Practice; Prayer; Ritual

-       At the Rainbow (hippy) Gathering in Brazil, before food, we would stand in a circle holding hands and sing songs. The last song was always the same: "Esso es familia (this is family); esso es comunidade (this is community), esso es sagrado (this is sacred)."

-       On the stero somewhere a couple of days later I heard a kid singing hip-hop. One of the lines was “not much is sacred.”

      I put my head back to think. What in my life is sacred? I scoured. Ah! The yoga mat. That is sacred. Most of the time. That’s a start.

-       Reading Chatwin p200, about the dearth of ritual among Baseri nomads of Iran. It's noteworthy because tribal life tends to be laced with ritual. Norweigan anthropologist Frederick Bath, Chatwin writes, “concluded that the journey itself was the ritual, that the road to summer uplands was the Way, and that the pitching and dismantling of tents was prayer more meaningful than any in the mosque. (Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines, 1998:200-1).

I lie back in my hammock and think.

Ritual tends to be symbolic.

There is a dial, a spectrum

One end: loads of symbolism – for example, Indian Hindu rituals.

Other end: no symbolism, eg Baseri journeys.

I pick up my guitar and begin to play some scales. I started yesterday. I’ve been playing a lot here in Brazil and the tips of my fingers are starting to edge away from the composition, wanting to explore and improvise, but they don't know how. I started playing scales as a way in to the instrument, to get to know some of its forms and ways.

As I steadily play the scales up and down the fret board, I think

Maybe practice is prayer.

Not symbolic prayer, but actual.

I think of Atul’s image of the practicing musician as the railway track layer. God is the train that comes through you when you improvise, he says. The better you lay your tracks, the further they go, the more that God can play through you.

In playful practice you are learning to play creatively and freely with the instrument.

But in scales you are not playing or being creative.

You are being steady, repetitive, focused, humble, smoothly concentrated.

It is a form of meditation.

And if musicians are the architects of heaven as Bobby says, then maybe our practice is our prayer.

(Thanks to vanarts for the picture)

Playing with practice

This post sounds like I'm trying to blow my own trumpet, which isn't really what I'm trying to do, but I had an interesting email today that surprised me.

One of my friends is a classically trained pianist. He wrote saying:

I tried out your practice 'technique'... It was a wonderful experience and had a feeling of spontaneity and lack of conscious control that I associate with Contact Impro. It was wonderful. Thank you. And the amazing thing is that in 8.5 years of playing the piano I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT!


so, I think it would be good if play took more of a central place in learning to 'play' an instrument.


here's the full transcript

His first email:
now, at my teacher's suggestion, I am spending a year focusing on Jazz Piano, which I am finding surprisingly theoretical.

I replied
yes, I think Jazz needs to get more playful. The theory is useful but they get too heady about it in my limited experience. I find the best thing is to take a simple chord/sequence/mode/whatever it is you're playing with, throw the book/music away, and just play with it until you don't want to any more. That's my "technique" at least.

he replied
I tried out your practice 'technique' and played my favourite chord C minor, plus a minor 7th, in the LH and then played around in that key with the RH. (actually i have just realised that I mistakenly played an A natural). It was a wonderful experience and had a feeling of spontaneity and lack of conscious control that I associate with Contact Impro. It was wonderful. Thank you. And the amazing thing is that in 8.5 years of playing the piano I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT!

Thanks to bowman_rdb for the pic

Scat exercise

Fundamentals of improvisation

2 more things to practice

1. Record yourself improvising. Listen back. Find bits you like. Repeat them lots. Find bits you don't like. Consciously decide not to do them again.

2. Find improvisations you like. Copy them. Learn them off by heart.

3. Improvise along to things on the stereo / radio more. More! Unfortunately they won't improvise back.

What a musician might need

There are some things I need as a musician. That I think anyone needs in order to practice something when they're alone. It starts with not being alone any more.

1. An Elder. Doesn't have to be older. Has to be someone to inspire and guide and help you: someone who wants to do that and is interested in your development.
2. A community. Loads of functions there. To make it fun. To make it social. Not lonely.
3. A point. In yoga the point is to feel and look good. Later it's to pass a difficult exam and gain a qualification, to further ends. What is it for this art? Joy! Pleasure! Your pleasure, and the pleasure of the community. So, you need opportunities to share what you're doing with the community. Like, Lucy's 'Little Show-Offs' community cabaret.
4. A sense of development path. A sense that there are people further advanced than you – and people less advanced than you perhaps – that you have a collaborative and supportive relationship with people at every stage – and a feeling that you are able to progress.

