Super Tuesday is Coming!

You would think I could find something better to talk about on this leap day Monday than politics. Actually, I probably could, but tomorrow is another big day in the election year. Yes, all the media are hyping the possibilities and probabilities along with the odds and percentages of each candidate.

So far none of these "Big Days!" in the election cycle have proven to be decisive. Will tomorrow? Eh!

It would be nice if it did. We could settle down to less hype, although I doubt that would happen or bring about more discussion of issues. That is not happening in this election year. I don't see why things should change. What I have seen is that the "Establishment" of both parties is trying to figure out what to do with this runaway train of dissatisfaction that is threatening the very heart of both party machines.

Chris Christie supports Trump instead of Rubio and Lindsay Graham says that the GOP has gone "batshit crazy." Democrat pundits try to point out the errors in Bernie Sanders' logic, trying to undermine his apparent support. Trump continues to be Trump, what looks like an almost unstoppable ride to the nomination.

The rest of us sit on the sidelines and scratch our heads. I shake my head many times a day when I hear the news and ask

What in the world has happened to our system?

I know there have been mud fights like this before. I know that politics has never been a "let's sit down and discuss this like gentlemen" system. At least not when it comes to elections! (And yes, it was almost always men, so the gentlemen is not out of historical context.) But this year seems to have hit a new low, jumped the shark, or whatever superlative description you want to use.

Popular author and pastor Max Lucado did something new and unusual for him last week. He wrote an editorial piece that was published in the Washington Post calling for decency in the campaign. He cited Donald Trump's language and tactics and, rightly, I believe, said that such tactics wouldn't even be fit for a "middle-school election." All these things, Lucado said, are done with the Bible in one hand.

What became the "money quote" for me in the article was this paragraph:

The stock explanation for Mr. Trump’s success is this: He has tapped into the anger of the American people. As one man said, “We are voting with our middle finger.” Sounds more like a comment for a gang-fight than a presidential election. Anger-fueled reactions have caused trouble ever since Cain was angry at Abel.

Lucado has never made political statements in public before. He could not, I am sure, sit idly by with these.

Like Lucado I am looking around and seeing this anger-fueled election.  And if I think it's bad now, I don't believe we have seen the half of it. I received a robo-call the other day which sent shivers up my spine. It was from some person somewhere who claimed to be a "white nationalist" supporting Donald Trump because we are facing "white genocide" where "beautiful little white children" are being denigrated and killed. He even got in a non-named attack on "Cubans" who are running for president.

We have seen crazy memes on Facebook likening socialism (i.e. Bernie Sanders) to Hitler and Stalin with no awareness of history, politics, or economics. Hillary is easily depicted as the most foul and criminal person ever to run for president.

It is only the end of February. No matter who is nominated in either party, the general election will become a bloodbath of hatred, prejudice, and many other very difficult insinuations and downright declarations.

I can do nothing about it, I am afraid. All I can do is write these posts, send them off as words of hope that we can do something to avoid the pain of what we have been seeing. I am powerless.  Not a new idea for me as a recovering person. So in the end I find myself in that extremely difficult position of having strong opinions, strong fears, and a deep, heavy cloud of despair filling the election season around me.

When that happens all I can do is say the Serenity Prayer again.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I will continue to look for the ways I can do something, praying for the courage to stand up for those things, but also knowing that in the end all I can really do is write these posts, express my opinions, and then vote.

I promise I will at least do those.

Maybe we can hope that tomorrow some of this will find some resolution. Maybe we can begin to talk about some of this with a little more decency. I am not hopeful, at least about the public dialogue, however. But maybe, as we ponder these things and look into our own national soul, we can find a way to bring about the change in the election atmosphere that we need.

Third Sunday of Lent

The Tuning Slide: Using Energy

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Music has always been a matter of Energy to me,

a question of Fuel.

Sentimental people call it Inspiration,

but what they really mean is Fuel.

-Hunter S. Thompson

Energy.
Excuse me for a digression into physics. What IS energy?

Actually "energy" can be defined as a number of different types of energy.

• Kinetic energy of a moving object,
• Potential energy stored by an object's position
• Elastic energy stored by stretching solid objects,
• Chemical energy released when a fuel burns,
• Radiant energy carried by light, and
• Thermal energy due to an object's temperature.

An important bit of knowledge about energy:

• All forms of energy are convertible to other kinds of energy;
• energy can be neither created nor be destroyed;
• it can change from one form to another.

Why all this about energy? Well, it started when I came across a note from the camp last summer that said we should always play with the same amount of energy. It shouldn't matter if we are playing the "1812 Overture" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The energy needs to be the same. A soft and gentle passage needs as much energy as the loud ones we trumpets are known to love. A slow, prayerful piece has to come across to the listener with the same amount of fullness as a Sousa march.

