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New Music
by
Erik Moore
A good friend of mine was telling me a story about a friend of
his. She was raised in a strict church and was a beautiful musician
according to all accounts. She played the piano for services, and
could perform on short notice just about any music you put in front
of her. One day she sat down with him and he suggested they play
a song together. She was unable to get the idea, she asked for
music and couldn’t imagine how one would play without it. It turned
out that without a dictated set of notes in front of her on a page or
memorized there from, she was unable to play anything. She had
been reading music all her life, and had always assumed that the
composer must have known what they were doing and that it was
her place as the musician to follow the composer’s dictates
precisely. But she had never played the piano so as to make her
own music.
As he puts it, when he reads the music he can say to the
composer, “That’s what you said, and now this is what I say” as a
way of opening up the theme, the chords, and the creative inquiry for
himself. We can still do this and respect our history, even build on it
with that respect. That’s what Jazz is at its heart. It’s making music
instead of just playing music. He sat down at the piano with her
and helped her for the first time in her life take a melody and a few
chords, from Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, and begin to make
music, new music.
We reflected that this is also true of reasoning. When someone is
thinking along fundamentalist lines, they are all worried about
playing their assigned notes with the instrument of their life. There
is no music making with their own intellect beyond minor
interpretation when it comes to their dogma. Reasoning is where
we can say with a critical mind, “That’s what you said, and now this
is what I say” to the authorities we find in our lives. Without the
realization that this is possible we never practice making music, we
never realize that this is what composers are doing in the first
place, and that we have equal right to do this too. When we realize
this, we can take the next step and refine it, critique it, and improve it
as we work towards greater understanding. Without this sense of
independence, we rationalize our whole life away why we’re just
following the notes.
Thanks to my firend.
A master in the Jazz of Life
© Erik Moore August 11, 2007
by
Erik Moore
A good friend of mine was telling me a story about a friend of
his. She was raised in a strict church and was a beautiful musician
according to all accounts. She played the piano for services, and
could perform on short notice just about any music you put in front
of her. One day she sat down with him and he suggested they play
a song together. She was unable to get the idea, she asked for
music and couldn’t imagine how one would play without it. It turned
out that without a dictated set of notes in front of her on a page or
memorized there from, she was unable to play anything. She had
been reading music all her life, and had always assumed that the
composer must have known what they were doing and that it was
her place as the musician to follow the composer’s dictates
precisely. But she had never played the piano so as to make her
own music.
As he puts it, when he reads the music he can say to the
composer, “That’s what you said, and now this is what I say” as a
way of opening up the theme, the chords, and the creative inquiry for
himself. We can still do this and respect our history, even build on it
with that respect. That’s what Jazz is at its heart. It’s making music
instead of just playing music. He sat down at the piano with her
and helped her for the first time in her life take a melody and a few
chords, from Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, and begin to make
music, new music.
We reflected that this is also true of reasoning. When someone is
thinking along fundamentalist lines, they are all worried about
playing their assigned notes with the instrument of their life. There
is no music making with their own intellect beyond minor
interpretation when it comes to their dogma. Reasoning is where
we can say with a critical mind, “That’s what you said, and now this
is what I say” to the authorities we find in our lives. Without the
realization that this is possible we never practice making music, we
never realize that this is what composers are doing in the first
place, and that we have equal right to do this too. When we realize
this, we can take the next step and refine it, critique it, and improve it
as we work towards greater understanding. Without this sense of
independence, we rationalize our whole life away why we’re just
following the notes.
Thanks to my firend.
A master in the Jazz of Life
© Erik Moore August 11, 2007
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Reason™ is a non-profit corporation of the state of Colorado, U.S.A. Text
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Reason™ is a non-profit corporation of the state of Colorado, U.S.A. Text
and images falls under the copyright of the author when indicated.
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