Grace Notes Music Studio

When you open yourself to creating, in music practice and in life, you may find some surprising gifts.

Yesterday during his lesson, Jacob created a brand new, never-before-played, never-before-heard, scale.

A sequence of four notes from the chalumeau (lowest) register of his clarinet; four different notes from the throat tones; and four more notes from the upper register. It was haunting and peaceful. The tone was clear and solid. Alternating piano and mezzo forte (soft and medium loud). Jacob put 150% of his focus into the exercise and entered the place of creativity, discovering something new. Perhaps discovering something new in himself. He then named his new scale, Ikea.

I suggested this new exercise to Jacob on the spur of the moment – I, too, was discovering! Sometimes in a lesson or when practicing at home alone, the music can get stale. Practice begins to feel like a routine. You play the same longtones, the same scales, the same technical exercises. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Well, yeah, where’s the fun in that?!

Practice from an Eastern Perspective

We in the West have a view of practice as the work you do to attain a goal or skill; to get better at something. The Eastern view of practice is as an art. Practice is seen as the act that reveals the complete person already there. Practice not for something, but practice for its own sake. Saturate your music practice with creativity and curiosity and it becomes more satisfying. Then the practice becomes the play.

Curiosity is an integral part of the creative process. Question yourself. Question your routine. “Hmmm. I wonder how my clarinet will sound when I slap my fingers down harder on the keys? What if I pop them off the keys — will I get a new sound?” Questions like these have endless variations.

Jacob and I began our foray into creating new scales with similar questions and a curious attitude. First I announced, I had enough of these major and minor scales. Let’s make up our own scales! I laid out one ground rule – play the same collection of notes in each of the three clarinet registers. The scale could have any number of notes, played fast or slow, loud or soft, slurred (connected) or staccato (crisp and short.) I went first: F, G#, A, A#.

Jacob asked, “Do the notes have to be ascending? Can they go up and down?” Ah, curiosity at work. “I wonder how it will sound to play the notes in a random order?”

Transforming Practice into Play

Playing the same notes in each octave made us concentrate. Lost in the focus of producing each individual note, creativity found us. That deep concentration you sometimes see in children when they are playing in their own fully developed world, opened us to the realm of play. We embraced curiosity to enter a creative state. The old repetitive practicing became transformed in practice as art; a journey that reveals our true selves.

If you find your practice boring, change it. Take the notes of an F major scale and play them in a random order. Play them top to bottom for a change. Apply a rhythmic pattern to the scale. See what happens when you play the ascending scale with a very loose embouchure. Alternate playing long and short notes: Doo-dat-doo-dat… How loud can you play each note? How soft? Let your curiosity take over. Follow it on this improvisational path.

Life is Improvisation

Life itself is improvisation. We know what might happen in the day ahead, but we cannot know what will happen. By opening ourselves to not knowing and being curious, we explore; we improvise; we learn.

We are nurtured by the surprising moments yet to be. Now, that’s what I call a practice.

Curiosity

What questions are you asking yourself in your music practice? I want to hear about how you are transforming your practicing into a practice. Share your thoughts with me and my readers: email me or comment on my blog.

Inspiration

Thanks to Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play, and Jacob G. for inspiring this edition of Musician’s Motivator.

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My friend, Elenna, approached me recently with a query about buying an instrument.
I’m going to buy a [Native American] flute and it comes in different keys. Which key do you suggest I get?

I suggested we find the key or tonality of her speaking and singing voice and select the flute that most closely matched her voice. The key here, pun intended, is to resonate with one’s instrument.

Three Ways I Resonate

Resonate is a verb meaning to produce or be filled with a deep, full, reverberating sound. By finding the tonality of Elenna’s voice, she can select an instrument that she will resonate with — on many levels.

First, she already resonates with the Native American flute — as in this instrument agrees with her. Of three ways to look at resonance, this meaning of agreement is the first one. We say something resonates with us when we agree with it. A delicious meal can resonate, or sit well, with the diner. Wide open spaces resonate with me. I am at ease on a grassy hillside, an open meadow, or the high desert plateau of Eastern and Central Oregon. Those places agree with me.

Another way to resonate with an instrument is figuratively. Perhaps the Native American flute evokes images, memories or emotions in Elenna; pleasant memories, attractive images, and important emotions. She is resonating with her chosen instrument on two levels.

The scent of Balsam Fir – common in Eastern North America – resonates in me. It arouses soothing childhood memories in one who grew up on the East Coast of the United States. Looking at photographs of my recent trip to Turkey resonates deeply; calling forth memories of activities and food and music of my travels.

Thirdly, there is a technical aspect to resonating; the electrical or mechanical resonance of a tone or object. Two examples are a crystal that resonates at 16 MHz and concert tuning pitch A that resonates at 440 Hz. For some fun resonating with tuning forks, visit Online Tuning Fork.

Galena crystals were used in the earliest radio receivers. These crystal radio sets are able to detect radio signals without a power supply. Yup! No battery. Not plugged in to an electrical outlet either. Hmmmm, a wireless connection. Ever hear your grandparent or great-grandparent talk about “the family would gather around the wireless to listen…”? Today we talk about WI-FI in the neighborhood coffee shop and over 100 years ago, many people built their own wireless radios to get news and entertainment from far away.

A Surprise Encounter With Resonance

Years after I had been playing the sax and clarinet, my friend, Brian, put a cello into my hands. With a little bit of instruction, he had me generating some decent cello sounds. I literally felt the resonance of the cello in my chest and belly. The vibrations of the strings echo in the large cello body which is held against the player’s body, in a hug almost.
The cello resonates for me on multiple levels.

• It agrees with me and makes me feel good.
• It vibrates at a pitch that matches a vibration in my upper and lower chest.
• It conjures strong, pleasurable images and memories, particularly from my undergraduate days at Indiana State University.

Generating Resonance

You can have experiences with resonance using your voice. Try these exercises. No special equipment is needed other than your own body and a willingness to experiment in different locations.

Exercise 1: Standing Inside

1. Stand in the center of a room in your home.
2. With your mouth closed, hum a mid-level pitch. Choose a pitch that is comfortable and easy for you.
3. Note where you feel the vibrations in your body. You may find it helpful to place one hand on various places of your body to determine where the vibrations are localized. Example: face, throat, top of head, upper chest, lower chest are just a few.

Exercise 2: Lying Down Inside

1. Lie flat on your back on your bed.
2. Repeat steps 2 and 3 from Exercise 1.
3. Do the vibrations feel different? If so, how? Are they in a different place on your body? Can you feel them in the mattress?

Exercise 3: Standing Outside

1. Stand outside, in the center of an open field.
2. Repeat steps 2 and 3 from Exercise 1.
3. Do the vibrations feel different? If so, how? Are they in a different place on your body? Can you feel them in the air around you?

Some Variations

• Sing with an open mouth instead of humming. Keep the pitch constant.
• Stand up against a wall both inside a building and outside a building.
• Lie down on a wood floor, concrete floor, or metal floor.

Experimental

What are your resonating experiences? I welcome hearing about the results of your experiments. Share them with me and my readers: email me or comment here.

Do you know of other musicians and music lovers who would benefit from reading Musician’s Motivator? Invite them to subscribe at MegGrace.com. Your friend will receive my article, The Art of Practice, in appreciation for subscribing.

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