Written by: alessiobax
Saturday, November 25, 2006 6:32 PM

A lesson today ignited some thoughts in me (amazing, isn't it)? We spend all our lives trying to make the music we play "ours" when, most of the time, all we do is lower the music to our level. Let me explain. We spend hours and hours in front of this awkwardly-shaped piece of furniture, and why? Because we are not happy with the way this or that sounds, because we haven't "mastered" this or that passage, or because we haven't "learnt", or "memorized" all the notes of this or that piece of music. Now, if you never felt that way, congratulations to you, but I am sure most of us have gone through this, at one point or another. Some of us have felt this often, while some others have really never bothered to ask.

What this achieves, no matter how we spin it, is the lowering of music to our own level. We put our limitations to play, and use all our powers to "learn" the music. This can be a very destructive process, in my opinion. Only when we realize that music is bigger than ourselves, we can attempt to get closer to it. In other words, we can try to rise to a level that is as close as possible to the music we are playing. Only then, our curiosity to understand the music, to explain it, and to perform it, can push us in the right direction and make us grow both as musicians and as people.

So, I think the key is in the music itself, which should pose an unlimited number of questions and should beg for a fair amount of answers. Music has to be understood and respected, as opposed to controlled and mastered (like a wild beast). It should be our friend, yes, but more importantly our biggest teacher, for very often the answers we look for, are hidden within the questions we ask ourselves and within the questions that music asks us. This is very close to a child-like curiosity, a need to know, a need to explain, a need to question everything, over and over again. This is the beauty of our world. We are working for something bigger than us (in this case music), something that inspires us to be better, and something that should be served, rather than owned. I see very little space for "ego" in this theory, and it really emphasizes my theory that "ego" can be the number one enemy in music. The confidence we are all hoping for should perhaps come from the fact that hopefully day after day we do get a step closer to understanding music, its sense and its purpose in our lives.

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Written by: alessiobax
Saturday, November 25, 2006 6:32 PM

A lesson today ignited some thoughts in me (amazing, isn't it)? We spend all our lives trying to make the music we play "ours" when, most of the time, all we do is lower the music to our level. Let me explain. We spend hours and hours in front of this awkwardly-shaped piece of furniture, and why? Because we are not happy with the way this or that sounds, because we haven't "mastered" this or that passage, or because we haven't "learnt", or "memorized" all the notes of this or that piece of music. Now, if you never felt that way, congratulations to you, but I am sure most of us have gone through this, at one point or another. Some of us have felt this often, while some others have really never bothered to ask.

What this achieves, no matter how we spin it, is the lowering of music to our own level. We put our limitations to play, and use all our powers to "learn" the music. This can be a very destructive process, in my opinion. Only when we realize that music is bigger than ourselves, we can attempt to get closer to it. In other words, we can try to rise to a level that is as close as possible to the music we are playing. Only then, our curiosity to understand the music, to explain it, and to perform it, can push us in the right direction and make us grow both as musicians and as people.

So, I think the key is in the music itself, which should pose an unlimited number of questions and should beg for a fair amount of answers. Music has to be understood and respected, as opposed to controlled and mastered (like a wild beast). It should be our friend, yes, but more importantly our biggest teacher, for very often the answers we look for, are hidden within the questions we ask ourselves and within the questions that music asks us. This is very close to a child-like curiosity, a need to know, a need to explain, a need to question everything, over and over again. This is the beauty of our world. We are working for something bigger than us (in this case music), something that inspires us to be better, and something that should be served, rather than owned. I see very little space for "ego" in this theory, and it really emphasizes my theory that "ego" can be the number one enemy in music. The confidence we are all hoping for should perhaps come from the fact that hopefully day after day we do get a step closer to understanding music, its sense and its purpose in our lives.

Trackback Print

Location: Blogs AB Web Blog