African Tribal Dance - Rich Musical Context Starting in the Womb

Why Do You Play Music?

“For people of my tribe, with its rich musical context,
exposure to music beings in the womb,
when pregnant mothers join in the community dances.
From inside the womb, our babies feel the vibrations
of the rhythms enter their bodies.
Infants are then wrapped onto their mothers’ backs
with a cloth and taken into the dancing circle
with everyone else.”
–Yayo Diallo

Your First Time . . .

I remember my first time.

I went to a friend’s birthday party and his father played the piano for us.

I was mesmerized.

I had never seen a piano played before.

I ran home after the party and told my mother that I wanted to play.

“Get me a piano, will ya, will ya, will ya?”

For Christmas they rented one with an option to buy.
If I took to it, they would buy it.

I’ll never forget the day it arrived.
I could hardly wait to touch it.
I started to pick out the notes of some songs I knew,
and I remember running into the kitchen to proudly exclaim to my mother,
“Good news, mom.  I won’t be needing any lessons.  I’ve already figure out
how to play!”  I believed myself to have been a musician from that time on . . .

Why do we travel the sometimes masochistic route of becoming a musician?

Being an artist in “civilized” society doesn’t seem as secure
as owning stock in IBM (though it may be no less so).

So what compels us to try?

How did we become “co-dependent” with music?

We love it and can’t leave it, no matter how unsatisfied some of us are
with the fruits of our efforts.

We do we do it?

Take a moment to contemplate YOUR first time:

Think back to the time you first touched an instrument.

Remember the wondrous sound that came out?

Think of that virginal experience.
Anything you played sounded incredible.
There was so much magic in the sound!
You couldn’t wait to do it again.

You probably didn’t think there was anything to learn.
You were content to hear the sound come back to you.
This was the unfolding of a natural process.

Stimulated by the sound, your curiosity about music could have grown from there.
If you were left alone, you might have developed various relationships
to the different sounds on that instrument.  The different octaves,
combinations of notes (if it was polyphonic), loud and soft,
and so on, would have expressed something personal for you,
something that “just wanted to come through”.

• What about you?
• Do you know why you play music?
• Are you able to free yourself from your ego-mind
  and allow what wants to come through you?
• How can you apply this example
  in your own pursuit of Effortless Mastery?

Please leave a comment!

Thank you for being part of our Effortless Mastery community.

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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The five finger exercise that Joao Assis Brasil gave me seemed simple enough.

I only had to practice for five minutes.

As a dysfunctional learner and undisciplined person,
that sounded great.

But the assignment at first terrified me.

He wanted me to practice nothing but
the five-finger exercise for two weeks!

I was to do absolutely no other playing.
I could observe the panic in my mind
and the illusions it was creating.

I thought that in two weeks, I would forget how to play.
Even more absurd was the notion that . . .

I would lose so much valuable practice time.

What practice time?  That was my problem
to begin with:  I never practiced!

With great trepidation, I began the exercise.
Day after day, I noticed some good things.
It occurred to me that, for the first time
in my musical life,

I was actually doing the work assigned to me
by a piano teacher!

It was so simple that I never felt overwhelmed.

Five minutes seemed to be the right amount of time.

One of the reasons I never practiced was the belief
that I had to sit there for five hours for it
to mean anything.  Since I never had five hours free
in any given day (too busy watching television, I guess)
I never got around to practicing.

Another reason I was now practicing was that the material
was so simple:  the effortless release of each finger
to the key.  Thumb to fifth finger and back; then
the other hand; and then . . . finished!
Just walk away!  It had a very calming effect,
cleansing me with a feeling of a new beginning.
I felt really good.

I floated serenely through the days, just sitting down
for a few minutes in the morning, afternoon, and night,
feeling good about myself.

I wish I could say that I made it through the whole two weeks
without playing anything else, but after about six days,
I played hooky.

A beautiful Brazilian woman called one day
to invite me and Victor Assis Brasil to a party.
She wanted us to play a duo.  I told her that I was
on a special program and not playing right now.
But she asked me in that special way,
and I acquiesced!