I know that on one level that sounds like a dream, something that is almost an oxymoron. How can one have quiet energy or powerful softness? Then I noticed a You Tube video of the Canadian Brass doing their wonderful arrangement of Amazing Grace, a trumpet feature. As I watched the lead trumpet I realized that I couldn't tell by looking whether he was in high or low register. So I turned off the sound and watched. He played with the same ease- and energy- whether he was loud, soft, low, or high. Which is why the piece is so powerful.

Energy is not about pressure or loudness. It is about the underlying power. Reading the list of types of energy shows that there is a lot of energy in an object just sitting there. But if that object is a car, its energy changes significantly when traveling down the road at 80 mph.

Let's take that nice center concert F, our G. When we were just starting to play we couldn't play it loudly or softly with equal presence. When we went too soft- pianissimo, it kind of went flat and lost its sound quality- its energy. When we tried to play it loud- fortissimo- it cracked and splattered. We really hadn't learned how to master energy.

As we have moved through our learning curves on playing we have discovered that we can play pianissimo without losing quality and fortissimo without splattering. This is an essential part of our improvement as musicians. It is a lot of work to get to that point. Every group or band I have ever played in has had that same problem. We have greater difficulty maintaining energy on slow or soft pieces. We have greater trouble holding a note's sound when it's a slow half of whole note in a passage. Or what about coming in on a pianissimo high A or Bb?

Several things come to mind about that. First is what Mr. Baca talked about when he would do a master class or session with us at camp. Perhaps it is best described in this quote from Don Jacoby:

We never blow to the horn.

We blow through the horn.

We never blow up to a note,

we blow out to it.

-Don Jacoby

When I took the lead pipe off my horn and just played through it, I discovered the energy in the note even though there was no note as I was used to hearing. Remember that energy and play with the lead pipe back. Go up the scale and play each note with the same energy.

Which is the second thing about this energy discussion- support. The support of the sound, the note, is part of the energy. Look at the list above. The support is the potential energy of the note and the elastic energy of the expanding and contracting diaphragm. It is there with the kinetic energy of the air moving between our lips into the mouthpiece and through the horn.

The reason this works is the third thing I realized- energy is neither created or destroyed. It always is there, it is just transformed. With our music, we are transforming the energy from all these sources into sound energy (not listed above). It's all energy. Therefore, the better or more controlled and utilized our energy is, the better the sound.

Which brings me back to the same old line:

• Practice, practice, practice

But not just playing, being deliberate in our playing. Take time to play those long tones. That was a real revelation for me. When I started doing that in a regular, intentional way, my sound improved almost immediately. I was learning how to control, utilize, the energy more efficiently. I was building support in my lungs, diaphragm, and embouchure so that the sound can be maintained.

In one of the Jazz Academy videos on You Tube, Marcus Printup of Jazz at Lincoln Center, suggests doing a whole series of soft, triple-p, concert Fs as long tones.The result is learning how to maintain energy. It gets us listening to the sound more carefully. We experience what energy feels like as we make the sound.

As always we need to be intentional about what we are doing. Even if you don't have a detailed plan (and I never do, hence I will not say you should, even though I probably should!) have a series of intentionally developed routines that allow for the energy to be channeled into music. We discover our own sources of energy and how to utilize them for the benefit of our playing.

By the way, I think this is one of the reasons why most practice instructions say to quit before you get tired. If we have lost our energy, the music we are playing won't have as much and we will learn incorrectly. To rest, to take a break and recharge our energy is important. We will get more endurance as we continue, but over-doing it on one day and then having to recuperate isn't helpful.

As always, I will add, that this is all

• just like the rest of life.

Calendar of Saints: Eric Liddell

Periodically I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. I connect it with a picture that I have taken as a kind of poster. These are meant to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Eric Liddell (1902-1945)
Athlete and Missionary
February 22

Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish athlete, rugby union international and missionary. Liddell was the winner of the Men's 400 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris. He was portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire. Born in China, Liddell returned there as a Protestant missionary in later life.

Eric Liddell, often called the "Flying Scotsman", was born in Tianjin (formerly transliterated as Tientsin) in North China, second son of the Rev & Mrs James Dunlop Liddell who were Scottish missionaries with the London Missionary Society.

Eric Liddell became well-known for being the fastest runner in Scotland while at Eltham College. He withdrew from the 100 meter race 1924 Olympics in Paris as he refused to run on a Sunday. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 metres, an event in which he had previously excelled. Even so, his success in the 400m was largely unexpected. He not only won the race, but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds.

During his first furlough in 1932, he was ordained as a minister of religion. On his return to China he married Florence Mackenzie of Canadian missionary parentage in Tianjin in 1934.

