Walking through the fog

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet. But as you keep walking, you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually, it is not. When you get wet in a fog, it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress. It is like studying a foreign language. You cannot do it all of a sudden, but by repeating it over and over, you will master it.

-Shunryu Suzuki

[Anime] 蟲師 / Mushishi

Ever been passively interested in something for a few years before you finally bite the bullet and actually experience it? Since 2006, I recall seeing images and art (on anonymous imageboards I've long since outgrown - praise be to the 神々) of a particularly intriguing anime, a few whispers here and there about a series I had barely heard of. Intrigued as I was, I suppose I had "better" things to do and watch, so I sort of ignored and buried the intrigue somewhere in the back of my mind. In my experience, this practice is rarely a good idea as it will eventually resurface with a vengeance like a bamboo forest reaching for the glowing ball of fire in the sky.

The same feeling overcame me recently with モノノ怪 / Mononoke, an anime series I thoroughly enjoyed that captured my imagination and took it places I never even knew existed. An enigmatic and unusual (yet entertaining) protagonist who wanders the land in Edo-period Nippon with his box of medicine and tools on back, ultimately acting as both detective and exorcist to the many characters in the series with some serious skeletons in their closet. It was a recipe for success for me, and one short series such as モノノ怪 just couldn't quite sate my insatiable thirst; I craved more.

Conveniently, the image of a mysterious, white haired man with a large box of tools on his back (not unlike the Medicine Seller of モノノ怪) that I had seen some years ago resurfaced in my mind. Even if this series was only marginally similar to what I had just seen, I just knew I'd be satisfied. Wouldn't I?

Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten the title of the series in which this character starred, so it would be a few more days until (by happenstance of a friend mentioning it, actually), once again, it would resurface and I'd finally begin watching it. Even when I forgot such simple things as its title, it just wouldn't go away - apparently I was destined to see this thing.

Well, thank you, destiny, because 蟲師 / Mushishi turned out to be one of the finest anime series I've ever seen, and I've seen a good plenty in my lifetime.

蟲師 is actually one of the most difficult anime to describe I've ever come across. In a way, it shares similarities with モノノ怪 in that it stars a wandering, enigmatic merchant (of sorts) in old Japan who exorcises spirits, but the similarities, for the most part, end there.

The story follows Ginko, a white haired wandering peddler with (surprise, surprise) a mysterious past and an expansive knowledge of the strange creatures of this world known as 蟲 (mushi). Mushi, as the word suggests, are insect-like spiritual beings that inhabit any place with life: people, plants or animals. Their nature is never really explained in great detail; they simply are what they are, whether anyone realizes their existence or not. Very few are even able to see them at all, and those who are able often become the centerpiece of the mushi's involvement, often to their plight.

I think it's important to note that the mushi aren't necessarily inherently good, nor evil. They're barely even sentient at all; they simply part of the neverending circle of nature, using humans as a means of survival, even if doing so means feeding off of humankind's weaknesses and temptations.

蟲師 is presented episodically, so that each episode stands on its own with very few recurring characters and themes, as Ginko wanders the land and encounters the simple, hard working, country dwelling people who have (usually unwittingly) become involved with mushi - often to their danger and detriment. It's Ginko the rescue!

Only, as knowledgeable and wise as he may be, he's far from the omnipotent demigod that the Medicine Seller is, and quite human at his core. While Ginko does his best to lessen the damage of the mushi, conclusions are rarely happy and cheerful - the damage is done, compromises have been made and life and nature have taken their toll, usually with bittersweet results. Perhaps the nature of life itself is what the entire series boils down to - but I won't discuss it further, as I think it best to experience the stories of 蟲師 on one's own. Lemme just say that it's incredibly rare for an anime to moisten my eyes, and only two come to mind - Grave of the Fireflies, and this one.

Speaking of emotional impact, the animation and music are quite impeccable - at the same time simple and profound, not unlike the series itself. Landscapes, villages and the people that inhabit them take on a life of their own as they're beautifully drawn and animated. Likewise, the music of 蟲師 lends much to the mood and atmosphere, ranging from the singer-songwriter opening theme, "The Sore Feet Song" by Ally Kerr to the many different somber credits themes by Toshio Masuda. Everything blends together to create one of the most enchanting pieces of animation in recent memory.

