I’ve started digging into Kenny Werner’s “Effortless Mastery” a bit. So far, it’s nothing short of intriguing. I’ve hit the 4th chapter, “Beyond Limited Goals”. All of a sudden I found myself taking out a pen and a piece of paper, for some notes. Why not keep the notes on the blog, I thought to myself.
In this chapter, Kenny Werner emphasizes on one aspect: surrender the obsessive need to sound good!
How does one achieve that level of musicianship — of humanness? How does one evolve into a riveting presence so worthy of praise? Limited goals, such as trying to impress people, find security, play “valid” jazz, and so on, block that goal. Surrender is that key, and the first thing to surrender is one of your most prized possessions: YOUR OBSESSIVE NEED TO SOUND GOOD! This is a paradox that most people can prove through their own experience.
Personal Experience
I totally agree with what he has to say:
When you don’t try as hard to be good, you play better.
From personal experience, I can relate this to so many instances. First of all, let’s look at the “not caring part”. When I practice on my own, there isn’t any fear. I play, I practice, and I feel good (mostly) about what I do. Now… I can relate to countless instances where I started caring about the way I sounded, the way I was playing, and choked!
Let’s look back at the 2005 Byng Arts Recital, for example, where I completely bombed. Haha… back in the days, way back in the days when I had no clue about jazz, I wanted to sound like a certain elevator-music-playing soprano saxophone player. Despite how much I sucked back in the days (I’m still not that great now, though slightly better, in my opinion ), I practiced hard for the recital with a newbie saxophone player’s lower-lip-biting ambitions. Long story short, there was way too much ego, and I wanted to sound good desparately! I cared so much about the performance… cared so much about everything… that I completely bombed and choked.
I’m sure everyone can relate to these types of experiences. Take the playing tests in the school music program, for example (Lord Byng has an excellent music program, by the way, by far the best in Vancouver and the lower mainland). I used to get really nervous when it was my turn to play. Remember, Werner says that we need to surrender ourselves and not try as hard to sound good. I remember sounding a lot worse than usual in these playing tests when I cared too much… every time.
By not caring, you play better.
The harder you try, the worse you play.
An Involuntary Muscle
It sure is easy to think about not caring the way you sound now, but when the time comes to your solo, what’s going to happen? Werner puts it this way:
Like an involuntary muscle, this concern just happens even as one approaches one’s instrument. No matter how much people are intellectually aware, they will not be able to control their concern once they start to play.
What’s the solution?
… if a true acceptance of oneself — if not actual love — is present, the fear of failure will be gone!
Self-acceptance is the key here. In my opinion, it’s about how comfortable and at ease you feel with yourself.
Finally, among other things, Werner says that music is not suppose to be a “source of depression”, but rather a “gift”. By letting all the tension go, you’re able to look at music from a totally different approach.
In Conclusion…
A person who is not afraid to die, knows how to live. A person who is not afraid to fail, succeeds. And a person who is not afraid to sound terrible may sound great.
After my last post (the extremely long one) about Obama being the “lesser of two evils“, I’ve come to the realization that I’m becoming… apathetic: with all the chants, the campaigning, the whole system. Think about it: Americans have, unfortunately, chosen a candidate that will take them down the same old path… the path of policing the world and printing the Dollar out of thin air
I don’t really care anymore; there’ll be no more of watching CNN and hearing the hosts telling their stories as if Ron Paul doesn’t even exist. Something’s not quite right with the system (just to put it nicely) .
Well… on a brighter note, I present you: Obamillary
The concept of “effortless mastery” can be a tricky one. This concept, in my opinion, not only applies to music, but to everything in life. Today, I borrowed a well-used (pages falling out, binding wrinkling…etc.) copy of “Effortless Mastery” from Stan Karp, and plan on reading through it. A little bit of info on the back of the book:
Kenny Werner is an accomplished pianist who began performing at age 4 and, by age 11, has appeared on television. While at the Manhattan School of Music he became restless with his musical direction and began to explore Jazz as new means of creativity and expression. Along his journey, he was inspired by masters of the craft to rethink not only the technical aspects of creativity, but also the spiritual aspects. Effortless Mastery, is not only an account of that journey, but also an insightful guide for all those wishing to remove their own barriers to creativity in life and the arts. While Mr. Werner happens to be a musician, the concepts presented here are applicable to every profession, aspiration or life-style where there is a need for free-flowing, effortless thinking.
Let’s flip open the dictionary and look up some definitions:
Effortless:
Requiring or apparently requiring no effort; “the swallows glided in an effortless way through the busy air”
Casual: not showing effort or strain; “a difficult feat performed with casual mastery”; “careless grace”
Mastery:
Possession of consummate skill
Great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or activity
Effortless Mastery?