In 1941 life in China was becoming so dangerous that the British Government advised British nationals to leave. Florence and the children left for Canada to stay with her family when Liddell accepted a new position at a rural mission station in Shaochang, which gave service to the poor. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the Japanese were at war. When the fighting reached Shaochang the Japanese took over the mission station. In 1943, Liddell was interned at the Weihsien Internment Camp with the members of the China Inland Mission Chefoo School. He died there of a brain tumor on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation.

-Link

Second Sunday of Lent

American Exceptionalism- Some Thoughts

Last week I was having a discussion with a conservative friend who started asking me about what I believed about American exceptionalism. I had heard the phrase several times, mostly from a conservative pundit or politician so I kind of put it away in that box. When my friend started asking me about it, and describing it from his understanding, I said that I can agree with that.

It was an odd experience and I have spent some time reflecting on it over  the past week or so. I never thought about American exceptionalism, per se. I am a citizen of the United States, and proud of it. I think my country is a great nation with an amazing history that I support with passion and gratitude. But that does not mean I am a blind-supporter of what my country has done when it was wrong! To admit that my country has made mistakes is not to denigrate the country, nor is it to diminish the great things about the United States. (And a note- my friend was not suggesting that. This is in my reflection, not his.)

So I went an looked up this idea to see a little more about it.

The theory of the exceptionalism of the U.S. can be traced to Alexis de Tocqueville, the first writer to describe the country as "exceptional" in 1831 and 1840. Interestingly enough, it's "contemporary" use began when the American Communist Party used the idea to say that the United States was "independent of the Marxist laws of history" since it has so many resources, etc.

Scottish historian writing in the Political Science Quarterly said:

America marches to a different drummer. Its uniqueness is explained by any or all of a variety of reasons: history, size, geography, political institutions, and culture. Explanations of the growth of government in Europe are not expected to fit American experience, and vice versa.

Sure, makes sense. Part of  the uniqueness of the United States is our very size, location, and incredible diversity of natural and human resources. We are, as I commented to my friend, a political experiment that began in 1776. We have been working at a unique and, at the time, entirely new system.

In recent  years, it appears, that this idea of American exceptionalism has become one of those "buzzwords" or litmus tests for conservatives. So here is what I found as some definitions, from Wikipedia's summary:

American exceptionalism is one of three related ideas:

• The first is that the history of the United States is inherently different from other nations. In this view, American exceptionalism stems from its emergence from the American Revolution, thereby becoming what political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset called "the first new nation” and developing a uniquely American ideology, "Americanism", based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy and laissez-faire for business. …

• Second is the idea that America has a unique mission to transform the world. As Abraham Lincoln put it in the Gettysburg address (1863), Americans have a duty to see that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

• Third is the sense that its history and its mission give the United States a superiority over other nations.

More from Wikipedia summary:

Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and other American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense. … To them, the U.S. is like the biblical "City upon a Hill"—a phrase evoked by British colonists to North America as early as 1630—and exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries.

With this in mind, I understand a little more of the problem with this phrase and its use in our political culture. Too often it has indicated a "superiority" or perhaps more clearly, the "inferiority" of other countries. This approach has seemed to me to take the positive idea of exceptionalism or uniqueness and turn it into a political talking point. It turns us away from a sense of humility and gratitude toward a grandiosity and, dare I use it, an entitlement. We deserve this because we are the United States of America!

Yes, I will be accused of taking the extremes of this phrase and turning it against it. But sadly that is what has been happening. American exceptionalism, as an idea or even ideology, is used in its extreme as a way of denying the point of view of those who disagree with the people using the phrase. It goes to a sense that I remember only too well from the 60s- America- love it or leave it. Of course, "loving it" was defined as doing whatever the leadership was telling you to do.

It also takes another famous quote, this one from Stephen Decatur and Wisconsin-related Carl Schurz and turns it around:

"My country, right or wrong." In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.

The quote, used as a hammer or wedge in the 60s stopped at the first part, ignoring the second.

In reality it is the amazing ability of this country to work with such diverse and complicated disagreements and work toward agreement or compromise. It is the democratic and republic idea that allows us to go from a nation where only white, male, landowners could vote, to all men and then former slaves (male only) being given the right, and then women (less that 100 years ago!) and, in my era, 18-year olds. It went from an almost aristocratic view of the Senate to a directly-elected body. It developed a separation of powers, advise and consent, political parties that meant something, and a place where freedoms are cherished and built into the governmental, political, and cultural life.

That this ideal, begun almost 250 years ago has survived as it has is amazing, unique, and, yes, exceptional.

But it does not make us immune to the difficulties of other nations not does it, as is often implied, make us exempt from historical pressures that can, and very likely will, someday bring about significant changes. The real test of American exceptionalism will probably not be seen for another 50- 100 years as major world-wide changes will impact the United States. As long as we were able to be as physically separate as we are from the rest of the world, it was easier.

