Breakfast For The Gig

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Does what I had for breakfast last Monday have any affect on my performance Saturday night? An emphatic YES! We constantly hear the promoting of a holistic lifestyle. The things we eat, watch, read, and do in our spare time do affect our overall wellbeing as well as our performance.  Artists are known for either being too busy or not busy at all. We seem to have a pattern of doing whatever is necessary during busy times, i.e.- grab whatever to eat, skip meditation and exercise, stop reading, watching crap from any tube outlet, etc. And when we are not busy we “pull our life together” and work on our mental/emotional wellness… A sort of destruction creation pattern. How do we create consistency? How can we create a balance without degenerating in one direction or another? Life at times can feel like that old arcade game “Whac A Mole,” where you have to smash down the heads of the moles as they pop up. The Zen response to that game would be not to whack anything, but instead to do nothing. Let the moles come up and just observe. Is this concept adaptable to our performance life balance? Yes! Do nothing is the greatest asset we have to empower our lives. How does this work? Part of the pattern I have observed being a working musician is that we come home physically and emotionally exhausted from a performance, and the first thing we do is grab high calorie, nutrition-less food (and probably something naughty to drink) and fulfillment is attained! Or, just plop on to the couch and flip through channels so that every image a manipulative marketer wants engrained in us is at work. Thus assuming some sort of “decompressing” is taking place, when in actuality the opposite is happening. Now a mental habit is being created… Need crap to consume (whether media or food) to get by! How about do nothing until a “good choice” arises? But I know the doubts. Sitting and doing nothing is creepy! And if I sit still I may go crazy with my thoughts and feelings. Well, it clearly looks like you may have some internal work to do! Addressing our fears and emotions always leads to a greater level of being, awareness, and positive communication. These feeling that seem distracting are actually necessary seeds to deal through for growth. In our society we are expected to be (or just look) productive. What’s wrong with watching a bit of boob tube and eating crap? Plenty is wrong with that. Whether in the form of food or alcohol, refined sugar is an addictive drug (so is television!) that eats away the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe is responsible for everything from cognition, choice making, memory, and mood/emotional swings. I think for any human being, particularly an artist, you want this part of you functioning at the greatest capacity. So dropping down a pint of ice cream, or having a few drinks will definitely affect your future performances in some way. And the more a habit and addiction of consuming toxins is engrained, the more the quality of our output and lives are degenerated.

Negative media consumption is part and parcel with negative food consumption. We all respond to images and titles much deeper than we think. Think of the conscious mind as momentarily attaching to an object and pondering that object into the subconscious. That is how our cognition basically works. So if I am cruising the internet and flip by “10 Sexiest WHOEVERS of 2015,” I’m now attached to that message-pondering it whether I am aware or not, let alone interested or not. The message is engraining in my mind as societal importance. Instead I choose to search the web and consume myself with specific subjects of personal beneficial interests - like “The 10 Sexiest Module Synthesizers of 2015.” But for me, I much rather glance at a Jackson Pollack (or any artist’s) painting and ponder that affect in any direction. Even a drawing my 8 year-old daughter conceived is well enlightening, trying to understand what is being expressed and communicated with her mind and heart, and how that expression affects me. In an age of infinite choice and available information we must be deeply mindful of EVERTHING we consume. It affects every aspect of our lives and the whole.
 

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Scripted Improvisation

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I am inquiring on improvisation- particularly as an instrumentalist musician, but hopefully this inquiry will be an adaptable discussion to all art forms. The definition of improvisation is obscurely stated as created without preparation. It seems in music there is a myriad of preparation to improvising, from learning chord changes and structure, to the years of mastering an instrument’s control. Craft and structure prep aside, I want to address the contradiction to this definition, which is at the core of the collectively accepted concept of musical improvisation. Preparing “licks” and phrases, and piecing them together in a premeditated way to create the narrative. I have difficulty resonating with the telos and concept of these solos that are collectively praised.  I call it the “The Circus Act!” The concept is a visual/aural super human ability that strings together pieces to woo an audience or listener. I accept this approach as a form of improvisation surely (a kind of “paint by numbers solo” whose painter’s skill to draw inside the lines are impeccable). But to me improvisational intent and concept should be based on a narrative with a risk and an unknown outcome. In other words instead of thinking in a pseudo-panoramic view as I usually tend to do, I think in terms of “I don’t know where this is going, but I trust a narrative will organically take place.” The risk involved in an improvised piece is paramount to authenticity. Can you discipline your mind during improv to be only as far forward as the concept you are creating at that moment, thus allowing a deeper connection to that concept which then organically directs you on to the next segment of the story. I think selflessness plays a huge role here. I can feel those Type-A musicians fear, not getting the “game winning lick” in. The sort of “Look what I can do!” part of the story- if not the whole story. The intent and telos should always maintain music as the only objective. Simply ask yourself “why is what I played musical?” And see if you can respond objectively to that question as opposed to narcissistically. Is what I played an expression of a crammed agenda, or an organic risked filled narrative? The narrative is what connects us to the human experience. Listening to an improvised solo I resonate deeply to a storied journey with a performer rather than a crowd cheering woo fest. It seems demeaning to take the transcendence of human expression in live performance and reduce it to a “circus act.” I much rather be awed by connection than awed by self-absorbed impressions.

Can we affect our lives by improvisational virtue? Can we stay in the moment, let it lead you, take risks, and let go of the outcome? When I do I am much more connected to my experience and others. I am free. It is my narrative. It is my practice.



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