If I had but one complaint about the series, it would be the character design - not that there's anything wrong with Ginko, or the other one or two "major" recurring characters, but a good many of the towns folk look strikingly similar, causing me to blink and scratch my head a few times and ponder, "Didn't I just see them in the last episode? Is this is the same character?"

That the series is episodic renders this gripe a very minor one, however. Besides, when everyone wears a kimono and wears their hair in the same (small handful) of styles, there isn't that much room for fashion individuality, is there?

To say I simply "enjoyed" this series would be a disgusting understatement punishable by death, as it went above and beyond my expectations and has become one of the only 26 episode anime series I've begun watching again less than a week after finishing. That should tell you a little something about how much I love 蟲師.

However, I'd also completely understand if someone else was completely bored to tears by it, and couldn't force themselves to sit through it in its entirety. I honestly wouldn't consider 蟲師 a "slow" series, as plenty happens in the span of each 20~ minute story. Much of that is dialogue, and the series contains little to no action to speak of. To me, this isn't a big deal. To others, it may very well be.

Additionally, 蟲師 is wrought with the philosophy and tackles some particularly difficult (and potentially painful) subject matter which I seldom see in anime or manga. This may be a turnoff to some; it's challenging and fascinating to myself. I think it takes a certain type to appreciate this series to its fullest, and I don't mean that in an egotistical sort of way. Watch and judge for yourself.

Even having completed the series, I still feel as though there's a lot I haven't properly taken in yet, thus my second viewing and eventual reading of the manga.

All in all, however, I think it's safe to say that 蟲師 will go down as one of my favorite anime series of all time. For those looking for something thought-provoking, challenging and far out of the ordinary where anime is concerned, I couldn't recommend 蟲師 more.

Slow and steady wins the race

Progress hasn't been stellar the past few months, but I no longer worry about nor really think about my progress at all, honestly. In nearly one full year of study, not one day has gone by that I haven't done something substantial in Japanese, even if I've neglected things such as my SRS a little too frequently for comfort. The result is that I've very rarely gotten burned out in my 日本語 studies, pacing myself as I run this long, long marathon, having trekked through the winding, confusing roads of this journey and covered a significant amount of ground. Of course, this marathon ain't anywhere near over yet, but I'm showing no signs of tiring any time soon...

It's always interesting to pick up something I had struggled on previously, only to discover a few months later that - lo and behold - I can now understand and enjoy this thing! There was a time when I had some naive notion that, by the time I could read and enjoy Berserk, I'd probably be at a pretty damn decent level of Japanese and all would be swell and I'd never need to study Japanese another day in my life again. Imagine my surprise the other day when I flipped through several pages of Berserk with a surprisingly decent level of comprehension...

Whereas in the past I had to rely on katakana words in order to vaguely navigate my way through RPGs while ignoring most of the story, I can now understand the vast majority of plotlines and very rarely get lost since I can follow the directions of the NPCs with few problems.

And the list goes on and continues to go on - it's a really nice feeling, and sure beats worrying about where I should be or could be with my Japanese level.

I still find listening to be difficult, though, and generally find reading pure kana quite tricky as well. Perhaps I've grown a little too acquianted with the contextual power of kanji (and o, how powerful it is), and no thanks to the massive amount of homophones in Japanese (indeed, 日本語 puts the "homo" in "homophone"...), but I often find myself returning a blank stare to these tricky things. I think this is also due to having not yet "internalized" a lot of the vocabulary I've learned. Exposure is really the only solution, and exposure I'm getting - I try to average 2 hours of watching unsubbed (or Japanese subbed in the rare situations when these are actually available) drama/anime/movies/TV a day, and as much passive listening via podcasts (again, I love TBS Life) as I can cram in.

Another thing that keeps me motivated is the concept that, while there may be a heck of a lot of kanji, there is a finite amount of them. I'm constantly learning the readings of more and more kanji, and eventually there just won't be many left to learn, save for the obscure ones (which I particularly enjoy learning). When you think about it in that way, fluency doesn't seem too far fetched at all, does it?

Slow and steady wins the race, this much I'm sure of.

At any rate, I hope to be bloggin' a little more frequently in the near future. I have plenty of interesting music, drama, anime and movies to discuss and share, and really, aren't these things part of the reason why we're learning the language in the first place? Exactly.