Perhaps that is one of the ongoing debates that this year's election is highlighting again- we are, even in whatever uniqueness or exceptionalism we may have- still a nation among nations. We do not have a special mandate from God to change the world as such. We are perhaps to be a beacon of hope and light. We are having difficulty with some of that. Some of our political leaders on ALL sides are using these issues for their own advancement.

Yet I have a strong belief that the American system, unique and yet flawed, flexible and yet strong, will be able to work through this. I believe this because I also know that the American people can be reasonable and willing to work through issues if given the chance. In addition the stubborn yet focused ability to wrestle with right and wrong and often make the better decision is very much a part of who we are.

This election season has a long, long way to go. It has been a circus sideshow and a horse race and a snowstorm of hateful soundbites. Yet I have a hunch that the American people will prevail over all the politicians and special interests to continue to make the American experiment work.

Calendar of Saints: Martin Luther

Periodically I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. I connect it with a picture that I have taken as a kind of poster. These are meant to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Educator, Translator, Reformer
February 18

Brother Martin of Erfurt, born in 1483 of German peasant stock, was a monk (more exactly, a regular canon) of the Order of Saint Augustine, and a Doctor of Theology. In his day, the Church was at a spiritual low. Church offices were openly sold to the highest bidder, and not nearly enough was being done to combat the notion that forgiveness of sins was likewise for sale. Indeed, many Christians, both clergy and laity, were most inadequately instructed in Christian doctrine. Startling as it seems to us today, there were then no seminaries for the education of the clergy.

… Brother Martin set out to remedy this. He wrote a simple catechism for the instruction of the laity which is still in use today, as is his translation of the Scriptures into the common tongue. His energy as a writer was prodigious. From 1517, when he first began to write for the public, until his death, he wrote on the average one book a fortnight.

Today, his criticisms of the laxness and frequent abuses of his day are generally recognized on all sides as a response to very real problems. It was perhaps inevitable, however, that they should arouse resentment in his own day … and he spent much of his life in conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities…

In Brother Martin's own judgment, his greatest achievement was his catechism, by the use of which all Christians without exception might be instructed in at least the rudiments of the Faith.

-Link

The Tuning Slide: Innovate

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Without deviation from the norm,

progress is not possible.

― Frank Zappa

As you may have noticed most of these Tuning Slide posts have been summaries of things I have discovered in my "research" of practice and performance, added to some basic common sense and then bundled in a motivational style. I am writing out of discovery mode and trying to learn things myself as well as share some insights with you. I am not pretending to be an expert on any of this. I am a learner on a new journey using this as a way to put into words what I am finding and inviting you on the journey with me.

This week's is a good example of how I am working on figuring out many things about being a trumpet player. Over the past two weeks I talked about the first two of what Clark Terry has called the three essentials of learning to improvise- imitate, assimilate, and innovate. I have said that even without being a jazz improviser, these are essentials to being better musicians and having a more interesting life.

We start by listening- a lot- so that we can imitate what we hear. What better way to learn than to listen to and imitate the great masters? Then we allow what we have heard and worked on to become a part of us- it is assimilated into who we are and into our music.

All that, for me, is the easy part. I can listen, I can work hard at imitating, I can internalize some of the great music I want to play. It is how I have been able to play some of the solos in concert band or my Basin Street Blues solo in big band. It is how I have succeeded at some of the pieces in the quintet where I have a unique part. I can do that!

But this innovation thing? I'm not so sure about that.

So I go back to the Jazz Advice website where they say this about Clark Terry's third essential- innovation.

[It is] creating a fresh and personal approach to the music....[and] is the direct result of hours upon hours of imitation and assimilation. Take a look at the great innovators that this music has already seen. Each one spent countless hours studying harmony, solos, form, tunes, etc. in order to realize their own personal concept.

We all know what that means and how it has played out over the years. We know that Miles had a different style from Chet Baker, even in the "cool jazz" era. We know that Beethoven had a different sound than Brahms. We know that the New York Symphony plays differently from the Chicago Symphony. That, I know, is the result of innovation. Or to put it as bluntly as Frank Zappa- they all deviated from the norm- and music progress occurred.

Innovation, then, in trumpet playing, is finding your own style. Very, very few of us will ever be Miles or Maynard, Baker or Alpert. They all have changed the sound of contemporary music- and in very different ways.

Innovation starts for us in the practice room when we take one of those Arban studies and change the articulation. Maybe we move slurring around or change dynamics differently. What feels good to you? What feels like an expression of your music? Pull out a fake book or one of Abersold's books and just work on different ways of playing the "head." Don't do any improvising yet. Experiment with tone and tempo; emphasize the notes and phrases in ways. Sing it first. Then play it. How might Puttin' on the Ritz sound differently with a different tempo. Here's Herb Alpert doing just that in the official video for the cut. Notice he even does some innovative camera work with one long "follow-shot" as well as at least three cameos himself.

