FBSMC8, Recovery Series, Video 4

Three weeks of playing have gone by! It is most definitely getting stronger and more stable. One of the things I bring up in this video is the confirmation of certain aspects of playing I have known for many years but know can appreciate and understand them at a deeper level. Time away from something and then coming back to it has always interested me. Think of times when you have been away from home. Maybe first going to overnight summer camp or off to college. Then remember how it felt to come home again. I know for me, it had many different feelings not one. There was happiness along with the sense and knowing that I had changed from the last time I'd had been home. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff!

I felt the same way coming back to the horn this time. But now there is a greater sense of ease and freedom. I don't feel I have to prove anything or be under strain to be at a certain kind of playing level. So it is still in the 'we'll see and take it as it comes' stages. Perhaps part of that 'stage' is healthy to always be in. Once again it brings up the question; why do we do what we do? It is certainly worth a good ponder everyday, for it might be simple and complex all at the same time! It will also keep us connected to the reasons why we do what we do. This is vital for it is easy if one is not aware of it, to drift from the core sentiments of why we play and are in music to something more egotistically based which is further away from OURSELVES AND THAT WHICH CREATED AND NEEDS ART.

Video 4

FBSMC8, Recovery Series, Video 3

Welcome to week two of the FBSMC8 the Recovery Series. This third video was made nine days after the first two videos were made. It shows me in week two of playing and I talk about some of the discoveries of the first week. It really has been a fascinating journey let me tell you! My sternum is almost 90% healed. This makes a huge difference in how it feels to hold the horn. It is getting easier because for a while holding the horn straight out was putting a slight strain on my arms.

As the video will point out, I am letting things happen organically. There is now more stability in my sound because of the strengthening of my embouchure and support systems. Because of the gradual nature in which I am letting things develop, there has been no strain mentally, emotionally and physically. I have no expectations or timetables as to when I should be able to do this or that on the horn.

My usual equipment for most of this past year before the surgery was my Shires heavy weight rose brass bell, gold wide slide and a Greg Black 4G-5G mouthpiece. Now I'm playing my old Conn 88H with a Greg Black 5GS mouthpiece. It feels really good to play this smaller equipment!

I just want the art that is in me to lead the way. And to let my Soul summon the Art that needs to come out of me at this point in time. Art is a living thing and should be free to grow and develop according to its life.

Video 3

FBSMC8, Recovery Series, Video 1 and 2

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe that this is the 8th year of the Frequency Bone Summer Music Connection! There are many of you who follow this blog and many others that just look at the videos when they are put up on YouTube. Thanks to all of you who email me and leave positive comments. It makes it so worthwhile that there are some that can hear the message that is attempting to be transmitted.

FBSMC 8 will be focusing for the most part on my recovery from having a quadruple heart bypass surgery in April. There was a video put up on YouTube in late May I believe called "From That Little Guy After Heart Surgery." You might want to take a look at that just for some insight into the circumstance of the surgery. Video 1a of the Recovery Series does speak to the circumstances of that first five weeks in South Carolina a bit as well.

I have been shown many times that life is not always a rehearsed script! This heart bypass experience certainly pointed that out. But I feel that there is a reason for everything that happens in life no matter how difficult it is or how hard it is to understand. By getting all the varied experiences in life (the good the bad the ugly the joyful the painful etc.), we have the opportunity to discover more about life and ourselves in it. We have the choice for those experiences to strengthen ourselves or weaken ourselves.

Videos 1a and 1b (which is video 2) are really the same video because I had an accident with my mic and had to make a cut and continue where I left off as best as I could on the second video 1b. Life is not a perfect recording! There are mistakes and those mis-takes are all part of the ongoing movement of life and the possibility for continued development as a person. In the first video you will hear my very first notes on the horn with almost three months off. In this series my hope is for the viewers to not fear recovery of any kind but to let it happen organically.

Video 1a

Video 2 (1b)