The Big Wheel

The Big Wheel
I appear bigger in real life.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Playing through my music.

How to play through.

I've already written somewhere here that I'm listening to my music collection alphabetically. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately it isn't. Even within the limited context of 'listening', provision has to be made from time to time for life to intervene or intrude on the 'playback' project. The course of play is then changed. How then do you get back to the project you might ask? I know there are people out there who will say 'Just do it!' and that, of course is the right answer, in most circumstances, but I started to think about those rules of play and what they might look like and, playing with the idea, came up with this...

I, Colin Campbell have initiated the project of playing through the entire alphabetical listing of songs that are currently on the hard drive of this computer (which is known as Hex). This has been done just for the heck of it. The order of songs to be played is, therefore, determined by it's place within the alphabetized list of songs that are found in the Music directory of iTunes on said hard drive of the computer and shall be played in that order.

An exception to the rule of play shall be when a specific 'album' or 'playlist' or 'song' has been selected for alternate play according to my whim.

When an alternate album or playlist has finished playing then playback shall default back to the next song in the alphabetized list, unless a further alternate is chosen, at which point the process repeats itself.

However, when compelled to listen to an individual song, as occasionally happens, the next song to be played following the completion of the chosen song shall be the one which directly follows it in the alphabetized list. This play will continue for no more than two (2) further songs when it shall revert to the next unplayed song in the interrupted alphabetic master list.

As in the case of classical music, titles from a same source may happen to appear in the alphabetical listing sequentially (even if not appearing in that listing in 'album' play order). These 'accidentals' or 'sequential titles' may be played through or they may be bypassed. If bypassed, play shall continue from the next alphabetic entry not of the sequence. This bypassing must occur within three songs of the sequence having started. If the sequence is past the third song then the whole of the sequence must be played through. Upon completion playback shall naturally default to the next song occurring in the master list.

Portions of the master list that have been recently played, for whatever reason, either as alternates or accidentals, or as generated by other rules may be skipped. Playback shall then continue from the next available song in the alphabetical listing.

Play may be interrupted at any time to listen to a new acquisition. Upon completion of play and if no other song, portion, or album selection is made, playback will default to the next song in the alphabetized master playlist and continue from there. Notwithstanding, new music comming in may but doesn't have to be played immediately.

Cloin has the right to terminate a song at any point following 7 seconds of play (You try to do it any faster).

He also has the right to change any of the rules that he has written at any time without notice. (It's always nice to provide yourself with a backdoor clause.)

1 comment:

Sid Plested said...

I was thinking about the playing through philosophy, and you know, if I had the time, I'd love to do that with my book collection. Sadly, it's hard to do other things while reading, and the roadmarks are longer than they are with songs - hours versus minutes - or even days, in some cases. Sad, though, that would be fun - there are books up on the shelves that I haven't read for ages.