On his most recent album he takes the classic "Take the 'A' Train" in 3/4 time. Innovation.

"Yes, but..." is the thought that comes to my mind. "I've tried it, I respond to myself, and it sounds pretty poor. I don't think fast enough, I don't know enough music theory, on and on...."

Remember the Inner Game? That's good, old Self One sitting there on my shoulder bringing me down.  He won't allow me to even try. For one, it is too much like work and, for another, can take too much time. Yes, so? Do I want this? I know I'm not going to make some big musical revolution happen, but it will be inside me. It will have an impact on the bands and groups I play with as we work together to make music interesting.

I said at the beginning of this post that these are "motivational-style" posts aimed at much at myself as for you. That means I will have to do something about these. I will have to take my own suggestions and try them on some consistent basis. "Yeah, I tried it, but it didn't go well" just can't cut it. There's a Big Band camp coming in June, not to mention the quintet doing some gigs and new pieces for us. If I always play the way I have always played, I will never change and never improve.

Let me know what you have found as ways to innovate your playing and musicality.

Again from the Jazz Advice post:

The steps of imitation, assimilation, and innovation are not limited to “jazz” music. Take any style or concept that resonates with you and incorporate it into your playing through this process. You may like the harmonies of Ravel or the rhythms found in traditional Indian music. Listen to them, figure them out, analyze them, practice them, and finally use them in new and innovative ways in your improvisations.

Valentine's Day

First Sunday of Lent

Calendar of Saints: Absalom Jones

Periodically I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. I connect it with a picture that I have taken as a kind of poster. These are meant to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Absalom Jones (1746 - 1818)
Abolitionist and Priest
February 13

Born into slavery then granted his freedom, Jones became a lay minister at the interracial congregation of St. George's Methodist Church. Together with Richard Allen, he was one of the first African Americans licensed to preach by the Methodist Church.

In 1772, while at St. George's Methodist Church, Absalom Jones and other black members were told that they could not join the rest of the congregation in seating and kneeling on the first floor and instead had to be segregated first sitting against the wall and then on the balcony. After completing their prayer, Jones and the church's black members got up and walked out.

As 1791 began, Rev. Jones started holding religious services at the Free African Society, which the following year became the core of his African Church in Philadelphia. Jones wanted to establish a black congregation independent of white control, while remaining part of the Episcopal Church. After a successful petition, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first black church in Philadelphia, opened its doors on July 17, 1794. Jones was ordained as a deacon in 1795 and as a priest in 1804, became the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.

Famous for his oratory, Jones helped establish the tradition of anti-slavery sermons on New Year's Day. His sermon for January 1, 1808, the date on which the U.S. Constitution mandated the end of the African slave trade, called A Thanksgiving Sermon was published in pamphlet-form and became famous. [Note: The words above were part of a hymn written by Michael Fortune and used for the occasion.] Nonetheless, rumors persisted that Rev. Jones possessed supernatural abilities to influence the minds of assembled congregations. White observers failed to recognize his oratory skills, perhaps because they believed rhetoric to be beyond the capabilities of black people. Numerous other African-American leaders faced similar rumors of supernatural activities.

-Link

The Spirit Catcher

Sitting here watching people fly kites on the beach the other day, the question arose, "Why do people like flying kites?" After all, once you get the kite up in the air, there's nothing to do but hold on and watch. Well, at least try to hold on and watch.

Some people even tie a number of kites along the string with the big one at the end going higher with the others floating along behind.

Yes, and we observers become entranced by it also. It is almost hypnotizing to sit on my balcony or even on the beach and watch the kites. I keep trying to get good pictures and even video of them flying. Others stand and watch as well.

It is not just on a beach, either. Sure there may be more breeze or wind there, but find a large enough park area anywhere and you will, on a windy day, often see kites.

A couple things come to mind. First is the desire to harness the power of the wind. There is a sense of accomplishment when that kite is up there with the wind moving it, holding it aloft. We humans want to harness whatever energy, whatever source of power we can find. Letting the kite catch it for us is a good substitute.

Second, to catch the wind is to do the impossible. The 60s song by Donovan laments that he might as well try and catch the wind as have his love fulfilled.

When rain has hung the leaves with tears
I want you near to kill my fears
To help me to leave all my blues behind

For standin' in your heart
Is where I want to be and long to be
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind

So there, in the air at the other end of that string- we have done the impossible. Maybe, just maybe the other impossible things of life could happen, too!

Third, perhaps Dylan captures the paradox, the ambiguity, of the wind in those haunting lyrics of his:

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?

How many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind

In typical Dylanesque fashion you can read that in at least two ways. One would be the same as Donovan's words- the answer is not to be found. It is out there in the wind and only time will tell. There can be a fatalistic turn in those words. Why bother? Why even try? We are doomed.

