Dear elevateme and Paul, i am going to try and attempt to clear this up between the both of you, because it is often the most difficult thing to step back and look at yourselves in argument. i want to do this strictly from a neutral point of view, and will take no bias.
first of all to Paul: you mentioned after your first reply that you were expressing your concern with this whole thread being completely pointless to no degree of achievment, however your direct referal to elevateme was slightly out of order, all though i do agree with your intention and opinion, but that comment was not called for. You may have been trying to use elevateme's voting of franzlist2 as an example of why the thread is pointless, but it came out rather harsh.
elevateme: what you need to understand is that debates and arguments between resonsible adults can be and should be made through use of maturity within intelligence and opinion. you get way too touchy as soon as people say incorrect or slightly harmful coments, and your reaction to Paul's statement was also out of order. Generally from your interest and general talk about piano exclusively, i get the impression that you are a keen and avid pianist and possibly moving on into music as a career? Even if i am right or wrong about that, one thing i would like to say (this is more for your benefit as opposed to my having a go at you), is whether or not you are pursuing a career as a pianist, but more importantly for this career, attitude is one of the key factors and skills and is very high upon that list of long-term challenges that we face as musicians. You wont get very far unless you develope a very high respect for other people outside of the ring of your friends, and that that standard of respect remains even if someone is getting slightly on your tits. the referal about respect in this case does not enter my mind because i may think Paul is an intelligent and talented bloke, but simply because it is needed to move anywhere in life.
i probably sound like a lecturing old man who does'nt know what he is saying, but seriously both of you, sort it out.
For the bloke who spoke of equality a few posts up, i believe that although i think Paul is a talented and amazing bloke, he succeeds where i fail at the moment, because he maintains his modesty, whereas I, given the opportunity, will blurt out everything i acheived and feel great about in my life. and this is something i would like to change about my life. but, sorry for wavering a bit, i think that no matter how amazing you are or how much you have acheived, although low self-esteem must be avoided, you must still treat others as equal and in no way feel that you can talk how you want to who you want. (that last bit aimed at stevie's quote saying that Paul should be able to speak to anyone how he wants).
all the best,
Gruff
Topic: The Best Pianist on this Forum