Finding the Feel of It

So, I've had a recent revelation: using vision to play is not helping me but is in fact getting in my way. I tested this theory out on the piano and found that it is indeed the case. When I look at my hands, there seems to be a real disconnect. How to explain . . . 

I think it may be because I'm trying to use my vision to direct the movement of my hands. I look at the key I want to press, but then my hand won't go there. Is it the lack of eye-hand coordination? Maybe. I do seem to have difficulty with that in everyday life.

So why does it work better to not look? Well, I'm not sure, but if my hand is in the right place, I can tell my finger to push down and it obeys quite readily. I say to my hand: 113243, 112154. It has no trouble doing that. And I get instant feedback with auditory input--if the note is right, I know I've pushed the right key. When I try to use vision and I get the wrong note, I don't know why it's not right. Isn't that strange?

Now, with guitar I've got a whole lot of additional information to process. Strings, frets with left, strings with right hand. Then there's the neck and the body of the guitar--all parts that are touched by the skin, either with hand or arm or chest or belly. Lots of contact.

But there's something about all that touching that is . . . how to describe? It creates a closeness with the instrument that can't be obtained by looking alone, an intimacy, a connection that is more direct, more primal, if you will. Holding the instrument, wrapping my arms around it, pressing the strings, holding the neck, plucking the strings (better than using a pick)--all of that connects me to the instrument, which is already a warm thing, being made of wood as it is from a formerly living thing.

Now, add the feeling of vibrations and the feeling of the strings and the wood--the different sizes and types of strings with a rough or smooth texture. The smoothness of the wood of the neck in the palm of my hand. 

And then there's the proprioreceptor sensation--my hand, arm in space--that is part of the skin's job as well, which I had been unaware of.

Then finally, the sound of the strings, alone and in combination. The infinite variety of sound that comes from an infinite variety of vibrations--again, it's a feeling, being felt, as it were, by the inner ear.

So, how to get better at locating the places where the vibrations are produced? Finding them quickly, picking them out from the entire space that is the guitar as it's held?

So much to do! It will take time but I'm looking forward to it because I like the feeling of communion with my guitar, my lovely little guitarra!

So yesterday Elden gave me some assignments that he wants me to do regularly, if not every day.

1.  To do composing directly from my head--that is, as soon as a musical idea occurs to me, I should write it down, record it in some way immediately. Then put it into MuseScore later. But DO NOT add anything after that. The next thing that is added should once again come out of my head directly. 

So the next time I'm doing a technique exercise and some musical idea occurs to me, I should write it down as soon as it drops out of my head--usually because I'm singing it.

    I like this idea. Usually I have all kinds of musical thoughts that occur to me when I'm practicing some little exercise.  I tried it this morning with my usual stretching exercise, in which I repeatedly play the first four measures of the Bach Prelude (arr. by Elden). Sometimes I sing during that, whatever comes to mind. So today I wrote down what I was singing, then later I transcribed it into MuseScore, along with the stretching chords. Then I put my vocal piece into a clarinet staff and played it together. It sounds a bit simple but it's also kind of cool. I wanted to add more but I stopped myself, because that's a violation of the rules of this game. Fun!! Can't wait to do it again!

Questions and Answers and Revelations

So, I decided to get back to this blog after around four years(!) because it's a good place to make note of things. Whether or not I can follow up remains to be seen.

So, Elden asked some very interesting questions which completely changed the way I look at my lessons and my relationship with music and musicianship.

Here are the questions and my answers:

1) Describe yourself as the ideal version of you as a musician. What are you like? What is your music like? Is it instrumental or singer-songwriter? what do you play? Piano guitar, both? What are your day to day activities as a musician? Do you perform? If so, describe your ideal balance of activities. 

 Ideal me plays better than current me does now.  

 But if I did have more advanced skills, I would want to use them to play mostly instrumental music, preferably my own compositions or improvised pieces, including arrangements of others’ music. I think my music, whatever the genre, would be impressionistic, in the vein of Debussy, perhaps, or some more contemporary version of that kind of music.  I would like it to be complex, perhaps bringing together different elements (rhythmical, harmonic, melodic, textural, timbral) or ideas that at first seem not to go together but, once joined, surprise with how well they enhance one another’s beauty and depth.