久しぶりね

It's certainly been a while, hasn't it? I've been neglecting my lil ol' blog here for quite some time, but not because I'm necessarily slacking in my 日本語 studies. I have been quite busy the past month or two (and am in the long, excruciating process of moving), but I've made significant progress since my last post. Most of my miscellaneous updates have been confined to the endlessly banal, barren wasteland known as Twitter (a banal wasteland I've come to enjoy, thank you very much), but one can only cram so much information into a 140 character message. It's now come time for me to report on my progress in a proper manner.

Well, where am I currently, in my journey... It's difficult to say, exactly. I estimate that I'm probably somewhere around 3,000 cards in my SRS, not counting either of my kanji decks (oldskool keyword-to-kanji Heisig, and new Japanese word-to-kanji deck).

My old deck of 900~ cards was deleted with prejudice, never to be missed again, and mostly consisted of various tidbits from Smart.fm, 2001KO and dictionaries. I simply couldn't bear going through that thing again - the boredom and drudgery drove me nuts, so I did the most sensible thing that came to mind. DELETED!

My newer, vocabulary and onyomi-centered deck (with sentences almost exclusively from Smart.fm) topped out at exactly 1,000. While I can generally force myself to plow through its reviews, it's getting more and more monotonous as time goes on, and I can't really foresee myself adding very many new cards to it (for reasons I'll get into later). This will probably mark its demise in the near future, though I'll keep it around for the time being as it's served me quite well.

The rest of my decks are miscellaneous bits and pieces such as grammar points and so forth.

For the most part, I feel like I've been pretty lazy when it comes to actually adding material. Well, strike that - I know I've been lazy. On my hot streaks, I can add 50 or more cards per day for a week straight. But more typically, I hover between 20-30 and take a heck of a lot of days off.

Actually, I haven't added one new card in at least three weeks, and my reviewing has taken a sharp decline as well. This is thanks in no small part to a very busy June, but I also hit a massive wall of SRS burnout somewhere around my 1,000th card in the aforementioned vocabulary deck. Life happened, I had suddenly come to a screeching halt, and it took me over a week to get back to my studies... which didn't include very much SRSing. Try as I might, I just couldn't justify the frustration and tedium when I had hours upon hours of drama, anime, games, books and various listening material to indulge in. Of course, this wasn't necessarily a problem inherent in SRS itself and more to do with my dull sentence material, but I'll get to that part yet...

At this point, my hard drive was pretty much full with anime and drama. I have a 500GB drive, which isn't enormous by today's standards, but considering how conservative I tend to be with space, for me to fill the poor thing takes some serious downloadage. Before I knew it, I was up to my neck in roughly a dozen anime series and a handful of dramas, as well as about a half dozen movies and a few good gigabytes of audiobooks, podcasts and radiocasts. よしっ！I was ready to rock.

A main character so remarkably badass, he can make pointed ears, makeup and nail polish look cool. (モノノ怪 (eng))

Of course, all of these things have one thing in common as far as studying goes - they're all listening material. At this point (roughly one month ago), I felt like my reading comprehension and vocabulary had "leveled up" significantly, but my listening really left something to be desired. Even if I knew all the words in a spoken sentence, it'd still take my brain a few extra seconds to actually process it all into something I understood, unless said sentence was a phrase very familiar to me. Clearly, this was a problem stemming from my lack of input on the listening side - something I knew I've been neglecting, but... well, you know me and neglect, don't you?

For about a week straight, my studying involved little else but watching drama and anime, and listening to podcasts - very little SRS review, and just enough reading to keep me sharp. Though I'd have periods of several seconds where I didn't understand diddlysquat, I began to notice my listening comprehension improve steadily with each hour I invested in my active listening. After some time, I was able to follow the story pretty reliably, at least getting "the gist" of things, even if I missed a lot of the details otherwise.

I've been trying to get in at least an hour of active listening material each day, ideally two if time permits. Gradually, my listening is definitely improving.

Meanwhile, I've kicked up my reading, as well. I've found a goldmine in 16-bit RPG classics, which are packed with text and generally pretty easy on vocabulary while still introducing plenty of interesting new words. I can quite easily play through and understand the majority of dialogue, understanding the details of storyline and rarely getting into a "wait, where am I supposed to go, again?" situation.

