just curious if they've made any changes to the place.

We played there last November - my only time. We play there again June 10.

1. Three part harmony
2. i'll second the I-IV-V chord progression.
3. Minor to major chord resolution. always has and will sound satisfying.
4. compression
5. hearing ANYTHING at carnegie hall.
6. a freshly tuned steinway
7. bach partitas and sonatas for violin, or the suites for cello

1. Riding the pocket Duck Dunn style.
2. Busting out of it with syncopation James Jamerson style.

(both of which must be down on Fender P's. Ash bodies only).

3. And some times you need to beat the piss out of your J like Larry Graham.

minor progressions are fun lately. getting tired of the reglar blues progressions somehow, even with all the jazzin up with pentatonic scales and shit thrown in. don know why.

so am listening to nina simone a lot lately, just to remember that all the rules and conventions jes don matter. i still can't figure out what the hell she is doing most times. blows me away.

Some excellent conventions from the 70's:

- Distorted electric piano
- Fretless electric bass
- The phrygian scale
- The Oberheim synths

just thought of another: the soft-loud rock dynamic

creatively employed by the pixies, well-marketed by nirvana, and overdone a bit by the late '90s, but still a cool trick

HAND CLAPS.

- Tape delay and the beautiful mess of noises made by manipulating it

- the Rhodes electric piano

- honestly, any effect pedal that sounds cool when used in an inproper way

Stephanie beat me to it. I LOVE hand claps. I prefer them used sparingly, for accent, like in Space Oddity. Those are some good claps.

steph did u get that cd???

you may wanna get that cd of the national woman's handclapping choir of uzbekkistan. i heard on npr its really good.

handclaps doubled over the snare drum

(expecting someone to drop the "more cowbell" tagline, but i seriously can't stand the friggin' thing)

ummm...how come nobody mentioned this