The first pass comes from the body. Mainly, without thought. This is ideal: thinking is not only too slow, it interrupts the motor actions of the body. A trained, responsive physical instrument in motion is a joy to be inside. There are moments when, as if in surprise, I look out at my fingers, trained over many years, almost independent, dancing effortlessly across the strings. On the inside of the hands is vitality, lightness. On the outside, only the slightest glancing contact with the strings. This is calisthenic: where physical motion and beauty coincide, dancing in joy. If only the rest of this body, hewn from Dorset & Welsh primary genes, were able to know the delight which is possible for the small constituency of their digits.
But to take this dance along with the guitar, and then plug it in: everything changes. Schizophonia: the sound emerges from a distant location. Or, claustrophobia: the sound is sitting on my head. My relationship with these dancing fingers is now also a relationship with sound, and mostly this sound appears at a distance from me. This sound is part of a sonic matrix which involves other players. Each sound I produce bears & carries my intention; the sounds the other players produce mirror, reflect & bear their intentions. So, do we share the same aim/s? Do we have the same capacity/ies in performance? Assuming we share adequacy, sufficiency & necessity in our mutual executant functions, may we transform these flurries & eruptions of sound into music? More accurately, will music envelope us within its benevolence and transform us, in that moment, from players to musicians?
Even with all this, assumed and "intact", walk into a performance space, step back and sense the entrance of the audience. Or more accurately, the crowd. The people on stage may not be a group, but there is a reasonable assumption from the house that they have practised sufficiently to work together. May the players assume that the audience have undergone a comparable training in individual and group listening? What performance conventions hold in this place? Is this an event mediated by commerce? Does this confer on the audience "consumer rights"? Does this give the "consumers" the right to behave in any fashion they wish, even where this runs directly counter to the performance requests of the performer/s?
And now, given all of this, crank up the volume of a huge pa system, and play your 15/16. Has anything changed?
Anyone interested in musical education may note at this point that an education which addresses learning an instrument is not an education which is directed towards performing. An education which is directed towards performing is no preparation for a performance which takes place within an avowedly commercial culture. If the performer has no audience, their hunger, poor housing & old clothing accompanies a lack of recognition. Without "recognition" - an affirming acknowledgement that our work meets some necessity in our community / society - our work is not quite "real". And with recognition, we encounter a raft of demands and expections which define and limit our work.
The extent of our capacity in all of this equates to the power we have of directing our attention. More accurately, the division of attention. For example, "without thought" does not mean "without thinking". "Without thought" means, without the surface flutterings of everyday mind. Thinking is an exceptional and surprisingly rare occurrence. It requires that our cerebrating is directed towards a specific, whether we are interested in that specific or not. And thinking is only one part of our functioning.
But what to do when all the irrelevancies of the mundane mind move associatively along and offer to upset the forward motion of those (for example) flying fingers? Remember "Zen And The Art Of Archery"? This is a metaphor for living. The aim is to hit the mark. Surely this is simple: the arrow has nowhere else to go. So, what's the problem? Why do our "arrows" fly everywhere but into the centre of the target, the bull's eye?
Then, imagine a Zen master archer in front of the target with 2,000 people all shouting encouragement. All of us expect he'll hit the mark - after all, he's a master archer isn't he? Hang on, I'll take a photo while he's shooting. It won't disturb him - he's a master. And if it does, well, I bought a ticket to this shooting range with my hard-earned pay and that gives me rights. It doesn't matter if he's explicitly rejected them. And anyway, it's his job and if he doesn't like it he should do something else. He's not even entertaining - he doesn't jump about or put on a show. Hey dude! Just holding that bow and arrow doesn't quite do it! And (if I stopped to verbalise this) why shouldn't he absorb my negative projections & hostilities? In my culture, everyone behaves without courtesy in public. He should lighten up or ship out. And look! He missed the target. Putz. He didn't even give me an autograph or have a photo with me. I won't bother seeing him again - he doesn't deserve me.
So, what might it be like for anyone of lesser degree?
15.21
"Larks' V" tickled & vibrated to the next stage, with templates for the beginning and end sections. Whipcords snapped as I climbed the stairs to invite Adrian down for some guitar soloing. Adrian appeared in response to my Crim honking sounds:
AB: I've been reading the latest Elephant Talk. What a turd that is! What a turd! Those people are really mad.
RF: May I quote you on that?
AB: What a turd!
RF: You know you shouldn't read that.
AB: I haven't read it for weeks.
So, Ade is soloing on "Larks' IV" rather than "ProzaKc Blues".
This morning at the beginning of my Pencil Frenzy, I wrote the title "Larks' VI" at the top of the page and then a main phrase in the next stage of this continuing saga.
15.48
Ade has squirlted & spooged 4 takes and we'll listen to that later. Now he's on to "ProzaKc".
Studio recording is constructing the architecture. Live performance is living in the house and inviting friends round. Or opening the house to the public.
20.13
Back from Nashville. I have been looking for a particular present for the Little Horse but without success. But I did discover 20th. Century Guitar magazine with a schizoid face on the cover & an interview with Ian McDonald inside. Also, Drummer Rieflin is featured in a drummer's mag, focusing on "Birth Of A Giant".
"Honour the role.
Respect the person."
