I've been practicing and playing music a lot more often lately. As I've started live streaming jazz standards and improv with my good friend Jason, I've been practicing, playing, and recording much more often. It's good to be inspired. For a few years way back in 2013 I stopped playing guitar. It's good to be back in the saddle again. Here I'd like to jot down more notes on what goes on in the mind of an improvising musician. Check my first post about it here.
But in today's post I'm going to keep things simple and talk about how to really tap into that meditative improvisational frame of mind.
So we all know what improvisation is. It's the ability to play something, something well, off the cuff, as if you never played it before. I practice improvising most often in the form of jazz guitar. How do you improvise? It's a tricky question as there are actually many different ways to improvise but the best way for me is to tap into a meditative state while you're playing. This means that all other thoughts in your mind are turned off and you go into the present moment. The only thing that you're attuned to is your very nature; your daesein [your worldhood of the world].
Essentially, this means everything pertaining to you: How are you feeling that day? How is your day going? Are you happy, sad, or have no emotional attachment to anything in particular at that current time while you're playing? Is your guitar tone how you want it? Is your band mate giving you the space you need to improvise well? Did you eat a good lunch or a lousy lunch? What's the temperature in the room that you're playing in? Did you wake up early or late? Are you tired? Energetic? What I'm getting at is that to you need to be truly attuned to yourself, your world, your daesein [beingness, beingness in the world].
So in order for me to attune myself to an improvisational frame of mind I have all these things in mind while I'm playing. Now here's where things get interesting. Your playing is influenced by all those things listed above but it doesn't have to be. The goal is to have everything in mind but turn it all off, not rely on your old favorite licks and tricks and chords and live in the spirit of the moment.
The spirit of the moment. This is an interesting concept. While truly improvising in the moment you will never really time to think about the future. You will mostly focus on the present moment in time which is exactly what you want in order to improvise well. Like a true jazz musician.
The means to getting there is deeply intense and spiritual. The hard way I've learned is through endless jamming on jazz standards, free form improvisation, deep meditation, and calming the mind [with camomile tea]. Eventually, you'll get there and you'll realize that you can truly improvise. You'll play things you've never played before and continue to do so the more you tap into the spirit of the moment and enter that meditative musical state. The hardest part of turning off and tuning in is that you have to let go of your thoughts and even yourself. It's an intense experience. You must let go of attachment and suffering. But it's also soothing.
It's a lifelong practice. The jazz giants have mostly left us so it's up to us, the younger generation to keep jazz music alive. Hopefully, a newer generation like mine can do the tradition justice. Also, keep in mind that these ideas apply to other disciplines as well, not just jazz guitar.
No comments:
Post a Comment