“…if you’ve constantly pointed to other players and thought that they possessed something you didn’t, or if you’ve practiced for years and never really improved, or if you always play great but your music lacks depth and meaning for you, read on.”
Yes sir , I will read on — read on and share the “enlightening” moments (cheesy choice of words there) with my readers.
Don’t you get moments where you think to yourself, boy oh boy where has time gone? Moments where… it is as if yesterday that the lingering fragrance of memories used to hang? Moments where, leading up to this piece of tasteful, nostalgic pie, you anticipate — even in your dreams — yet, find yourself reminiscing about it a year later and wonder… where has time gone?
A year ago today, March 8, 2007, I went on a band trip to Italy (trip itinerary). Without a doubt, one of the most memorable trips of my lifetime: memorable not only because of the beauties of the culture, landscape that I had witnessed, not only because of the fun and excitement shared with friends and strangers, not only because of falling ill halfway through the trip, catching chick-pox, and not seeing the Roman Forums or the Colosseum, but all the more memorable because of the realization that time has flew through my fingers, out of my grasp, my reach, within the blink of an eye. I’d really like to return to Venice one day. I’d love to see the streets of Rome, the ancient Forums, the Colosseum.
Yet, these moments are behind us.
A year ago today, my sympathetic system was working hard — epinephrine pumping, blood pressure on the rise, heart rate increasing — to accommodate the stress and excitement awaiting on the trip. Never for a second did I pause and wonder: where will I be a year from now?
It’s truly an intimidating thought to be looking ahead a year from now. Yet, as history has proven to us time and time again , time really does fly. Never for a moment when I was in first grade did I anticipate walking into the doors of grade eight. Through out the years in high school, I have never really imagined where I would be a year, two years, three years from the present. Boarding the Air Canada flight to Toronto, flying to Frankfurt, Germany, transferring to Milan, Italy, never for a second did I imagine myself sitting at the keyboard reflecting back on the trip a year in the future.
Time does not fly — it sprints through a marathon. Or, does it waltz?
Way back in December 2007 (I know, it’s been a while), there was hope for change, hope for the Ron Paul RE[EVOL]UTION (remember,$6-million in a single day?).
Now, as reality starts to kick in, we’re faced with two choices: either Hillary Clinton/John McCain, the neocon warmongers (it’s quite obvious that the neocons have no faith in McCain winning over Obama, since tons of them — including Ann Coulter (gasp of horror!) — have openly shot McCain down and endorsed Clinton), or Barack Obama (unless you’re been living in a cave, for the past two months, he’s been chanting over and over “Yes we can [change]! Yes we can!”), who the media has falsely portrayed as the “last hope”, who the masses have adopted a way too romanticized view on, and who, in my opinion, is the lesser of two evils.
Obama, the Lesser of Two Evils
The lesser of two evils?! You may continue to chant “Yes We Can!” all day long and call me a cynic all you want, but here’s my two cents.
Obviously, he is for change (to a certain extent), I’m not arguing with that. He openly speaks against the politics of fear (unlike Kerry, who not once spoke openly against George Bush’s rhetoric in 2004) and wishes to change the system by being friends with people (i.e. Republicans), taking to people (i.e. Iran), and trading with people (i.e. changing NAFTA). Sure, to a certain extent, to the masses, he is for change.
Let’s Look Under the Sheets
Numbers and solid facts speak better than words and opinions. Let’s have close look at Obama’s campaign site, shall we?
Here’s where my beef with Obama really comes in:
Economy
Hooray (sarcasm)! Obama wants to cut taxes:
Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama will create a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
That sounds like a sweet deal! So sweet at deal that it simply doesn’t make any sense. If you were to “provide 150 million workers” up to “$500″ per person (hmm… let’s see… 150,000,000 x 500 = 75,000,000,000), or $75-billion worth of tax relief, how would you continue to fund the American empire (military bases in Turkey, UK, Germany, South Korea, Japan… just to name a few), the so-called “War on Terror” (wow…), the regular spending that keeps the country running… without breaking the already recessing economy that’s NINE TRILLION dollars in debt?
“Yes We Can! Yes We Can!”. Am I the only one hearing the irony in that? Yes, you can, do what? Change? What’re you kidding me? You call Obama’s economical policies “change”. That is definitely not change. This is change, according to Ron Paul:
But today, too many politicians and lobbyists are spending America into ruin. We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don’t cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future and yours.
In addition, the Federal Reserve, our central bank, fosters runaway debt by increasing the money supply making each dollar in your pocket worth less. The Fed is a private bank run by unelected officials who are not required to be open or accountable to we the people.
Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia, because their central banks also finance our runaway spending.