When we arrived at the party, people asked us to play.
I apologized for what was about to happen.  I explained
that Victor’s crazy brother had me touching the piano
for only five minutes a day.  I was out of shape
and had no idea what would come out.

What followed was something I will never forget.

We played Autumn Leaves.
I put my hands on the piano
and
they played!

I mean that they actually played by themselves
while I watched!

And what they played was blowing my mind
and everybody else’s.  Not only was it good,
but it was so much better than I usually played!

The change was astounding.

In just six days of meditating, more or less,
at the piano, I was totally different!

My touch, usually hard an strained, sounded
balanced and beautiful, like Bill Evans.

I had discovered the secret of his sound.

Also, at this stage of my development,
I usually needed about thirteen notes
to find eight good ones.  There was no great
rhythm or symmetry to my lines.

But this night, I was playing perfect, symmetrical
lines in beautiful swinging time.  And again,
I must stress the point
that
I was only observing, not doing!

This powerful demonstration made a believer of me
for life.  I realized that the goal is letting go
of my ego and being kind to myself, playing only
what wants to come out effortlessly.

I now knew that I could observe myself play and embrace
the spiritual ideas of service and surrender.

The pursuit of these ideals would stretch me
further than my limited consciousness could ever do
and make me a better player! This blew my mind.

I have since found confirmation of this process
in many ancient spiritual traditions.  Our society
is very much in the dark as to what its spiritual
purpose is,and our musicians no less so.

In the course of working with music students of all
ages, from the amateur to the professional,
I have found many sincere but ego-ridden musicians.

As I was, they are defeated by self-centeredness,
and lack vision and purpose.  And, most important,
they don’t know what music is, who they are,
and what they are really doing here.

• What about you?
• Do you know why you play music?
  
• Are you able to detach your ego-mind
  and observe yourself playing?
  
• How can you apply this example
  in your own pursuit of Effortless Mastery?
  

Please leave a comment!

Thank you for being part of our Effortless Mastery community.

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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After attending Berklee on and off for three years,
I got the opportunity to go to Rio de Janeiro.

Joao Assis Brasil was a concert pianist
who happened to be the twin brother
of the late saxophonist Victor Assis Brasil,
with whom I traveled to Rio to play concerts.

Joao was entering European competitions
and practicing eight hours a day.  He had achieved
a high degree of excellence through intense pressure
and practice.  The result was a nervous breakdown.

Joao returned home to live with his parents
and went to therapy five days a week.
He started to practice two things
that would restore him to health.

Whenever his mind tormented him,
his therapist told him to go somewhere and chant ,

“I must be kind to myself, I must be kind to myself!”

He practiced that and a simple exercise
that a teacher in Vienna had shown him:
a five-finger exercise that consisted of releasing
the fingers effortlessly, one by one, onto the keyboard.

This was similiar to Madame Chaloff’s one-finger exercise,
but not as elusive.  This exercise only needed to be done
for five minutes – a short amount of time to focus without pressure.

Concentrating in this manner, five minutes became ten,
ten became twenty, and so on, until one could practice
effortlessly for as long as one wanted.

At the time I met him, Joao had been recovering
for about two years, and his personality was rather luminous.
The therapy had helped him mentally,
and using the five minute concept, he had built up his practice time
to eight to ten hours a day.

But now it was pressure-free,
and he felt a great deal of love and joy while doing it.
As I watched him play, I felt like some kind
of inferior species – he made it all look so easy!

I was fortunate to live in that household for a couple of months.
It gave me a unique opportunity to practice only from that space.
Joao was going in the same direction as Madame,
but he wasn’t so removed from the problems of the mind.
He had dealt the same issues I had and could address them for me.

For example, one day we were listening to Horowitz playing – I don’t
remember which piece, but Joao was joyously listening
while I was biting my fingernails.

I was thinking so much, I could barely hear the music.

