Frank
2842 posts
Sep 27, 2013
8:01 AM
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Take time to explore your music in an entire new way –says Eric Maisel
Van Gogh explained, “If we look at a Japanese artist, we see a man who is undoubtedly wise. What does he spend his time doing? Studying a single blade of grass.”
It is rare for a busy performer who is trying to learn repertoire and trying to deal with the rest of life to do the musical equivalent of studying a single blade of grass.
But that musical equivalent, studying individual notes, is a beautiful and valuable practice to begin.
Quiet Your Nerves
Focusing on one thing deeply and patiently helps us learn about that thing.
Have you ever tried focusing on a single note? If you can quiet your nerves, quiet your mind, fight your inclination to rush off, and really pay attention to a single note, you will learn something about music that you can't learn if you keep racing along.
Often children are punished for exploring and lose their taste for exploring.
When they become adults, they tell themselves that they don’t have enough time to explore, that they need to get on with knowing, doing and accomplishing.
Burdened by that mindset they find it painfully hard to commune with the basic building blocks of their chosen art and to patiently explore the notes that make up their musical universe.
A New Experience of Your Music
When we set out to study a single blade of grass or a single note we are reminding ourselves that great edifices are built out of actual building blocks.
A melody is made up of notes, not thin air.
The experience of being with each note, of feeling the distance from one note to the next and the space between one note and the next, is at once a meditation and a great learning experience.
Give it a try!
Set aside some time to study a single note —any note of your choosing.
-Eric Maisel
Can't help but to think Walter had this wisdom down pat :)
Last Edited by Frank on Sep 27, 2013 8:18 AM
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FreeWilly
350 posts
Sep 27, 2013
8:19 AM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un3p614XExc
This can't be posted here often enough, so I thought I'd give it another wirl :)
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Frank
2847 posts
Sep 28, 2013
4:09 AM
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PreCisEly...Thank God for educators who can turn on light bulbs to help the student view a path that leads to refreshing pure springs to quench our thirst and revive the musical spirit within.
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2chops
166 posts
Sep 28, 2013
8:35 AM
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I agree Frank. In my many years of martial arts practice, I often still take time to dwell on a single technique. Same idea. I think the practise of a "single note study" can be applied to a single scale of ones choosing. By keeping to the scale and varying the space between notes or changing the tempo, doors of creativity and understanding open up. JR posted a good video on doing scales to a metronome. Relatable I think.
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You Tube = goshinjk
I'm workin on it. I'm workin on it.
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BronzeWailer
1149 posts
Sep 28, 2013
3:10 PM
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Great thread Frank.
Just finished watching the video FreeWilly linked to.
Pure gold. Thanks.
I have embedded it below.
BronzeWailer's YouTube
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The Iceman
1196 posts
Sep 28, 2013
3:53 PM
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To those of you that don't recognize the gentleman above, it's Kenny Werner - Effortless Mastery Dude.
Believe it or not, I had him give his seminar at SPAH 1999 in St. Louis. He was there accompanying Toots.
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The Iceman
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Frank
2852 posts
Sep 28, 2013
4:00 PM
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Bet those are some great memories Larry from that SPAH... The performance that starts around 1 hour and 15 min in the vid above is spellbinding - the drummer is hypnotic and his touch is of the Gods :)
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