Thursday, August 26, 2010
Venezuela - El Sistema!
Some first photos from my trip to Venezuela working with El Sistema! It is such a great experience being here! The last photo is of some of the trombonists trying to copy my faces! I'll write more about all the photos and my time here when I'm back next week. Till then I hope you enjoy the photos!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Frequency Bone Summer Music Connection 2 -
Final Week
Opportunity Awaits
It is important to realize change is a part of life and our music making and our instrumental abilities will be affected by those changes whatever they may be. If it wasn't for change, how could we grow and develop? Change is not always easy. It is in those not so easy times that there is a great opportunity for improvement. Struggle can help us see more and test our will and determination. Learn to embrace change as a part of life. I am NOT saying all change is in the name of healthy development. So certain change, that signals something is out of alignment or balance, is vital to listen too. It is a warning for us to relook and reapproach what we are doing. At the same time, that which seems awful could and often does have a silver lining in it after we go on a bit of a journey to find out what we need to find out.
Onward and upward!!
It is important to realize change is a part of life and our music making and our instrumental abilities will be affected by those changes whatever they may be. If it wasn't for change, how could we grow and develop? Change is not always easy. It is in those not so easy times that there is a great opportunity for improvement. Struggle can help us see more and test our will and determination. Learn to embrace change as a part of life. I am NOT saying all change is in the name of healthy development. So certain change, that signals something is out of alignment or balance, is vital to listen too. It is a warning for us to relook and reapproach what we are doing. At the same time, that which seems awful could and often does have a silver lining in it after we go on a bit of a journey to find out what we need to find out.
Onward and upward!!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Tool of Connection FBSMC 2, week 6
Tools of Connection
One of the great aspects of painting, sculpture, music, architecture, poetry, dance and all of the arts, they express a life story. For example, a musician would learn a lot from dancers and how they handle gravity, lift and landing as a great way to see the 'architecture' of phrasing. Look at paintings to see timbre through the medium of color and texture and see how they shape the landscape and dimensions of the picture. 'Tools of Connection.'
You have lived a life and are filled with experiences and influences that you have access to, like going to a library or doing a google search. How much have you accessed this real life archive to impact your music making consciously? These are also great 'Tools of Connection.'
I would hope that my blog and the Frequency Bone Summer Music Connection are 'Tools of Connection' so you can keep creating and surrounding yourself with 'Tools of Connection' and thereby, even in your greatest difficulty and times of draught, you will know that the waters of 'music as a living thing' are always close by and that the process of connecting is also a form of music.
A great life teacher and mentor of mine always said, "it's not who is playing the music, but WHAT is playing the music that is important." What are you connected to at any given time? Now that's a good contemplation! Best done while caught in the act of living!
One of the great aspects of painting, sculpture, music, architecture, poetry, dance and all of the arts, they express a life story. For example, a musician would learn a lot from dancers and how they handle gravity, lift and landing as a great way to see the 'architecture' of phrasing. Look at paintings to see timbre through the medium of color and texture and see how they shape the landscape and dimensions of the picture. 'Tools of Connection.'
You have lived a life and are filled with experiences and influences that you have access to, like going to a library or doing a google search. How much have you accessed this real life archive to impact your music making consciously? These are also great 'Tools of Connection.'
I would hope that my blog and the Frequency Bone Summer Music Connection are 'Tools of Connection' so you can keep creating and surrounding yourself with 'Tools of Connection' and thereby, even in your greatest difficulty and times of draught, you will know that the waters of 'music as a living thing' are always close by and that the process of connecting is also a form of music.
A great life teacher and mentor of mine always said, "it's not who is playing the music, but WHAT is playing the music that is important." What are you connected to at any given time? Now that's a good contemplation! Best done while caught in the act of living!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Tone Color, Part 2, FBSMC 2
More from week 5
In the video I speak of connecting to a character and then all the overlays come together. Then I further go on to say that if it doesn't come together then I go on a search to find the technique and whatever it takes to make it happen. That is true, but I also go on a quest to find out if I am actually connecting to the character or whether I myself am not in a location for the character to flow into me. If I am too offset to where the character or essence lives, then the connection will not be full or really happen at a deep level where the character would reveal more of it's self to me.
This is the real essence of the journey. Connection does not just happen with a few techniques or casual knowledge. It will only happen if there is an alignment of a sympathetic resonance between yourself and what you are trying to connect to. Think about having a relationship with someone. They are not always going to reveal their deepest feelings to you if there is not a trust and mutual understanding of some kind between the both of you.
If you are so glued to having your one sound, tone color contrast will not make its way into your playing because there will be no opening in you for it to do so. If you do on the other hand have a real need in yourself to express something beyond pretty notes on a page, then you will feel the urgent drive to find a way to do it. To quote a great phrase from one of my life teachers, "If you can't find it, make it."
In the video I speak of connecting to a character and then all the overlays come together. Then I further go on to say that if it doesn't come together then I go on a search to find the technique and whatever it takes to make it happen. That is true, but I also go on a quest to find out if I am actually connecting to the character or whether I myself am not in a location for the character to flow into me. If I am too offset to where the character or essence lives, then the connection will not be full or really happen at a deep level where the character would reveal more of it's self to me.
This is the real essence of the journey. Connection does not just happen with a few techniques or casual knowledge. It will only happen if there is an alignment of a sympathetic resonance between yourself and what you are trying to connect to. Think about having a relationship with someone. They are not always going to reveal their deepest feelings to you if there is not a trust and mutual understanding of some kind between the both of you.
If you are so glued to having your one sound, tone color contrast will not make its way into your playing because there will be no opening in you for it to do so. If you do on the other hand have a real need in yourself to express something beyond pretty notes on a page, then you will feel the urgent drive to find a way to do it. To quote a great phrase from one of my life teachers, "If you can't find it, make it."