The Tuning Slide: 3.5- Spirituality and the Musician

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
-Ludwig van Beethoven

The past two weeks I have been looking at music and the spiritual. I defined spiritual as:

a. Awareness of power and existence greater than one's self.
b. There is meaning, purpose, and direction in this greater scheme of things.
c. Positive, healthy connections with other people as part of a greater community.

This week I want to look at the spiritual and us as musicians. The first quote below that I talk about is, like the quotes the past two weeks, from this website ( http://www.thescavenger.net/health-personal-development/self-growth/226-spiritual-significance-of-music-92345.html )

What we believe, perceive, and respect in life will shine forth in our music and spirituality. For some, spirituality is a scary word reflecting religious thinking masquerading as truth. It does not have to be some esoteric message about magic and mysticism. … Spirituality reflects our faith and values. It represents our response to reality. It is the rippling undercurrent beneath our actions, firmly built on the foundational cornerstone of belief…

There’s a lot in that one paragraph. First it says that who we are will be reflected in our music. That includes our beliefs and perceptions of the world around us as well as what we value. Sometimes those things shine through in spite of us. The whole history of musicians and substance abuse, suicide, and personal difficulties did not completely silence the messages that some of these have had to share with us. In fact for many of them their music was a way of trying to figure it all out, their search for meaning and hope and life itself cries out from their music. At times that becomes very dark and dismal, and at times filled with a bright light of hope, even if they themselves never found it.

Which brings me to the questions that many of us need to wrestle with in our music…

What feeds your spirit? What is it that gives meaning and hope to our lives? Where is our personal search taking us? How does my music reflect the beliefs and reality I live with each day?

Most of us don’t deal with these consciously when we go into our practice rooms or even performances. But the more in touch we are with those questions, the more likely our music will be impacted and transformed. Most musicians know of those times and places where all these come together and we are moved in different ways in the midst of a performance. One of my friends described that in one of his group’s performances with the word- “boomerang.” They were performing at a conference and the audience started to sing along with them turning the moment into one of high emotion and spiritual uplift. Everyone, including the musicians, were surrounded by something greater than themselves. No one left that performance unmoved! It happened because the musicians were very much in touch with their own spiritual lives and it was included in their music.

How then do we feed our spirit.

There are many ways, perhaps starting with your own spiritual history or tradition. In the book Spirits Rejoice!: Jazz and American Religion, Jason Bivins discusses the spirituality of a number of Jazz musicians over the decades. He almost always begins with their upbringing and its possible influence on who they became and the expressions of their music. Most did not stay in those initial traditions alone, but the influence is real and powerful no matter how far the style may have strayed. It is also why Gospel music is part of the deep heritage of Jazz itself. But it is found in all types of music. So be attentive to what moves you musically and what that says about your own spiritual roots.

But then you must maintain your own mindful awareness of yourself. Mindfulness is the non-judgmental attentiveness to your feelings and the events around you. Mindful meditations a way that many people begin to discover some of these depths. Later this year I am also going to talk a little about things like Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong as spiritual disciplines for musicians. They can bring together body, mind, and soul in an expression of your own creativity and energy.

Which brings me to a quote that I think applies to our lives as musicians and our spirituality:

Play the music, not the instrument.
-Author Unknown

To get in touch with the spiritual in our own music we have to become comfortable with our instrument. We can easily get sidetracked by the technical aspects of playing our instrument. We can get bogged down by trying to remember the fingerings for the key we are playing in. We can lose sight of the music when we are just playing the notes on the page. The spiritual depth of our playing, our even just the plain musicality of it, gets interrupted by the logical side and we lose the intuitive.

One of my MAJOR pet peeves is when I get a piece of music and find that a previous musician as gone through and written the fingerings for all the notes in a particular section. My mind cannot process the written numbers and the note at the same time. I lose the intuitive knowledge that a G# on the staff is 2nd and 3rd. Numbers don’t represent anything and I wonder what that 2 and 3 mean. Sure, it’s a quirk of mine, but I have spent a long time becoming as comfortable with my instrument as I can be at this moment. Don’t confuse me with data that is unneeded.

Right now I am doing something I have never consciously done in my 55+ years of playing. I am working on changing my embouchure. (No need for details at this point.) That means I must for the moment be playing the instrument first. I am trying to relearn how to play with a good sound. I am developing new muscle memory in my lips and breathing patterns. I am working toward the natural feel the change in embouchure will have when it is settled in. Until then, I am not finding the spiritual as easily as I did before. One of these days I will be back to the music.

To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins.
Everything living has a rhythm.
Do you feel your music?
-Michael Jackson

As I am writing this, I am listening to some music. I am typing and the music is flowing. It is an instrumental Jazz duet and it is working in both the conscious and sub-conscious. Every now and then I am aware that my body is moving side to side in time with the music. Then my feet start tapping. I am in a public place so I am not about to get up and start dancing. But the rhythm is dancing in me. Do I feel that when I play? That is my goal.