Sadly, the chocobo kinda got screwed when it comes to screen time.

I sorta got bored with FF6 (knowing the game inside and out kinda does that eventually...) so I picked up FF5, a game I've actually never beaten and had a massive craving to play through. Though lighter on story than FF6 (and arguably, FF4), FF5's dialogue is also surprisingly easier. Whereas FF6 is packed with dialect and (comparatively) complicated vocabulary, FF5 is really a piece of cake. I stop and look up words frequently, but mostly for completion's sake; if there's one word in a sentence I don't understand and I haven't looked one up in a while, well hey, why not? Otherwise, I tend to either work things out through context, ignore unknown words for the time being or look up only the repeating vocabulary I come across (I figured it was probably important to look up 流砂 after having been warned by several NPCs...).

I figure I probably understand about 70% of the game, which is more than enough to understand what's going on at any given time, though I miss out on nuances and quite a few of the hiragana words (kanji has seriously spoiled me - never thought I'd see the day).

As with my listening, all of this reading via RPGs has done a heck of a lot in the past month to improve my comprehension, speed and (to a lesser extent) vocabulary and grammar. I absolutely intend on playing through more of these puppies once I complete 5!

Ahh, and tonight I had planned to start a fresh, brand new SRS deck - the next step in my SRSing cycle of life. I keep a list of all of the words I look up while playing RPGs, and nearly all of them are awesome words I'd like to memorize, so SRSing them in sentences seems like a logical step.

Then more SRS rage kicked in. This time, because Anki decided it was a great time to tard out on me, bugging up whenever I tried to modify the deck properties of a new deck. This is sort of a show stopper, since I really need to customize fields to get a deck to my liking - not to mention, I won't trust any SRS deck with my data if I suspect it's gonna toss its cookies at any moment.

Arrrrgh. We'll see if I can't get this bug sorted out soon, but my "screw it all" side might just opt to keep up the reading and listening, SRS be damned. SRS is absolutely the most efficient way of retaining knowledge, but boy, can it be a headache.

When I seriously get back into the swing of things, I'll be adding things at a much slower, more limited pace of only the little goodies I really want to remember. I finally feel as though I'm now at the point where I can cherry pick, without stumbling around barefoot in a dark room full of mousetraps, now that my language abilities are at a far more sustainable level. Now I can really watch and listen to and play things and understand enough to actually enjoy them, something I struggled with in the past. キリスト神神様、it's taken me long enough.

A means to a common end

There's been a great deal of interesting discussion lately on the (always interesting) Reviewing the Kanji forums, which really hasn't been a benefit to my study time (and lack thereof), but some pretty decent reading nonetheless. The recent activity of a few more baller native Japanese speaking guys and gals whose English skills are quite literally indistinguishable from those of a well educated native English speaker has been a significant boost to my own inspiration as an L2 studier - but invariably, one of them was asked to check out Khatzumoto's writings in order to verify a few popular claims about his Japanese writing style, such as his alleged overuse of classical kanji and generally overzealous "kanjification". Not surprisingly, this sparked yet another long, drawn out, and largely pointless debate about AJATT and Khatz himself.

Exhibit A: The Internet.

This is something I tend to see around practically any language learning methodology - a very vocal minority will undoubtedly step in and question the credibility of the teacher, debunk the teacher's methods as ineffective and claim their own as superior. Personally, I welcome some degree of debate on all of the above; I feel as though these are important things to take into consideration during the long path toward fluency. There comes a point, however, when a debate such as this surpasses the boundaries of ad nauseum and dares venture into the point of no return - the realm of sheer pointlessness, where the original points which really mattered - quite simply, getting one's L2 from point A to point B - are long forgotten in favor of endless bickering (on both sides).

I've done my fair share of criticism on figures such as Khatzumoto and Heisig, myself, but at least I recognize the merit and wisdom of what they teach, and the importance of trying new things, experimenting, and maintaining a fresh level of diversity while keeping things both efficient and fun. This doesn't mean that I disrespect either of them, of course - quite the contrary. To put it another way, I also voice political dissidence frequently with the way my country's government handles foreign affairs and economic matters (among many other things), but I still love my nation.

