Starbucks opposite Beverly Center, Los Angeles.
Awake until almost 23.00 last night, the evening spent practising. Rising at 05.37.
A call to David at DGM HQ regarding the re-licensing of the catalogue. And from a reply to an essence-brother's e-mail --
KC: the european tour did me a lot of damage, as does public performance increasingly. the level of violation & negativity i absorb is now unacceptable. so, i am looking at re-orienting my professional life away from the public eye, which is a pity because i now have enough experience to be useful.
GC: 2006 is a year of GC full-time activities for me. if we can find a house in the UK, fine. otherwise, i'll probably be traveling between continents to visit courses. property prices are so unbelievable that a full-time house is unlikely. but the interesting point is that, currently, the future of GC is out of my hands. this lies with the first generation of crafties, most of whom you know well.
10.21 When spirits are low, engage the body in physical activity.
18.41 This morning I arrived at the Bodhi Tree bookshop just ahead of Trey, a surprise meeting for both of us. Today is set-up in the rehearsal room & the Rhythm Buddies are in action. Adrian arrives this evening. An afternoon of practising in the hotel for me.
A small discussion has emerged in the GC community regarding "being in tune, in tone & in time".
What might "being in tune" suggest? Perhaps, being oriented towards what resonates truly for us. If our life is mainly fictitious, or driven by fantasy, we are "out of tune". The portentous word destiny is relevant here. Usually, the early direction of our life is set by family, social background and education - the conditions of our "fate". If this direction is incompatible with our nature, we may feel "out of tune" with the world, even perhaps feel that the world as presented to us is, itself, out of tune. So, we seek a standard, a measure, that we recognise as true; and increasingly align ourselves towards it.
"In tone": the quality & substantiality of timbre reflects the integrity of the note - the quality & intensity of its being-ness. Something like, this is what the note is.
Good time is, fundamentally, in the body. Moving at the right tempo is itself fundamental. In contemporary culture, we are mostly inclined to move at a faster tempo than we can naturally accommodate, with unsettling results & repercussions.
Good timing is, primarily, felt; although instinct is also involved. When the mind decides that the moment is right for emphasis, the moment has already passed - the mind is too slow to direct timing.
The overall pattern of a piece, as it emerges in time, is held in the mind's eye.
The ordering of a piece, which directs its unfolding movement through time, is arranged according to the governing conventions of any particular musical community. In our culture, rhythmic organisation is partly defined & described by time signature.
Holding the pattern is part of the discipline of the head, and permits us to better engage the integrity, the wholeness, of what we are playing. Whichever particular note is being played, it has a connection to all the other notes played, or about-to-be-played, within the piece. The present moment of the piece is held, and may occasionally be experienced, as one moment: the now of the piece, as it were. Once we are trained to connect to the present moment of one piece, we extend this to holding the sense of a complete performance as one whole.
Now, practising is calling. I am continuing to fine tune calisthenics of the left hand - the errors of youth are returning to haunt me still.
"A decision changes the world."