Or, and the one my generation heard in Dylan's prophetic voice was one of hope. There is an answer. It is out there. Listen. Pay attention. The answer is blowing in the wind.

Back in the early 70s I was a counselor at a church summer camp for the first time. One of our leaders had brought kites to use as part of the program. He built on the background in both Hebrew and Greek for the words we translate in the Bible into Spirit. They are the words for breath, and wind. In Genesis the "wind" of the "breath" of God moved across the deep and creation began. The holy "breath," "Spirit" of God came down and landed on Jesus, anointing him as the Messiah.

Ever since then I never see a kite flying without remembering the connection between wind, breath, and spirit. The kite becomes a spirit catcher, picked up by the movement of the air and carried to new heights. It has a tether to the earth, otherwise it is lost and has no possible rhyme or reason.

I continue to choose the hopeful, prophetic words of Bob Dylan. They echo what I read in Scripture. They affirm what I have
personally experienced countless times in my own life. You cannot see the Spirit or the wind. But you can connect with them. You can allow yourself to be captured by the movement that is there, while remaining connected to others, to community and family, and to the presence of the Holy, what we may often call God, in our midst.

The answer is blowing in the wind.

Listen.

The Tuning Slide- Assimilate and Practice, Practice, Practice

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

We are what we repeatedly do. 

Excellence, then, is not an act, 

but a habit. 

—Aristotle 

Last week I mentioned Clark Terry’s three important bits of learning to improvise: Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate.These are also important in growing as a musician in any genre, even if we never have to improvise.

I discussed listening as basic to imitating. In our listening we pick up on things that are going on in the music we are listening to. We pay attention to what is going on within the music and even within our own emotions and responses to the music. Imitation, in Clark Terry’s thought, is learning by ear and then absorbing the feel, articulation and time of whatever you are listening to.

Well, in that absorption something else begins to happen- the second of Clark Terry’s bits: Assimilate.

I looked up the general definition of assimilate before digging into what he meant by it. Here is a little from the Free Dictionary online:

Assimilate means:
1. to learn (information, a procedure, etc) and understand it thoroughly
2. to become absorbed, incorporated, or learned and understood
3. to bring or come into harmony; adjust or become adjusted to
4. to become or cause to become similar

To learn and understand thoroughly, in the case of musical listening is not just saying, “Oh, I get the theory behind what is being played!” It goes beyond understanding what is happening. It is hearing the theory applied. It moves from getting the theory to hearing, feeling, catching hold of what the theory sounds, feels, and perhaps even looks like.

Assimilation then moves to allowing what we learn and understand thoroughly to become absorbed and incorporated in what we are doing. Remember, we are imitating Clark Terry, Miles, Coltrane, or Herb Alpert. Imitation is beyond aping or mimicking- it is absorbing the style so it becomes yours. As a result we ourselves can move into harmony, become adjusted to whatever it is we are listening to and imitating. That is an important step that cannot be overlooked, or short changed.

On the Jazz Advice website where they talked about these three things of Clark Terry’s they described some of this step this way:

Assimilation means ingraining these stylistic nuances, harmonic devices, and lines that you’ve transcribed into your musical conception… truly connecting them to your ear and body. This is where the hours of dedication and work come in.

• Get into the practice room and repeat these lines over and over again, hundreds of times, until they are an unconscious part of your musical conception. 
• Take these phrases through all keys, all ranges, and all inversions. 
• Begin slowly and incrementally increase the speed until you can easily play them. 
• Don’t feel satisfied until you can play these lines in your sleep. 

 This is not an easy step to complete.

Yeah- I know.

So what now?

You are what you practice most. 

---Richard Carlson

Well, the basic answer is go and do it. That phrase above, connecting them to your ear and body, is really the goal.  But can I really do that? Do I have the motivation to do what needs to be done to become a better trumpet player? What about those days when that trumpet looks like it weighs a ton and the mouthpiece seems to have all kinds of nails sticking out before I even pick up the horn?

At this stage of the learning, we are working at being similar in our style to whatever we are listening to. So we just have to keep at it. Maybe we are working on a difficult passage in a classical wind band piece. The notes run by too fast. Keep playing it. Build it up in your head. Listen to a recording of it. (Much gratitude to You Tube on this one!) I have been doing that with that first characteristic study from Arban's book. I found a recording by Paul Mayes of it at full speed and listen time after time to it. What are the nuances? I watch his fingering and see if he uses any alternates. I even watch how he moves the trumpet on his lips. It is the whole process of imitating- hearing, feeling, seeing.

Don't overlook singing the music as well. Part of the assimilation is to get it into your head. Sing it. Then sing it again. Get the feel. I can usually sing something closer to the full tempo sooner than I can play it. But they work together.