 I would want to play both piano and guitar, but my goal in learning to play any intrument is not so I can perform, primarily (at least not as an entertainer), but so I can hear the music that’s in my head, both written and imagined. Some of the music I hear in my head is jazz, which I haven’t really learned to play as yet. A third instrument that I would like to “play” is my voice. That’s the instrument I’m most experienced with and it’s possibly my main instrument, though it isn’t a chordal instrument, so it’s limited in that way. I guess of the three instruments, voice is the only one I’d enjoy performing with as a way of entertaining others, as long as I don’t have to accompany myself! 😊 (Only because I’m not very good at it, although if I’m ideal me then I would have no problem with that!)

 If I had enough time, ideally, I would like to spend my day creating and playing music. I’m not sure I know what musicians do day to day, but I suppose they practice, more pointedly for upcoming performances; less goal-driven for general maintenance. But I think they must also listen to music, mining it for ideas, perhaps. In that same way, I think listening to music should also be part of my daily activities, ideally, and analyzing it for how I can use it in my own practice (something I’m not doing enough of now). This is akin to what writers do in their day to day activities—write, edit, read, study writing. I guess I would apply those methods to creating music as well—play, listen, analyze, intensively practice with problem-solving in mind to work out difficult parts of the process.

 2) What are 5 existing musical pieces that would represent your ideal aesthetic?

Claude Debussy: “Clair de Lune”

Marcus Norris: “There Can Be No More Kings: A Hood Fantasy" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x80-X_QcFFg

Keith Jarrett:  “October 17, 1988”

Miles Davis:  “Flamenco Sketches”

Toru Takemitsu: “Rain Tree” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0jO-WN9U9U

3) If you could write only one musical composition (under 4 mins in length) that represents you, what would it sound like? What would it include? Be as detailed as possible

(Or just begin writing it LOL)

 Wow, this is an interesting, difficult question. How to describe a hypothetical musical composition? The first thought I had was the metaphor of a rain forest, mostly for the depth and breadth of sounds that can be heard there—birds, other animals, rain, insects—at different levels—top, middle, bottom of the trees—and across the area. I’d like my composition to have that kind of range and complexity—of elements and melodic lines and harmonies. It would be interesting in its layered combinations that are surprising and also beautiful. The only problem is I might not be able to play it myself on a single instrument, so I’d need other musicians to help bring it to life.

 4) What are you most interested in studying in music right now and in the future? What interests you the most and what would you like to learn more about?

Answering this set of questions was very enlightening for me. I see now that I really would like to learn more about

a.   writing for multiple instruments--instrumental pieces, primarily

b.    playing jazz on guitar

c.    continuing to study music for composition ideas

d.    continuing to employ good methods for improving technical skills

Quiet Hands Are the Angel's Workshop

In the last few days I have been spending my practice working on "quiet hands," as I've taken to calling it when my hands move as little as possible. For now, I'm just concentrating on my right hand, trying to keep it as close to the guitar as possible and as efficient as possible.

In the below video, I'm playing the finger exercises and trying to use quiet hands. I'm not entirely successful, but it seems I'm doing a bit better with it.

In the next video, made two days later, I'm playing "Simple Gifts" and trying to minimize movement. I'm not completely succeeding, as I see that whenever I pluck two or more strings together I move my hand away from the guitar somewhat more. I am working that, trying to make even the chords not "jump" away.

Practice Makes Perfect

Today I decided to put this idea into practice: I started video recording my practices. It took me a while to set something up, but I think what I came up with was useful not only to get used to recording myself and playing to an "audience," but also to see what I'm doing and how I sound. Having a recording allows me to analyze my performance and see how some of my errors can be corrected.

I'm posting the clips to YouTube because they're so large. The first video, where I am playing Minuet in G, is here:

When I looked at this video, I saw right away that I was lifting my hand off the guitar on almost every note. My instructor would not approve!

So in the next video, I tried to pay attention to that. I don't know if I succeeded completely, but I think I did better, at least.

Imagine an Audience. Imagine! An Audience!