   
   

   On performance

   I've been quite anti performance for a while. I prefer things where everyone is a participant.

   
   

   I've been gently playing with the idea that there might be an interesting middle ground.

   
   

   I'm thinking of a performers playground, a place to practice. My music – a music of honest, heart led improvisation – has more in common with the Clowns and the Fools than with the jazz singers and open mic kids.

   
   

   So it would be a performers playground for all those working on honest, partly or totally improvised, heart led performance where the relationship with the audience is messed up.

   
   

   In Jonathan Kay's Fooling performance, he had the audience forming a vagina and someone from the back being born onto the stage through us. He had us facing each other and pulling faces and hurling insults. And he had us crying with laughter with some straight forward standup. Perfect.
   Bobby Mcferrin: same. Solo performance and playing with the audience.
   So. How would I do it? What would I do? That's the thing to play with.
   Why perform?
   
   
   I'd like to perform for people who are also doing stuff. I loved performing with the scratch band at Findhorn when everyone else was either dancing or singing. I loved that! I'd like to perform for people life drawing or dancing or something. I'd like to improvise with and for them. I'd like it to be woven into an activity; part of it but not the central focus.
   So why claim a stage all for yourself?
   Partly it's to show off, right? What experience does Bobby Mcferrin give people when he stands up and does Opportunity? We're impressed! We see what a human can be capable of. We're entertained I guess. We enjoy it! Do we? I get a little intimidated too sometimes. But only by musicians. Not by dancers or comedians, because I'm not in their game. I just watch / listen / laugh with delight.
   Is there something about... sharing?
   “You made the whole room feel like being inside honey”
   “Listening to you sing is taking an asthma inhaler. It slows and calms you down and makes you breathe.”
   “We were having an intellectual and aggressive conversation. Then you came in the room and started playing and the atmosphere totally changed, became gentle.”
   That's good, isn't it? Isn't that something worth sharing if you can?
   When we see hearts on stage are we reminded of our own?
   When we're rushing and then we see someone being slow, are we reminded we can slow down too?
   If we are fretful and we see someone at peace, can that help us find our own peace?
   ..
   I watched a Bobby workshop on Youtube and all the people he was working with were coming to the front and basically copying him, with quite boastful performances.
   Bobby spent four years not listening to other music, finding his own sound.
   What is your own music? Your true music?
   What is mine?
   What are the status of our performances? Are they to help launch our professional careers? Are they events in and of themselves – for the joy of the performer and the community present?
   So, after any performance, the question will be: was it joyful for you? Was it joyful for them? Yes? Then it was a success!
   ?

feed the little voice

Everything a singer could want to play with and practice might come under four headings. ?

North: rhythm

South: melody and vocal dexterity

East: Playing nicely with the kids (this would include harmony)

West: your instrument (this would include body, heart, mind, and soul. Tone. Honesty. Health. Exercises to get into the right place to sing from. How? Clowning? Singing and clowning? 

There might be something else... Something about form and structure, the overall shape of the improvisation. Is that something to practice?? Or is it more of a set of creative decisions to take about a piece in advance? Or during? ?????

Something to practice 1

Rhythm

Over a 4/4 beat, do patterns in 3 equal beats, then 5, 6, and 7, squeezing or stretching each set into 4 beats. Initially stick to the same note, then create simple melodic improvisations within the rhythmic structure.

Once that's good, you can break each note into two, then into a swung two, and then into three. Then you can do different beat sets over a ¾ beat, and so on.

Intervals

Create wierd melodies, jamming around with a set interval. Start with very easy - 1s, then 2nds, then 3rds and so on, until you're only using, eg, minor 7ths, up or down.

Start using just one chord / drone, then could be tried with a moving chord structure.

Writing this I suddenly have an explosive sense - what if I actually knew about music? How cool would that be?

OK but how do I learn in a really good way?

i drum my fingers on the... keyboard. harrumph hurrah. I shall gather people together and find or create a way...