"Your best music is made without your instrument." Is this true? I find it so, both logically and experientially. It may well sound like nonsense. If one approaches music as if it were an external thing, like a car, then it does sound like nonsense to say 'your best driving is done without the car'..!
However, playing music is an internal process first, then an external one. The music has to come from somwhere before it can be anywhere, and a musician's task is to make that process open, natural and truthful. One's feelings, desires, ideas, reactions, positions and choices are all involved in the recipe that is going to produce the sounds coming out of the instrument. They have to be accounted for, and if they are developed into a harmonious balance, the music will express this.
It is possible to develop some parts of one's inner world and produce impressive music, but until all the components get included, the music will still retain that sense of 'trying' or 'not-quite-there'. I am guessing, but I think it likely that Mike Oldfield would describe his trajectory as following that arc, with brilliance in all his work from twenty onwards, but only recently having brought in a sense of overall mastery, expressed in the deep tranquility and perfectly calculated soaring of his composing now.
It is the process of practicing your life that builds the beauty in the music. The level of appreciation for every day is ultimately what moves one to echo the world by making music. In this way, the life you are living is your best music, and when you take your instrument, then you have a chance of replying to the world. If you are like me, you will note that even when it comes out at its best, it remains somehow an echo, even if a true one. And so perhaps it should be.
This being the end of the year, I have gathered my collection of thoughts from these newsletters into a single page. If you know anyone who might find it useful, or merely interesting, feel free to forward the link.Click to read
Click to forward to a friend
Happy Winter Solstice to all.
Michael
I was nineteen when I first heard ' A Clear Bell in an Empty Sky', and it was the first time that music and sprituality became connected in my world. Goro Yamaguchi was recorded during his stay as Resident Artist at Wesleyan University in the US, and the recording joined Hendrix and Zappa in the psychedelic culture of the times.
This remains for me one of the purest musical expressions of our time. You can hear a piece here.
(Ho Sho Su - 11 min.)
Play it in your house while doing other things, it will most likely change many subtle things about your perception.
July 22 - 26 on Cortes Island
"Chasing Beauty: Playing Music from the Soul"
I will lead a workshop to deepen the connection to the music. The time will be spent playing music and working on removing barriers to reaching the beauty that is reflected in our deeper selves. Special guests, spirits and surprises along with the beauty that is Hollyhock. Click here for more info.
