This week I am preparing for Bluescampuk which is now in its seventh year.

We have learnt much over that time and each year brings new challenges and thoughts about how we can improve and adapt.

Due to returners we have to rethink the structure so that the ones who have been before do not know what is coming next as stepping outside the comfort zone is what we need to truly learn.

Over the year I have spent time listening to players that you could call ‘world musicians’ I have trained with dancers, spoken and listened to philosophers, scientists, peace campaigners and ecologists all in an attempt to view life (and to me that is music through a different lens of experience) in a different way.

I have often found great ideas from spinning someone’s way of thinking into my own musical thinking by using various lateral thinking tools. For instance using the concept of opposites that I picked up from Tai Chi I have explored the jazz concept of playing ‘outside’ from the NLP I have created speed learning techniques for scales, licks etc. and from ecology the idea of reusing and recycling for songwriting.

Everything that we do comes through the mind and body therefore the way we think and ‘are’ permeates everything that we do, therefore it underlies ways of thinking and acting in every discipline so something that you do in mathematics can be expressed in music and something that you do in music can be expressed in politics.

I was drawn to this by a quote attributed to the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu that the way to govern people is the same as cooking a small fish, lightly. I thought that this humorous but deeply profound statement which is as true today but equally as unobserved in this surveillance micromanaged age had at its heart cookery as the philosopher’s touchstone.

So if you want to come and join the fun there are two places left but it is next weekend…………

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk

 

 

 

The Elephant of Death

I have been interested in the work of Stephan Jenkinson about death and dying; the process is something that this society has tried to sanitise and professionalise to the detriment of ourselves.

His point of view is that it leads to serious problems for society and us as individuals because it is the elephant in the room that will eventually sit on you.

When it does everyone will be surprised, especially you but that is what this particular elephant does and it will not be unfair when it does.

What I find personally interesting is the state of mind that develops when you embrace your mortality, it does paradoxically give your life value and beauty because it will end.

The Homeric statement that the gods envy us because we are mortal just like a beautiful flower that is more beautiful because it will not last comes to mind. The ancient stories and some modern stories deal with the idea of death whether to face of it or the becoming of it as the important aspect of the story. Death acting as a catalyst or doorway is integral in the ancient initiations of the Greeks, Egyptians and the Romans.

This post is not meant to be morbid on the contrary it is life affirming it is a wakeup call to get to it and live.

I believe that musicians who feel their mortality are much greater for it, remember that Hendrix foretold his own death as did John Lennon; we do not need to be able to do that we just need to make friends with the elephant.

 

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk

 

 

 

I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it. – Albert Einstein

I would like to paraphrase this quote by saying  ‘I like to think that the music is there even though I am not listening for it’.
Sometimes when I am playing the guitar I get the feeling that the most incredible ideas are there just out of reach and occasionally like some celestial butterfly it lands on me. The more I try to catch this butterfly the more it eludes me.
Over the years I have reflected on the Taoist idea of going with the flow, the idea that if one is soft therein lies the strength, if one just follows the wave you can ride the surf and the surfing analogy of the wave is good here; there is no surfing without catching the wave, you do not make the wave by trying hard.
Einstein’s idea that our consciousness effects ‘reality’ may hold something that the sages and mystics of the past have stated about the nature of reality, and that I feel gives us a doorway to these musical ideas that are floating about in the ether.
I have found it more effective to put myself into a space where the ideas move freely without my conscious ‘trying’ but more my ‘dreaming’ and that seems to take me somewhere very different, like sitting under a bush of flowers covered in butterflies whilst wearing a floral shirt. Suddenly the butterfly ideas seem to want to land.
So whether you want to ideas to just exist or whether you want them to flow though you then you have to hold them in your awareness. So one extra thought here, what about the fearful, negative thoughts that we hold so firmly, what are they doing to us?

Vic


www.bluescampuk.co.uk

“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery."James Joyce

Break the patterns and play outside of the key, listen to the new ideas and see what happens.
You will not do anything new without breaking the patterns of behaviour; you need to break a few eggs to make an omelette.
Because of the system we are now turning out clones of the Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Slash, Hendrix and other icons instead of breaking them and making new ones; how do you find your uniqueness? Through your mistakes errors and inadequacies, Django was not great in spite of his loss of fingers but because of them. Hendrix was great because he could not read music and therefore developed an awesome musical ear and like last week’s blog the reason why we have so many great players from the 60’s is because we were poor!
So get out there and mess things up and make something new, so instead of ‘one dire erection’ start ‘a new direction’
Vic