We cannot continue to allow private banks, wasteful agencies, lobbyists, corporations on welfare, and governments collecting foreign aid to dictate the size of our ballooning budget. We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
Real change, Mr. Obama, will.i.am, “Yes We Can”-ners, would be to cut spending by withdrawing all America troops home from all over the world (interesting how people think that the Americans are only in the Middle East). Real change would be to change America’s school-yard-bully foreign policy; stop being the policeman of the world, stop nuking people, stop interfering in the self-determination of others. Real economical change, after cutting spending, would be to address the issue of the Dollar and change the economical system: the Federal Reserve prints money out of thin air to fund the empire, increasing inflation as a result.
Foreign Policy
Iraq
I’ve briefly talked about this in the previous section. Does Obama want real change? Let’s have a look:
Bring Our Troops Home: Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
Okay, this is interesting. He will have all of the “combat brigades” out of Iraq. Define combat. Are peacekeeping brigades combat brigades? This sounds a bit vague to me. Simply pulling the troops out of the streets of Baghdad could mean that they’re no longer in “combat”, yet they could still remain for “peacekeeping” purposes.
Ah ha! I’m a bit surprised that Obama keeps this stuff on his website for the world to see: he will “keep some troops in Iraq”. All right Mister. Some troops? How many troops would you consider as “some” troops? 10? A dozen? A couple thousand? Ten thousand?
Oh please, this is sounding a lot like George W. Bush rhetorics here. There was no al Qaeda in Iraq under the iron fist of Saddam Hussein. It can be argued that al Qaeda and other forces, who undoubtedly consider Americans invaders and label themselves as “freedom fighters”, entered Iraq just to fight back the Americans.
This is clearly rhetorical: he wants to pull troops out of Iraq yet will “keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region” to attack al Qaeda. But because Americans are there, al Qaeda and others will definitely remain to fight back. This is like… quantum physics, insightful philosophy, an infinite loop.
By now, if you don’t get what I’m saying, you better then get off the computer, turn on the TV, and watch some “Fair and Balanced” (hahaha I can’t help laughing at that) Fox News.
Iran
I applaud Omaba for not banging the war drums like Hillary and the neocons.
Opposed Bush-Cheney Saber Rattling: Obama opposed the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which says we should use our military presence in Iraq to counter the threat from Iran. Obama believes that it was reckless for Congress to give George Bush any justification to extend the Iraq War or to attack Iran. Obama also introduced a resolution in the Senate declaring that no act of Congress including Kyl-Lieberman gives the Bush administration authorization to attack Iran.
That makes him the lesser of two evil. He is right on many things, not banging the drums of war being one of them. However:
The Problem: Iran has sought nuclear weapons, supports militias inside Iraq and terror across the region, and its leaders threaten Israel and deny the Holocaust. But Obama believes that we have not exhausted our non-military options in confronting this threat; in many ways, we have yet to try them. That’s why Obama stood up to the Bush administration’s warnings of war, just like he stood up to the war in Iraq.
“Iran has sought nuclear weapons, supports militias inside Iraq and terror across the region” — excuse me? Yes, we know that Iran’s after nuclear weapons. For crying out loud, our real concern should be with Pakistan — with an American-imposed military dictator on the verge of loosing power and losing controlling of the nuclear arsenal.
Oh please! “Iran supports militias inside Iraq and terror across the region” sounds completely like words out of George Bush’s mouth. If anyone can find the tiniest bit of evidence that Iran’s killing Americans in Iraq and support “terror”… go watch Fox News.
I thought Omaba is change. I thought Obama is for getting rid of the politics of fear.
“But Obama believes that we have not exhausted our non-military options in confronting this threat; in many ways, we have yet to try them” — though again, I must applaud him for diverging from the Bush mentality and promising to talk to Iran, to use diplomacy instead of bombs.
(On another thought, for those currently watching Fox News, go take a 20th-century world history course and browse around Wikipedia)
Failing Economy + Increased Spending = ?
Expand the Military: We have learned from Iraq that our military needs more men and women in uniform to reduce the strain on our active force. Obama will increase the size of ground forces, adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines.
I’m sorry Mr. Obama, but… where’re you getting the money to increase the size of the military? Oh, I have forgotten, the Federal Reserve will print the money out of thin air.
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe he wants to increase spending but doesn’t realize that America’s already nine trillion dollars in debt; maybe he doesn’t know that the Dollar is devaluing before his eyes, the housing markets crashing, and inflation rising; maybe he wishes to pull troops out of Iraq — but to keep them in there to fight “al Qaeda”, who are ironically there just to fight back the invading Americans. Maybe he is, and we are all, just too busy chanting “Yes We Can!”
), I practiced hard for the recital with a newbie saxophone player’s lower-lip-biting ambitions. Long story short, there was way too much ego, and I wanted to sound good desparately! I cared so much about the performance… cared so much about everything… that I completely bombed and choked.
Effortless Music 
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