Affinity Groups I am and am not a part of inside the Semiotic domain of musicians!

I would consider myself in the semiotic domain of musicians. I fit into some affinity groups in this semiotic domain, while I do not fit into others.

I think I fit into this particular semiotic domain because I play drum set, and a little guitar.

I know most of the lingo or what is technically labeled as design grammar associated with being a drummer like flams, ruffs, pataflaflas, and swiss triplets for snare, and different grooves like the nanigo, samba, merenge, mambo, cha-cha and others for drum set, along with understanding different time signatures like 9/8, 19/16, 7/8 and so on. So I could say I am part of the affinity group of snare drummers that know something about and can play rudiments, which include ruffs, and flams and so on. I could also say I am a part of another drummer's affinity group that know some afro-cuban grooves, and how to play them. I could also say I am part of the jazz drummers affinity group because I can play jazz a little bit also, and could speak with some knowledge about it. First and foremost, I would consider myself part of the progressive metal drummers affinity group, because I know and can perform most of the drumming ideas within this affinity group and talk about different aspects of the affinity group proficiently, and it is the style, other than pop, that I am most comfortable playing, and know the most about. With the previous affinity groups mentioned, I am somewhat of a newcomer, but still inside the affinity group because I know some of the design grammer, and I have experimented with the styles, and established norms of what I believe constitutes mastery of the styles. I've also discussed these norms with other drummers in these affinity groups. A drummer's affinity group that I don't fit in at the moment would be brush players, because I really don't know how to play with brushes, and I don't know what constitutes mastery of such a style, nor do I know any of the design grammar associated with playing with brushes.

For guitar, I am only part of one affinity group, but still not a very assimilated member into that affinity group. That group would be guitar players that know how to play chords and only chords. I fit in this affinity group with other guys like Damien Rice, Bob Dylan, the guys from Dashboard Confessional, and possibly Simon and Garfunklel, and the Everly Brothers. I could have a fairly animated conversation with these guys about chords, but when they start talking about how put the chords into a killer chord progression, and sing catchy melodies over the chords, I could barely join in. An affinity group that I have been trying to enter recently would be that of pentatonic lead players. I am not in the affinity group though because I can't play pentatonic leads...I can just try and not succeed. So if Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayer, B.B. King, or Buddy Guy tried to jam with me, and talk with me about playing the blues (i.e. pentatonic lead playing), and discuss how it took them years of experimenting before finding their tone, and being able to play emotionally, I would definitely be a fish out of water. An affinity group that I have no part of whatsoever, and haven't even tried to enter yet would be that of the what I would call 50 Trick Pony (as opposed to 1 trick pony) affinity group. Guys like Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Phil Keaggy, Steve Morse, Neil Zaza, Richie Kotzen, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, and others would be in this affinity group. They would be in this affinity group because they are proficient in just about every type of playing there is. If you were to ask them to play a blues jam like Stevie Ray, they could do it with ease, or write a great song in the vein of Bob Dylan, or Don Henley, they could. However they would also succeed at playing a Chopin etude on guitar with about 20 notes per second. If they were to sit down with me and talk about what constitutes mastery of sweep picking, and what notes involve a Bmaj7 arpeggio, I could politely nod, but that is about it. I don't know how I should even go about starting to play a Bmaj7 arpeggio on guitar...I've never experimented with it, so therefore, I haven't established any experiential knowledge of what constitutes mastery of such a crazy technique, or any of the other techniques that those guys can perform so well.