I believe it's important to consider that, as knowledgeable as people such as Khatzumoto, James Heisig, Steve Krashen, Steve Kaufmann, Alexander Arguelles and Stu Jay Raj are (to name but a few), none of them can ever be considered the prime authority on language learning - their experiences are unique to themselves, after all. There are so many factors that come into play, such as one's own native language, previous languages studied (if any) and environment that going entirely by another person's directions, opinions or guidelines is almost certainly a recipe for failure in all but the most astute and dedicated learners. Using their successes as a basis, I've been able to find a comfortable balance between everything I've learned from them while still adapting a system that is unique to my own needs as an individual language learner who aspires high fluency in Japanese, and eventually Mandarin.

In the world of language learning, there is no right nor wrong way to do things. There is no central doctrine, there are no rules which state you must do this, or mustn't do that. Whether you drill sentences with an SRS every single day or not, whether you spend four or more years learning a language in academia or not, whether you do nothing but watch television and read comics or not... Everything you do is simply a means to an end - becoming fluent. 

All Japanese... Some of the Time

Way back in the Fall of 2008 (if one can consider that "way back"), I was lucky enough to stumble upon a little ol' site by the name of All Japanese All the Time that would ultimately inspire me to undertake this long and grueling journey. I have a great deal of respect for Khatzumoto and all he's done for the language learning community, and I've learned a considerable amount of valuable information from his articles.

However, I quickly realized that such a full immersion environment simply wasn't feasible, nor enjoyable for me - at least, not in the way Khatz has it all laid out. 

I also realized how much he over exaggerates in order to get his points across, and I think this is something a lot of people don't recognize. I don't believe that he literally wants his readers to ditch their friends in favor of Japanese speaking ones, nor do I believe that he literally means we should all get rid of our non-Japanese music, or deck out our living quarters in traditional Japanese decor, all for the sake of immersion.

These are extremes that may have worked for him, personally, but things I'd never even consider touching with a ten foot pole. I love learning this language and I'm very comfortable at the pace I'm going, and to sacrifice things so dear to me for the sake of learning a little faster is beyond ridiculous.

Besides that, living in Japanese simply begins to wear on me, and when I want to do something very specific and technical on my operating system, for example, I'd really rather not stumble around in the dark and risk doing something stupid like accidentally formatting my hard drive (yes, now I'm exaggerating to get my point across). It's not fun, it's not productive - at least, not at the point I'm at currently. I can certainly see myself pushing immersion to this level a year from now, when I can really get a lot more out of everything I've learned up to that point, but if the immersion isn't enjoyable for me, I don't feel as though I'm missing much by forgoing it.

Which leads me to another criticism - Khatz does a decent job of explaining his whole system, but really hurls you out of the nest straight into the great beyond once it comes time to really start things. Learning kanji before kana? I can see the benefits for a beginning learner who is absolutely, unfalteringly dead serious about learning Japanese, but for the vast majority of those interested in learning the language, this approach is ridiculous. Considering how much of the important fundamentals one could soak up in a short period of time from a good beginner's text book or a well instructed class, it boggles my mind to recommend leaping straight into kanji before learning the kana.

And that leads me to my next point: the propaganda that all language classes are a horrible, despicable, draconian thing to be avoided at all costs. I'm truly sorry if your language class experiences were that bad, but the vast majority of my language teachers were nothing less than wonderful. There's nothing inherently bad about language classes; it's absolutely about the teacher and how they teach the language. Assuming a class isn't too infrequent, I can think of few better ways to build a solid foundation for any language. Of course you're not going to become fluent from classes alone, but this is common sense.

Another point which many AJATTeers seem to get caught up on (which is only their own fault) is Khatzu's "10,000 sentences" model which, while a pretty darn good guideline for all intents and purposes, should by no means be the ultimate goal of the learner. All too often do I see learners trying to import huge quantities of sentences via pre-constructed SRS decks for the sake of reaching this figure of 10,000 faster, but it just doesn't work this way.

Quality of sentences will vary dramatically depending on source, and the method by which the learner is studying said sentences will also have a significant impact (focusing on one word from the sentence? the entire sentence, strictly? going by production from kana to kanji? etc).