That is spiritual. Let it flow.

One of the best examples of spirituality in music is the incredible Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He is famous for his spiritual wanderings, wrestlings, and depth. Last week, on the anniversary of his death, National Public Radio posted on Facebook an older piece they did on him in 2012. McCoy Tyner, a member of his band, remembered Coltrane saying:

"I respond to what's around me."

Tyner adds,

"That's the way it should be, you know?”

Coltrane on NPR.
(http://www.npr.org/2000/10/23/148148986/a-love-supreme?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nprmusic&utm_term=music&utm_content=20170717)

Here’s a video of Coltrane’s “Dear Lord.” With the title in mind, hear spirit blowing through the horn!



And if you haven’t ever done it, go find “A Love Supreme.” Take the time to let it fill you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A special note:

This year's Shell Lake Arts Center Trumpet Workshop begins Sunday, July 30. I have the boxes of my book ready to go. They will again be free to the students! In order to help me defray the cost I have a Go Fund Me page where those who would like to can make a donation. Thanks!

Here is the link:

Go Fund Me for Tuning Slide books for students

The Tuning Slide: 3.1- Getting Ready for Year 3

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say
a hearty yes to your adventure.
—Joseph Campbell

Well, we are now officially ready to kick off the third year of the Tuning Slide. Technically, that won’t happen until after the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop from July 30 - August 4. But it is time to get back into regular new posts after a series of reruns from last year.

Since the last post of the 2nd year those many weeks ago I have been finishing the editing of the new edition of The Tuning Slide book. It is done and will again be given to all students at this year’s Shell Lake Workshop. If any of you want to help make that happen, here is a link to my Go Fund Me page (https://www.gofundme.com/2du5rbtw) to support that effort. The book, which includes both the first and second years of the blog posts, will also be available on Amazon as either a hard-copy or an ebook. Watch for that information.

But let’s move on.

I have also been busy playing trumpet, reading, practicing, attending Shell Lake’s Adult Big Band Camp, and planning the new year of these posts. I am constantly amazed at how learning never ends and in even the basics, we can always learn something new. Kind of as a teaser of thinks to come, here are some thoughts to kick off the new blog year.

What I’ve learned so far this spring and summer
1) Learning the names and the feel of the scales
- It started when I was working on Clarke #3. As you probably know Clarke’s exercises start at the bottom of the scale at the low F#/Gb. Well, I started a little higher than that one day, probably at the lower Ab scale. I was working my way up the scale as Clarke sets them up. Suddenly I stopped. I looked at the notes on the page and said to myself, “Let’s skip that. I can’t play all those flats.” It was really intimidating to see 5 flats in front of me. “That’s too hard,” I added. Then I stopped.

- Oh, that’s right, it’s just the Db scale.

So I played it. No sweat. After all, that was why I have worked on scales every day for months. It was no longer an excessive number of flats that I had to think about. It was now simply the Db major scale.

- That is how the “Inner Game” works. It utilizes Self 1 and Self 2 together! Self 1 reacted. Self 2 simply said- I know that. Self 1 remembered to trust Self 2 and off they went, together, into making music!

2) The Effect on the whole body and vice versa
- Big Band Workshop involved a lot of making music! Hours of music from Friday afternoon into Sunday noon. Sure there were breaks, but unlike Trumpet Workshop there was not a lot of lecture and information breaks. We had a limited time to get a number of songs ready. So off we went to work. I wrote on Facebook after he weekend.

- My lips are angry at me and my body won’t talk to me. (All that standing during rehearsals and the concert!)

It only got worse. I had little to no recuperation time- band rehearsal on Monday evening, a big, intense concert on Tuesday, another intense rehearsal on Wednesday. On top of it all the excitement and activity of the weekend and concert prep drained a lot of energy. I was physically and emotionally exhausted on top of the angry embouchure.

- The whole body is involved in making music. I don’t think it matters what instrument you play. There is a lot that we put into it and a lot that happens. For those of us who are not at the highly-trained full-time musician level, that can cause us trouble. We have to learn to take good care of body, mind, and soul in order to make good music.

3) Trusting your colleagues on the bandstand
- Many of know of my ongoing wrestling match with performance anxiety when I have a solo. Well, you will be happy to know that in the concert back home last week I played a solo part without panic! I did one, too, at the weekend workshop, but this one was part of a trumpet opening to one of the pieces as three of us played a surround-sound antiphonal entrance.

- The reason it went as it did was thanks in part to one of my colleagues who gave me feedback at rehearsal the week before. He made a suggestion to make the part flow more smoothly and in-tune. He expressed positive comments about what I was doing. He let me know I could do it.

- We are in this together. When we sit on that bandstand, whether with 50 others in a concert band or five in a quintet, we must all be aware of and supportive of each other. If we know our colleagues “have our back” so to speak, we will relax and move forward.