Thoughts like, “Oh, that playing is so great . . . it’s really painful
to hear it! . . . This means that I am nothing . . . unless . . .
if I practice eight hours a day for the next twenty years . . . ”
raced through my mind.

My mind often behaved like that.

In fact, it behaved that way all the time.

Just at that moment, Joao put his hand on my shoulder,
and I jumped.  He startled me!

When I turned around, he was smiling.
He must have have been reading my mind,
or at least my body language,
because he said,

“BE KIND TO YOURSELF!”

This statement, uttered at that moment, was revelatory.
It showed me the folly of my thoughts.

At that moment, I was able to let go,
and suddenly

I HEARD THE MUSIC!

Horowitz was playing so exquisitely!

I felt reborn (at least temporarily).

I was sitting there enjoying the music
for the first time as a listener
rather than a compulsive musician,
one whose self-worth was on the line
every time he heard someone else play well.

I became aware of what was wrong with me.

This was a key lesson about myself.

• What about you?
  
• Are you aware of your thoughts when listening
  to other musicians?
  
• How can you apply this in your own pursuit
  of Effortless Mastery?
  

Please leave a comment!

Thank you for being part of our Effortless Mastery community.

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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Now is the time of year when everyone reflects on the previous year,

and sets their goals and intentions for the upcoming year.

How was 2009 for you, musically?

Did you make progress?

Many people practice.

Few actually make progress.

You can make musical Effortless Mastery a part of who you are,
when you apply the principles that Kenny teaches.

What will you do in 2010?

There are many tools here to support you,
including Kenny’s new “Living Effortless Mastery” DVD.

The best thing you can do is review your
Effortless Mastery notes, book, CD’s, videos,
telewebinar calls, and blog posts.

Make a commitment to return to, or continue,
your practice.

Peace.

Kenny Werner
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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In our last post, I wrote about my new beginning at Berklee College of Music.

People were telling me about a legend whom Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock,
and Chick Corea were suppoed to have studied with in Boston.

Madame Chaloff was a mystical figure who taught the “secret of music.”
I found her to be a truly light-filled being.

She was about eighty years old when I met her, but her hair was golden
reddish blond and seemed to glow as if there was a little spotlight
following her around the room.  She spoke of the secret of playing piano.
It had to do with the pianist’s arms “defying gravity.”  We worked on
other physical actions as well.  We even worked on how my walking
could be more grace-filled.

She taught the perfect way to drop a finger.  This was my first introduction
to effortlessness.  Until then, I grunted and groaned and made all sorts
of weird faces.  People loved the faces I made because it meant I was really
into the music.  I later recognized this as tension and nothing more.

She was a real stickler for the perfect drop of the finger.  I spent months
learning to play one note.  I think once or twice I got it right and we
actually went on to the second finger!

She was very one-pointed in her focus.

It was about playing for God.

I was grateful for that message because I had been trying to meditate
under the tutelage of a popular guru at the time.  She made the connection for me
between spirit and music.  Through her I was able to merge the two concerns.

I often would go to the lessons with my own agenda and had so many
questions, but once in her chamber, so to speak, I entered another dimension.
Everything that seemed important would dissolve.  One felt as if one was in
the presence of truth, or at least that is how it struck me.  I know that
this was true for many others, though not for all.

At one point, it had been a while since I had seen her and had drifted off
her subtle path.  After a distressing breakup with my longtime girlfriend,
I was so distraught that I decided to see Madame Chaloff.  I thought to myself,
“This time she’ll see the pain I’m in and really want to listen to my sad story.
Maybe it would be good if I were crying when she cam to the door.  Yes!  That’s
a very good idea!  I’ll cry and she’ll see that I don’t need that spiritual stuff
right now, and she’ll comfort me and pity me and give me solace.”

I got to her door, sad faced and ready for sympathy.  As she opened the door I involuntarily smiled.
She took one look and asked, “Where have you been?  Come on in here.  We’ve got
a lot of work to do!”  And we went right to it.

