Music from Johanastan: I Should!

Listen to the latest pop hit from Johanastan:

I should I should I should I should

I should I should I should!

I should I should I should I should

I should I should I should!

I should I should I should I should

I should I should I should!

I should I should I should I should

I should! 

I should!

I should!

I should I should I should

I should I should! 

I should I should I should

I should I should I should!

I should!

I should!

I should!

I should!

I should I should I should

I should I should I should!

I should! 

I should I should I should I should

I should I should I should!

I should I should I should I should

I should I should!

A Flock of Thoughts about Music

Left Ear Retraction

Right Hand V. Left Hand: Hello

right hand

*

he said it's best not to do anything else

while listening

but what if

by drawing

or dancing

or singing

or washing

or painting

or dreaming

or scraping

we become more connected

to the music

what then?

*

left hand

Playing It Cool At The Stone

On Tad’s second ever trip to New York City (the first being earlier this year), he and Ellen planned to go to the Stone to hear Gyan Riley and Julian Lage play selections from "John Zorn's Bagatelles."

I thought there was no way they would get in, the show prominently featured in the latest New Yorker. 

They arrived an hour early and were the first ones in line so took front row seats.  A guy who they’d struck up conversation with invited them to meet John Zorn, owner of the Stone and legendary composer.  Tad said he looked a lot younger than he knew him to be, dressed in t-shirt and army pants.  “They came all the way from Wisconsin.”  Zorn was friendly, but did not pursue conversation. 

“I don’t think it meant as much to him as it did to me,” Tad assessed. 

The show was "mind-blowing" and Tad jumped to a standing ovation.  “Looked like Marc Ribot was getting up, so I went for it.”

Zorn was taken aback.  It was the Stone’s first ever standing ovation.  Zorn asked them to play an encore.  They had nothing else prepared, so they played one of the bagatelles again.

Traditional Music of Johanastan

Along the Pacific of Johanastan exists a musical tradition based on tuning to one's environment and mood rather than to a prescribed scale.

During the warm months, it is customary for Pacific peoples to play outdoors, integrating their music into the sounds of the neighborhood.

Listen to some traditional music from the Pacific region:

The Best Story

The best story I know,

I'm not allowed to tell,

so you will never know,

the best story never told.

Thoughts about Music: While Walking with Le Flaneur

Le Flaneur and I walk through the arboretum and talk about music.

I tell her how I learned music from a place of fear, fear of playing the wrong note, fear of being out of tune, fear of having the wrong opinion, fear of looking like a fool.  Music was a serious business, requiring years of practice to learn to do it right.  There was good music and there was bad music and it was important to know the difference.

I am trying to explain why I play music the way I do.

Le Flaneur presses: Isn't there a way that isn't so antagonistic?

Was I being antagonistic?

We stop to watch the wild turkeys foraging in the leaves.

We walk again and I start back in with the years of being scared to play in front of other people, the way it felt so rigid even when it was supposed to be fluid, the regret that I wasn't learning a less girlie instrument.

Le Flaneur asks:  Can't you express it without sounding like you are flipping everyone off?

Was I flipping everyone off?

I try one more time to explain what I've been trying to explain to myself for years: That what I'm most interested in practicing is coming to music from a place of joy rather than fear.

Le Flaneur has fears about music too, though she's never revealed to me what they are.