So, with that in mind, here are some of the places I’m thinking about going this year. This is based on my editing together of the first two years and reliving the experiences of my personal move into a more advanced musician. I see this year as doing three things built on the basics from the Trumpet Workshops of the past two summers as well as this year. We will maintain those basics and then move in three directions:

Depth
For that we will dig more deeply into things like:

- The Inner Game and how it helps us improve.
- Listening as a musical (and spiritual) activity.
- And the road to Carnegie Hall or your own local auditorium-Practice, Practice, Practice.

Breadth
I will also look at expanding the width- the breadth- of being a musician. For this I will look at:

- Spirituality as part of music’s essential character.
- Making sure we work the physical and mental aspects together. Mindfulness, exercise, attitude will make such a difference in who we are and what we do.
- The reason we can expand and learn is the chemistry, structure, and character of our brain and the many ways we can utilize it for growth. The neuroscience is exciting- and revolutionary.

Height
All of these lead us to go higher in our level of playing and musicianship. Some of the things I am exploring are:

- Stretching one’s limits. How do we push ourselves and what does it take to keep us motivated?
- The importance of focus in this is critical. It is easy to get lackadaisical. How do I keep from being a sloppy player?
- Sharing with others is what we do. New heights of working together to make music and to help others grow along with us is one of those great side-effects of music.

Overall- I’m even more excited about this year. Lots of things will be added to this list and lots of music will be discussed. Through it all, don’t forget to have fun. Making music is to participate in a wonderful, mysterious, and even magical experience.

Thinking....

Much to my own amazement, I have been having a difficult time writing about anything outside the two major issues I have been working on.

The first has been the ongoing development of The Tuning Slide blog and book containing the first two years of posts. My mind has been heavily involved in getting the book finished and ready for people to order it from Amazon. That will happen after July 1 when both the hard-copy and eBook will go live. I am also doing the Go Fund Me page again this year to give copies of the book to the students at the Shell Lake Arts Center Trumpet Workshop starting July 30. (Go Fund Me Link.) (I will post a link here when it is live on Amazon.)

The other project occupying my mind is a presentation I hope to do in the fall about addictions and treatment. Right now I am in the research and brainstorming stage about how deep I want to go and what needs to be set aside for lack of time. I will probably start blogging some of it here in the next month or so if I can keep the sorting going.

I continue to play lots of music with lots of practicing. I have started working out again (Yay!!!) and have lost weight to the tune of about 5% since May 1. (Double YAY!!!) As usual my photography has declined from what it was while in Alabama for the winter, although I hope to get some time out in the "wilds".

Other stuff- like working, since after all I am only "semi-retired" still- has also been involving my life and time. In short, I'm having fun. I have had a difficult time writing and reflecting on what is happening politically. Even after my winter series of posts on The Dark Night and Bonhoeffer, I am still facing difficulty in putting my thoughts into words. I am generally feeling very discouraged by all sides in the current political nightmare we are facing. Maybe one of these days I will take some time to write. But I guess I'm still not ready. It is just too painful.

I am hoping to get back on track here soon. Videos, reflections, memories, etc. are still around. Need to get back to them.

To close out, here is a video from the Shell Lake Arts Center Adult Big Band Workshop from a couple weekends ago. It contains my 12-bar solo, so I must post it!

Thanks!!

Go Fund Me

Here's the box of books- The Tuning Slide, Year One.

The boxes are now empty and recycled as they were given to the students at last week's Shell Lake Arts Center Trumpet Workshop. It has been a labor of love for me- to be able to share my trumpet learning journey of this past year with others is actually humbling. I realize how little I know, but that I can still add to other people's experiences.



I am still about $300 short of the goal of crowd-funding this project. Any help you can add would be appreciated.

Go Fund Me

Go Fund Me

Here's the box of books- The Tuning Slide, Year One. They are ready to be given to the students at this year's Shell Lake Arts Center Trumpet Workshop. It has been a labor of love for me- to be able to share my trumpet learning journey of this past year with others is actually humbling. I realize how little I know, but that I can still add to other people's experiences.

I am still about $300 short of the goal of crowd-funding this project. Any help you can add would be appreciated.

Go Fund Me

Books for Trumpet Worskshop Students

Go Fund Me

Over the past year I have written a weekly blog post on music and life titled The Tuning Slide . It has been based on what I first learned at the Trumpet Workshop at Shell Lake, WI, Arts Center in August 2015. I would like to provide a copy of the blog posts as a book for the students at this year's workshop.

I have tried to go beyond the basic ideas and describe how I personally wrestled with them in my own developing trumpet practice. I have also applied the ideas to every day life, connecting music with daily living.

I have played trumpet for over 50 years but until recently was not able to spend the time to become as proficient as I would like to be. The blog book also explores music as a life-long experience.

The money raised will pay for the book's publishing and free distribution to the students.

Go Fund Me