I must say regretfully, that I never did learn to play one note right.
It was too early for me to learn that lesson.  I had the urgency and ambition
of a typical college student.  Her message was too high for me.  When I was with her,
I knew I was hearing truth, but I would lose it soon after leaving.

I must have been meant to learn this truth however, because the next place I moved to,
another teacher was waiting to show me the very same thing . . .

What experiences have you had with your teachers?

Are you nurturing those musical seeds/gifts/fruits with your Effortless Mastery practice?

Make Sure You Get Kenny’s “Living Effortless Mastery” DVD

Thank you for being here as part of our Effortless Mastery Community.

To Your Effortless Mastery,

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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In our last post, I wrote about my emotional roller coaster experience at the Manhattan School of Music.

Life didn’t necessarily feel worth living, but I didn’t have the courage to end it, although the thought made me feel vaguely peaceful.

I had heard that Berklee School of Music had a good jazz program.  I didn’t know much about that, but I did know that it involved improvisation, and that was all I ever really loved about music.

Lord knows that if there were any glimpses of my inner self in those early years, it was when I sat down at the piano with no plan in mind; no form, no structure, just my raw feeling and a few friendly listeners.  (I always had to have listeners, otherwise it wasn’t worth giving up valuable TV time.)

When I enrolled in Berklee, I was delighted to find other misfits like myself; people who truly didn’t know where they were at or what they were doing.  These guys became my fraternity.

I responded to this new stimulating environment by having the first B+ year of my life.  I actually made the dean’s list!  And I was practicing!  Praise the Lord, I was practicing!  It felt great.  It all related to improvising, so I guessed I was in the right place.

I began to really appreciate jazz and all its great artists.  For the next few years, I would try to do what most music students did; try to imitate the masters, not only in playing, but in mind and speech.  I lamented my Jewishness, and coming from Long Island was even less desirable.  When people asked, I just said I was from New York.

Most of my friends were concerned with learning the language of jazz without sacrificing individuality.  Unfortunately, this prevented some of them from adequately learning the language (a problem I’ll address in a later post).

But while I was there, I met a few people who would help shape my future.

The seeds were planted for what would become my path . . .

What seeds were planted in your earlier days?

Are you nurturing those musical seeds/gifts/fruits with your Effortless Mastery practice?

Make Sure You Get Kenny’s “Living Effortless Mastery” DVD

Thank you for being here as part of our Effortless Mastery Community.

To Your Effortless Mastery,

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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In previous posts, I wrote about how I became popular in high school,

and where my musical influences came from.

Even though I had very little academic success in high school . . .
and I didn’t have much of an attention span . . .

Everything was under control.

I seemed to get something for nothing in music until the day of reckoning came.  I applied and was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music as a classical piano major.  It didn’t matter that I didn’t know Beethoven from Brahms, or that I didn’t care to know, I was going to be a concert pianist!

Up to this time it had a been a free ride.  Without practicing at all, I was the best player everywhere I went.  The messages I received from parents, aunts, uncles, and teachers was “you’re great” or “we’ll see you in  Carnegie Hall!”

Because of these messages and the extreme low self-esteem I felt in all other areas, I had to be, in my mind, nothing less than the best.  I felt like my life would have truly been a failure if I didn’t play at Carnegie Hall some day.

I was always either very high or very low.  If I heard a pianist play better than I,  I wanted to die! I would literally feel worthless.  I had come to depend so heaviliy on my talent for validation.  I couldn’t face not being God’s gift to music.

Manhattan School of Music was a real slap in the face for me.  There were students with talent equal to mine, but they could practice long hours.  This was devastating.

Instead of being the special one – the musician – I was for the first time in my life, just a nother one, and not a particularly distinguished one at that.

I felt like an imposter; someone who pretended to be involved in what he was doing. Without the distraction of being that special guy, I was nothing.  I had no purpose, no direction, and I didn’t even know why I was playing music anymore.

Have you ever felt this way?

Emotional ups and downs with your musical talent?

Are you practicing your own Effortless Mastery now?

