tar -cvfpj --exclude=~/My_Music tarFile.bz2 /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude=~/My_Music /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude=~/My_Music /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude=~/My_Music tarFile.tar /home/evan/

# quoting the exclude paths:
tar -cvfpj --exclude="~/My_Music" tarFile.bz2 /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude="~/My_Music" /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude="~/My_Music" /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude="~/My_Music" tarFile.tar /home/evan/

# not using ~ character in exclude paths:
tar -cvfpj --exclude="/My_Music" tarFile.bz2 /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude="/My_Music" /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude="/My_Music" /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude="/My_Music" tarFile.tar /home/evan/

# not using ~ character and not quoting the exclude paths:
tar -cvfpj --exclude=/My_Music tarFile.bz2 /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude=/My_Music /home/evan/
tar -cvfpj tarFile.bz2 --exclude=/My_Music /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude=/My_Music tarFile.tar /home/evan/

#creating an exclude list file and referencing that
tar -cvfX ~/scripts/EXCLUDE_list tarFile.tar /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude-from ~/scripts/EXCLUDE_list tarFile.tar /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude-from=~/scripts/EXCLUDE_list tarFile.tar /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude-from="~/scripts/EXCLUDE_list" tarFile.tar /home/evan/
tar -cvf --exclude-from=$HOME/scripts/EXCLUDE_list tarFile.tar /home/evan/

#contents of the EXCLUDE_list file have taken many forms -
# none have appeared to have any effect.

# version 1
/My_Music/

# version 2
/My_Music

# version 3
My_Music

# version 4 - trying to isolate file types
*.mpg
*.mp3
*.m4a