stop talking to yourself and play
this -- from ex-ghostcar trumpeter/mastermind karl poetschke -- seemed particularly relevant in light of the fact that i'm playing with two of his former bandmates tonight:
the fulcrum of improvisation is the art of listening and the beauty of learning to listen is that it can be practiced anywhere at anytime. listening intently is the key to knowing where you are in the music and where the music is headed. however, there is an important technique that must be mastered in order to listen at this level of clarity.
you must be able to stop the constant chatter of the mind. the chatter comes from a host of sources that our ego develops in order to reinforce and validate it's existence so it can be difficult to slow down this stream of thoughts.
how often do you say things to yourself in your head? alot...huh?
the mind is a tool for receiving and storing information more than it is a tool for determining our actions. in our western-reason dominated society, this can be hard to grasp mainly because it challenges our "reason" which many times is at the center of our egos. this leads to a whole other study that i will not get into for now.
next time you play music, especially if improvising, pay attention to your thoughts. what is it that you are saying to yourself while playing or not playing? make a concentrated effort to let these thoughts come and go with no emotional investment in them i.e. don't let the thoughts dictate what you play. strive to reach a place of no-thought during performance. this does not mean you now have licsense to vomit forth any bit of crap that comes up. actually it just the opposite. in the state of no-thought you must be "listening intently" to what is happening around you...in the music, in the room or as far as your ears can reach and then you will hear what it is your are to play even before you play it.
your contribution will then be a true product of inspiration from your environment and your own inner creativity. it is this marriage that validates the practice and art of improvisation and differentiates it from being simply alot of "stream of conscious" anarchy...if however that is your intent, so be it.
this practice, of-coarse, implies that you have already acquired enough technical mastery of your instrument that your body can readily and easily play the instrument without too much resistance.
the fulcrum of improvisation is the art of listening and the beauty of learning to listen is that it can be practiced anywhere at anytime. listening intently is the key to knowing where you are in the music and where the music is headed. however, there is an important technique that must be mastered in order to listen at this level of clarity.
you must be able to stop the constant chatter of the mind. the chatter comes from a host of sources that our ego develops in order to reinforce and validate it's existence so it can be difficult to slow down this stream of thoughts.
how often do you say things to yourself in your head? alot...huh?
the mind is a tool for receiving and storing information more than it is a tool for determining our actions. in our western-reason dominated society, this can be hard to grasp mainly because it challenges our "reason" which many times is at the center of our egos. this leads to a whole other study that i will not get into for now.
next time you play music, especially if improvising, pay attention to your thoughts. what is it that you are saying to yourself while playing or not playing? make a concentrated effort to let these thoughts come and go with no emotional investment in them i.e. don't let the thoughts dictate what you play. strive to reach a place of no-thought during performance. this does not mean you now have licsense to vomit forth any bit of crap that comes up. actually it just the opposite. in the state of no-thought you must be "listening intently" to what is happening around you...in the music, in the room or as far as your ears can reach and then you will hear what it is your are to play even before you play it.
your contribution will then be a true product of inspiration from your environment and your own inner creativity. it is this marriage that validates the practice and art of improvisation and differentiates it from being simply alot of "stream of conscious" anarchy...if however that is your intent, so be it.
this practice, of-coarse, implies that you have already acquired enough technical mastery of your instrument that your body can readily and easily play the instrument without too much resistance.
posted by stashdauber at 2:43 PM
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