We do not stop playing because we grow old.

We do not stop playing because we grow old, but rather we grow old because we stop playing. Karl Groos ‘The Play of Animals’

It is often said that adults find it harder to learn new things than children because a child’s mind is more flexible and the adult has lost that ability and in a way that is true but not because we have grown out of it.

Interestingly it is the most educated of the adults that I meet, it is the doctors and the professional people who are the most affected.  I have written about this before, this time I am writing about how we might start to fix it.

The type play we are talking about is the childlike imaginary play, for those of you who are parents will know how difficult this is when playing with young children to get back to the imaginary which you found so easy to do as a child. You have to lose yourself in the imaginary and allow that to take you on a journey without trying to rationalise or bring yourself back. 

This imaginary childlike play is fantastic for writing songs; you can start the idea in some sort of random fashion and then improvise your way into the story, it might be best to use a recording device so you can capture the story without losing the trance, otherwise you could 'automatically' write your experience as you go along.

This is a similar idea to some of the techniques used by comic strip writers such as Grant Morrison who does it from more of an 'invocation' but looking through artistic eyes this could be considered as childlike play but through the eyes of something like Grant Morrison would be viewed as some form of wizardry.

This ability to play like a child, immersing yourself in a dreamlike world which draws upon more of a phenomenological perspective is a key aspect to using the mind in a creative way and it is a key aspect to staying young mentally hence the quote at the top. Our rational thinking (which is given us modern technologies) has actually stopped us being able to think in the fullness that our ancestors probably had. Remember if you go back far enough all problem solving involved doing everything, no experts, no shops suppling a remedy, you did it all.

So be irrational, dream like everything is possible and ready for you to use, see the opposite in things just for the hell of it and see how that changes your perspective. Give objects that you see a different name and see how that sharpens your senses like seeing everything new.

Remember that most of the creation myths involve some form of dreaming whether that is in Hinduism or some other native aboriginal storytelling, certainly in the world of shamanism there is a belief of the world being as you dream it, and in many forms of ancient culture there is a  belief that  the stories need to be told for the universe to continue.

So this time let us praise the daydreamer, the one who stares out of the window, who is not paying attention but is drifting along on a flight of fancy, maybe that flight of fancy has more power and more beauty than the lesson that they are sitting in.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk  learn to play like a rock hero

Wisdom in music

Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, make me beautiful within, and grant that what-ever happens outside of me will help my soul to grow. May I always be aware that true wealth lies in wisdom, and may my “gold” be so abundant that only a wise man can lift and carry it away. For me that is prayer enough.

– Socrates

For a number of years now I have wrestled with the question,’ what direction should my work in music take?’ The Internet is absolutely awash with people showing you every conceivable guitar solo, song or technique and the idea of adding more to this maelstrom in that way is rather a waste of time.

Nowadays there are more guitar teachers than people wanting to learn or certainly seems like that! One thing that keeps me interested in the subject of teaching music is the step beyond the technical, song; the stuff that people normally get hooked up on, in other words it is the wisdom behind it all. What is it that pervades the mind of a great musician? Whether that is a Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Andre Segovia, Paganini, JS Bach, Art Tatum or Duke Ellington, really all the stuff that they did is not significant to us unless we can unpack it, not the knowledge but of the wisdom of what they do. The wisdom can manifest in many ways beyond the song, whereas concentrating on the knowledge does not, which is what I see mostly, it seems to confine us.

Now this is not a criticism of people that are already out there but more a critique in the way we think, that we learn in a system which has been foisted on us by the education system and society at large. We cannot possibly learn greatness in that way just filling one’s head with stuff because it does not answer the question of how do we arrive at the genius level which often happens at a very young age. Notwithstanding the 10,000 hour rule, wisdom is the thing that creates something exciting and something new that expresses something deep down and that can often very early in an artist’s career.

At this point if you are finding it difficult to draw the comparison between knowledge and wisdom think it is simply expressed that knowledge tells us that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom tells us not to put in a fruit salad.  Learning music from that perspective gives us great insight into the musicians and the art form and the knowledge and the technique is purely a toolkit to express that and that is where the practice comes in developing the toolkit.

Socrates states another good point here when he refers to wanting to be beautiful within and for the gods to grant whatever happens outside to help that interiority to grow, that interiority is where the wisdom resides.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk the music summer school in Kent UK