These tricks work. They help me pay attention to the music and how I feel as I'm playing. But more than that, they also introduce me to a way of playing that I may not have known before. When I try to improvise, for example, I tend to be more melodic, Miles Davis in "Birth of the Cool" or even Al Hirt in "Java." I have not been able to think fast to do some of the bebop licks. But I have been listening to them and even singing some of them.

What I continue to be amazed at is that this is all taking place for me now- 55 years after I first learned the trumpet. It is possible- and exciting- for an old dog to learn new tricks. Some of it is common sense. Some of it is just the old line- practice, practice, practice. What do I want to become as a musician? Well practice that.

And usually all it takes is to pick up the horn and start those long tones and my mind and body begin to come together. It's about the music.

Ash Wednesday

Mardi Gras II

An End to the Carnival? Maybe?

Well, tomorrow is the first primary of this election cycle. Finally! I was amused by the fact that the New Hampshire voting is taking place on Fat Tuesday, the traditional ending to the Mardi Gras or Carnival season. After that comes the rigor and intensity of Lent. It will be time for sacrifice and discipline and introspection within the Christian community for 40 days, excluding Sundays, of course.

What if we could hope that Mardi Gras New Hampshire (how's that for an oxymoron!) is the end to the carnival we have been witnessing for the past year or more? What if the carnival ends tomorrow? What if, after this, we get down to issues, debate reality, stop posturing, deflate the rhetoric and think about the country instead of ideology? Yeah, I know...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
-John Lennon

What are the odds? Pretty slim I would say. Up until recently the Democratic candidates have been doing okay with all that.  Until the Establishment discovered that Bernie Sanders really does have support. Out comes the name-calling, innuendo, and craziness.

The GOP on the other hand has been at it like that for a long time. If there is an extreme right-wing answer to a question, one of the leaders will give it. Marco Rubio spins into the moderate of the leading candidates. Donald Trump is looking for a way to get out on his own terms. Ted Cruz is still looking for someone who knows him to say they like him. The Establishment-type candidates are sinking lower and lower.

Yes, some of this is the media. But the GOP candidates are as much to blame. When they make statements that are often proven to be false and then continue to reaffirm them, they are not being up-front with anyone. When one refuses to be in a debate because the moderator may ask unfair or tough questions, we can guess it is about image and not the issues.

What's New Hampshire's track record? Fairly good, actually. The GOP winner in NH has gone on to the nomination 12 out of 15 times; the Democrat- 9 out of 15. If Hillary and Cruz win tomorrow, their chances will drastically increase since they also won in Iowa. (Winning both is a big deal historically.)

But this election, so far, has been setting its own standards of "history." One commentary I read online even sees this election as one where we may be seeing the first major realignment of American political parties in a long time. The anti-establishment element on both sides is, he says, quite significant. (I didn't save the location. Sorry. Will continue to look for it.)

Not to say the sideshow elements of this carnival will end after tomorrow. Unless there are two clear, decisive victories, some of that will continue. Any shift in "who's leading" after tomorrow may continue more aspects of the carnival. But, I have the hunch that in all reality the fun and games are over. Mardi Gras comes to an end and the hard work will happen. Super Tuesday is a few weeks away and that will mean lots of intensity.

My guesses? Very slim win by Cruz; larger win for Sanders.

The repercussions? Back to work guys. Stop strutting down Bourbon St. and let us see who you are.

Mardi Gras I

Last Sunday of Epiphany

The Transfiguration

Mardi Gras Fun

Here's my new video- a celebration of Mardi Gras for 2016. Pictures and video from Fairhope, Orange Beach, and Gulf Shores, Alabama, and naturally, New Orleans.

Enjoy.

The Tuning Slide: Observe and Imitate

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Try to find the best teachers,

listen to the finest playing, and

try to emulate that.

Be true to the music.

-- Wynton Marsalis

I have been reading Words Without Music, an interesting memoir/autobiography by modern American composer Philip Glass. It is a good insight into the creative process of one remarkable composer and how he developed into the person he has become. Reading it with an openness to seeing creativity develop is worth the time. At one point he is describing his working with sculptor Richard Serra. Glass spent several years working with Serra as a "day-job" to support his composing. He expressed to Serra one day that he would like to learn how to draw to which Serra replied that he could do that by teaching glass how to "see" and then he would be able to draw.

That was an eye-opening insight for Glass. He reports the following thought that flowed from it:

Drawing is about seeing, dancing is about moving, writing (narrative and especially poetry) is about speaking, and music is about hearing. I next realized that music training was absolutely about learning to hear - going completely past everyday listening. p. 223 [emphasis added]

This reminded me of an article about Clark Terry on the Jazz Advice website. Terry's three steps to improvising are:

Imitation, Assimilation, Innovation.

That simple. (Yeah. Right!) They define imitation this way:

Listening. Learning lines by ear. Transcribing solos. Absorbing a player’s feel, articulation, and time.

