To study Music is to study the Self ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Posted in Habits of Mind, Random Thoughts on Jan 12th, 2011
I offer a koan for winter – obviously a variation on a classic: What is the sound of snow falling? I came up with this last night, with the thought of listening to the sound of the snow while going to sleep. But this morning it occurred that there may be something to it. If […]
Posted in Random Thoughts on Nov 25th, 2010
Like most holidays, Thanksgiving gives us a chance to be reflective, which of course I love. Musicians think in musical terms – about relationships between pitches and harmonies, rhythmic patterns on various time scales, the big picture of musical form and of the ensemble, and where we fit into it. So we are naturally inclined […]
Posted in Habits of Mind, Practice on Nov 22nd, 2010
I don’t know the specific biological or neurological mechanisms that would pertain to whether the Vibrational Model is literally accurate or more of a metaphor – but at some level it feels right. Even if only metaphorically, each of us does both transmit and receive vibrations from others; and we are deeply influenced at both cellular and energetic levels both by these vibrations, as well as by the range of vibrations we detect as sounds (music, speech, or ambient sound or noise).
Posted in Habits of Mind, Practice on Oct 28th, 2010
The inspiration for this blog is my favorite book, Shunyru Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Every time I pick up the baton or the trombone there is the feeling of starting over again from scratch. Not completely, and not literally – but to some extent we are always beginning. There is, of course, a good […]