Khatz mentions quality of sentences very frequently - if you feel that a sentence sucks, in any way, shape or form, it's destined for deletion. I believe he cites a near 50% deletion rate of his sentences, in fact, which I can definitely believe as I do my fair share of deleting with prejudice, myself. Imagine going through 10,000 without ever deleting one - think of all the garbage cards you'd have to suffer through in the process. On the other hand, assuming you're deleting 50% of these suckers, you're more likely going to go through 15,000 or more before you reach the 10k goal (in theory anyway).

By now, I must sound like I'm an anti-AJATT, purist pundit, but quite the contrary as I've adopted and practice plenty from this system (and indeed, philosophy). 

As I've said, I have massive amounts of respect for Khatzumoto himself and AJATT in general. As with all teachers, though (see also: James Heisig, another invaluable 先生 of mine), I believe it's important for individual, mental (and even spiritual) growth for the student to regularly question and challenge, and to keep a critical and open mind at all times.

Presently, I'm progressing at a pace comfortable to me without constant immersion, and I never thought I'd have made it this far in well under a year. I've set goals (big and small) throughout the year which I know I'll obtain, and it's a great feeling. I'm playing through my favorite RPGs in Japanese, I'm reading my favorite manga in Japanese, I'm watching slews of dramas and movies and anime in Japanese and every single day I move a few steps closer to my ultimate goal of fluency and literacy - all of this without full immersion, without worrying about collecting 10,000 sentences, without abandoning all of life's simple, English-language pleasures. Let's call it, All Japanese Some of the Time.

Now if you'll pardon me - it's back to reviewing sentences while rocking out to Iron Maiden, a band I can only wish was in Japanese.

The power of music and language

As I mentioned in a previous post last week, I've really not gotten a whole lot out of music listening as far as language acquisition goes. For the most part, a great deal of the music I listen to places most emphasis on instruments rather than lyrics, with vocals often playing the role of an additional instrument in the mix, so it's just not something I pay much attention to. I can listen to a song dozens upon dozens of times without so much as picking up one word, even in English. There are, of course, many exceptions.

Lately, however, I've been doing a bit of experimenting. I've taken my favorite Boris album, Heavy Rocks - a fuzzed out, overdriven, high energy stoner rock masterpiece and one of the band's more lyrical works - and have made a conscious effort to pay close attention to the vocals, going so far as transcribing (and translating, when possible) a few songs by ear.

The result has been interesting, to say the least. First, and not surprisingly, I've managed to unearth new life in an album I've listened to probably a hundred times by now. I discovered that not only do their lyrics add a heck of a lot to their music, but they're quite badass to boot - take part of the chorus from the song 殺す for example:

俺の全てを殺す　入り込む邪悪イメージ　俺は全てを殺す　放射する「有」のイメージ

How I've missed out on such badassery all this time is beyond me.

Second, and also not very surprising, perhaps thanks to the repetition of having to rewind and listen to specific parts numerous times before I'm able to transcribe them accurately, my listening comprehension for these songs has shot up tremendously, and many of the new words I've come across are sticking quite nicely. As I listen more after having learned all this new vocabulary, it only becomes further cemented in my head.

This experience has opened my eyes a bit more toward music as a tool for language acquisition. As my listening comprehension in general improves (it's admittedly quite poor currently), I seem to get more out of listening to music in Japanese.

I also have to consider the more obvious educational aspects of music as a learning tool - who, among us native English-language speakers, isn't familiar with the ABC Song? I'll unashamedly admit that I still bust that sucker out on occasion to verify that S, indeed, comes before T. It's perhaps the most basic example of how music can aid in the learning process and burrow itself into our long term memory for years and years - so it's certainly no stretch to conclude that the same principles can be applied to music and general language learning.

From The NY Times comes this fascinating article on memory, the following paragraph being most relevant to the topic of music and language:

A simple melody with a simple rhythm and repetition can be a tremendous mnemonic device. “It would be a virtually impossible task for young children to memorize a sequence of 26 separate letters if you just gave it to them as a string of information,” Dr. Thaut said. But when the alphabet is set to the tune of the ABC song with its four melodic phrases, preschoolers can learn it with ease.

Testament to both the power of music and mnemonics, I'd say. Let's just hope that I can replace "simply melody with a simple rhythm" with "shredding guitars, polyrhythms and guttural Cookie Monster vocals" and I'll be good to go!