Make Sure You Get Kenny’s “Living Effortless Mastery” DVD

Thank you for being here as part of our Effortless Mastery Community.

To Your Effortless Mastery,

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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Happy Holidays!

Happy Solstice . . .

Happy Hanukkah . . .

Merry Christmas . . .

Happy Kwanzaa . . .

Happy New Year . . .

We wish you and all your friends, relatives, and loved ones
a very happy holidays.

Relax!

Enjoy yourself!

Don’t get too stressed out!

And remember, no matter how busy you get . . .

you can still take 5 minutes for your Effortless Mastery practice.

Thank you for being part of our Effortless Mastery community.

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

My musical influences when I was growing up were primarily TV themes,
or music from movies I watched on TV.

After that, it was AM radio, where pop music was played in those days, and Broadway show tunes.
As a pianist, I was influenced by the records of Roger Williams playing Rhapsody In Blue

and Andrew Previn playing jazz arrangements of My Fair Lady.

My father had bought me a Fats Waller album when I was younger.

That and the Previn album were the only contacts I had to jazz.

I played bastardized stride piano because of hearing Waller
and the style of a friend of my father’s who used to come over
to our house and play piano.

In junior high school a friend plaed the John Coltrane record “My Favorite Things” for me

but at that point I really didn’t understand that music too well.

My attention span was way too short for that music and to my ears, there was no melody.

Even today when I am asked who my influences were, I usually say Chico Marx

Jimmy Durante

and Victor Borge

(Jimmy Durante and Victor Borge had TV shows, you know.)

Who did you listen to growing up?

Feel free to leave your comments here!

Get Your Own Copy of
Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery book & CD
or
Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery DVD
by using our Secure Nimbit WebStore below:

Thank you for being here as part of our Effortless Mastery Community.

To Your Effortless Mastery,

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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“Most Popular Guy”

Up until the time I graduated from High School,  I had a free ride of sorts.

Althought I had very little success scholastically, I had even less athletically.
I was a total couch potato and suffered from great lethargy.  In the summers,
when all the kids would go to camp or elsewhere, I would stay in the house
next to the air conditioner.  The TV and refrigerator kept me company all summer.
I felt isolated and numb emotionally.  I was the only kid who came back from summer
vacation with paler skin than when school ended!

I had no outstanding physical attributes, nothing that distinguished me from the other students.
I would have been a total loser in school but for one thing–I could play the piano.
And I could play very well.  I started playing at seven, and by eight, I was playing for assembly.
At nine years old I was playing gigs.

I made absolutely no impression on my fellow students until I’d sit down to play.
Then the world changed completely.  I was it!  Mr. “Bad” himself!  The athletes,
who wouldn’t know I existed, suddenly put their arms around me and proclaimed me their friend.
The greasers (motorcycle types) would just as soon beat me up as talk to me, but if I played them
a tune they liked, they became my protectors; (“don’t mess with my brother Kenny–or I’ll kill you!”).

The girls, oh how I wanted them to notice me!  They could be very cruel.
But if I was in the middle of the party cranking something out on the piano, there would always
be one girl who would emerge with that soulful smile and tell me how much they loved my playing.
That was okay with me, as long as I was loved and admired for something!

I was the best player wherever I went.  This masked the despair and self-loathing I felt.
I depended heavily on my playing for a sense of self worth.  It came so easily to me that it was
hard for people to believe that I was malfunctioning.  If I was failing at everything else,
it was okay because people could point to the way I played, as if to say I was all right.
I even felt guilty and loathsome for the free ride.

Does this sound familiar?

Have you ever felt like your self-worth was tied to your playing
or your musicianship?

Feel free to leave your comments here!

Get Your Own Copy of
Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery book & CD
or
Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery DVD
by using our Secure Nimbit WebStore below:

Thank you for being here as part of our Effortless Mastery Community.

To Your Effortless Mastery,

Kenny Werner
and
Dr. Andrew Colyer

KennyWernerLive.com
and
ConsciousWorldMedia.com

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