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted here, but I've been doing a lot of private journaling about music in the meantime. Since the last post I've learned quite a bit and my fingers are getting more agile and stre-e-e-etching to accommodate some of the more far-flung chords! Plus, I've upped my lessons to once a week and my practices to 1.5 to 2 hrs per day. That last change alone has produced very gratifying results!

From 3Q Digital

Today I was explaining to my instructor that I write blogs about many things, and one of the reasons I write them is to keep my writing skills sharp. And even though hardly anyone besides me reads my blogs, I benefit by writing to an audience, however imaginary they might be.

When I got to thinking about that today, I realized that one way I can get used to playing for an audience is to start recording myself playing and then to post the video to this blog! In so doing, I will learn to play with an audience in mind! Now, I don't intend to post all the practices, especially not the bad ones. But if I strive to play to an audience, then those performances that do come out well I can share with any blog readers that might stumble upon them.

It's a scary thought, but I'm going to try it! Soon . . . 

Music in Space and Time

At my last lesson, my teacher said that I should try to write music on the guitar and memorize what I am playing. I can always write it down later. He said to memorize a piece is to own it. And owning it, I further decided, is putting your particular stamp on it, making it yours, even if someone else wrote it.

My teacher puts that into practice when he plays a familiar tune like "Sunny Side of the Street," or "Imagine," making it new in a way, and therefore allowing people to hear it anew, even if it's a well-known piece of music.

So I have been working on memorizing two pieces this week: a duet piece and a solo piece that contains chords. I have found it to be a very gratifying experience in several ways.

First of all, playing the guitar while watching myself play is a very different experience from playing while looking at the music. It's hard to explain what happens, but I'll try.

Looking at how the sounds are made makes the experience much more visual. I was reminded of my teacher's lessons about shapes. I couldn't conceive of what he meant until I started seeing the shapes--the angles the fingers make on the fret board--simultaneously in the case of chords, and sequentially in the case of melodies. It's a very tangible representation of the scalar quality of the movement--up or down the scale; forward or backward in space.

It reminds me that the guitar is a different instrument from the piano, where the notes are nicely laid out in a row, a single plane. On the guitar they are laid out in two planes: along an X axis and a Y axis, you might say. A particular note, therefore, is a point anywhere along that grid: it's on the first string (X) and the second fret (Y), for example. That note is identified as F# above the higher C. But to make it more complicated, the note made at that location is not unique: other combinations can produce the same sound. It's like the same number can be obtained by different routes: 1+3 = 4 and 2+2 = 4.

Once I started noticing the visual representation of the music on the guitar, I found I could make the necessary movements more easily and more quickly. And I paid more attention to the structure of the piece. In the case of the Bourre by Bach, I noticed immediately that the piece consists of a series of three-note phrases, many repeating--exactly as well as approximately. And I found I could memorize them more easily by seeing them in chunks, recognizing the patterns that helped me return to them, even when they were slightly altered. It's a process very akin to poetry reading or memorizing, because music, even instrumental music, is very similar to poetry in its rhythms and patterns.

When I told my teacher that I memorized a poem for a class, he said to think about how I memorized the poem. That made me see how I could memorize a piece of music. When I memorize poems, I try to memorize one verse at a time, or one line at a time if the piece is difficult. Then I keep repeating what I've already learned and just add a new line to it, going back and repeating from the beginning each time. There is a game called, "In My Grandmother's Attic," where each person thinks of an object that starts with a letter of the alphabet, and then tries to remember what the person before him or her said. So, "In my grandmother's attic there is an anvil," could be the first person's response. The next person might say, "In my grandmother's attic there's an anvil and a baseball," and so on, until the end of the alphabet is reached and all 26 items have been declared by the last person speaking.

I've been trying to see if this approach would work in learning music. For instance, with the bourre I'm learning, by visualizing each three-note phrase, I'm hoping I will remember what to play next: "In my bourre there is this trio and this trio and this trio and . . . ." It's a new process for me so at first it will be cumbersome, but maybe would speed up eventually as the process becomes more internalized.

But besides the visual aspect, there is the muscle memory to encourage as well. Eventually, my fingers will automatically do what my mind wants them to do because they've done it that way so many times before. And I won't have to think so much about it; it will just flow! I'm looking forward to that.