The same as Glass's insight- learning to hear. Paying attention.

We've all heard someone say (or have said it ourselves) that they just don't "get" or "understand" that music.The first time you hear music from a completely different culture based on scales and rhythm that is "foreign" to us, we scratch our heads in wonder. What that means on some level is that we are not listening or able to listen to the music as it is meant to be heard. Our own brains don't expect it to sound that way.

Learning to hear. Paying attention.

But we can keep working at it.  We can keep listening. We can train ourselves to listen differently. Too often we expect things to be just like they have been before. Or in a way that we are used to. Glass himself faced a great deal of criticism and even hatred for the type of "odd" music he was writing. When he started in the 50s and 60s "modern music" was considered the music of the 1900s- 1920s or so. People came on stage and attempted to stop his concerts! They weren't able to hear- and therefore made a judgement about its quality and even its definition as music.

I would go beyond listening to learn to improvise. I think it is essential to being a musician of any type of music. Hearing what it sounds like; hearing what it feels like. Then picking up our instrument and trying to imitate it. The more we listen, the more we are open to hearing, the greater our musical skill will become and the deeper our understanding of music will go.

What this boils down to is going beyond the music theory and an intellectual understanding. The website Brain Pickings has a post from the 1982 book by author and composer Elliot Schwartz Music: Ways of Listening. The book outlines seven essential skills of learning to listen in this age where, he believes, we have been “dulled by our built-in twentieth-century habit of tuning out.”

The first skill is:

• Develop your sensitivity to music. Try to respond esthetically to all sounds, from the hum of the refrigerator motor or the paddling of oars on a lake, to the tones of a cello or muted trumpet. When we really hear sounds, we may find them all quite expressive, magical and even ‘beautiful.’ On a more complex level, try to relate sounds to each other in patterns: the successive notes in a melody, or the interrelationships between an ice cream truck jingle and nearby children’s games.

It's all about hearing. The other six skills Schwartz explains help us guide our learning and our hearing, going deeper and broader.

• Time is a crucial component of the musical experience. Develop a sense of time as it passes: duration, motion, and the placement of events within a time frame.

• Develop a musical memory. While listening to a piece, try to recall familiar patterns, relating new events to past ones and placing them all within a durational frame.

• If we want to read, write or talk about music, we must acquire a working vocabulary.

• Try to develop musical concentration, especially when listening to lengthy pieces.

• Try to listen objectively and dispassionately. Concentrate upon ‘what’s there,’ and not what you hope or wish would be there.

• Bring experience and knowledge to the listening situation. That includes not only your concentration and growing vocabulary, but information about the music itself: its composer, history and social context. Such knowledge makes the experience of listening that much more enjoyable.

This isn't just about music, of course. The relation to writing, or cooking, or being good at your job can be easily made. From the Brain Pickings post:

Perhaps most interestingly, you can substitute “reading” for “listening” and “writing” for “music,” and the list would be just as valuable and insightful, and just as needed an antidote to the dulling of our modern modes of information consumption.

Go for it. Listen!
Then, really hear.
Then imitate.

Calendar of Saints: Dorchester Chaplains

Periodically I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. I connect it with a picture that I have taken as a kind of poster. These are meant to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Dorchester Chaplains:
Lieutenant George Fox, Lieutenant Alexander D. Goode,
Lieutenant Clark V. Poling, Lieutenant John P. Washington,
February 3, 1943

The Four Chaplains were four United States Army chaplains who gave their lives to save other soldiers during the sinking of the USAT Dorchester during World War II. They helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out; 230 of the 904 men aboard the ship were rescued. Life jackets offered little protection from hypothermia which killed most men in the water. Water temperature was 34 °F (1 °C) and air temperature was 36 °F (2 °C). By the time additional rescue ships arrived "...hundreds of dead bodies were seen floating on the water, kept up by their life jackets."

The chaplains, who all held the rank of lieutenant, were the Methodist Reverend George L. Fox, the Jewish Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, the Roman Catholic Priest John P. Washington and the Reformed Church in America Reverend Clark V. Poling. They were sailing on the USAT Dorchester troop transport on February 3, 1943, when the vessel, traveling in convoy, was torpedoed by the German submarine U-223 in the North Atlantic. As the vessel sank, the four chaplains calmed the frightened soldiers and sailors, aided in the evacuation of the ship, and helped guide wounded men to safety. The chaplains also gave up their own life jackets.

-Link

Composer James Swearingen has written a concert piece in memory of the Dorchester Chaplains. Here is an audio file of the piece. It captures the story in music.

A 50-year Memory: Video for February

Three songs for four weeks in February 1966.
Pop and rock and sexy.

February 5 and 12 My Love - Petula Clark
February 19 Lightnin' Strikes - Lou Christie
February 26 These Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Nancy Sinatra

So let's go with Nancy....