Recently, as I think I mentioned in my last share, I have been working on Anders Koppel’s concerto
for piano and alto saxophone.

Anders’ son Benjamin who is just a marvelous virtuoso saxophonist will play the alto part.

In addition, the use of my recent Guggenheim Fellowship grant (details coming soon!)
will be to not only learn Anders’ concerto, but to write one of my own to be played.

Benjamin is also writing one for us, so that’s three concertos!!! (concerti?)

I have tried to devise a way to slowly take in the whole piece.

As I’ve mentioned last time, I don’t know if I will succeed or not, but in this recent state
I’ve been in I am surely enjoying practicing it.

I have said that me playing a concerto live, while playing two more,
one that I write and one that Benjamin writes is so far beyond anything I’ve ever done.

I’ve told Anders and Benjamin that it’s like taking a quarter horse and entering him
in the Kentucky Derby. It’s simply not what that horse was trained to do.

But these days I am kind of believing that all things are indeed possible, so we’ll see.

(note* I’ve warned Benjamin that his piece and mine better have a hell of a lot of improv
and less written material or else I will kick his…..oh never mind!)

Anyway, as I was saying, trying to master fifty pages of music makes it very difficult to retain one’s focus.

One would rather stumble through as many pages as possible.

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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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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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

The Sufi Master, Hazrat Inayat Khan says:

“There are different ways of listening to music.

There is a technical state when a person who is developed in technique
and has learned to appreciate better music, feels disturbed by a lower grade of music.

But there is a spiritual way,which has nothing to do with technique.

It is simply to tune oneself to the music;
therefore the spiritual does not worry about the grade of the music.

No doubt, the better the music the more helpful it is to a spiritual person;
but at the same time one must not forget there are lamas in Tibet
who do their concentrations and meditations while moving a kind of rattle,
the sound of which is not especially melodious.

They cultivate thereby that sense which raises a person by the help of vibration
to the higher planes.

There is nothing better than music as a means for the upliftment of the soul.”

How do you listen to music?

How do you feel when you are listening to music?

How do you feel when you listen to players who are better than you?

Reread Chapter 8 of Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery.

If it’s time for you to own your own copy of this breakthrough book

click on this Amazon link to purchase your own copy of Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery

Or, click on this Amazon link to purchase your copy of Kenny’s latest Blue Note release, Kenny Werner’s Lawn Chair Society

Thank you.

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Note: Even though the title is for guitar, the Principle is the same for every instrument.
Read this, then practice applying it to your instrument.

Get into the space and imagine your body is being moved to pick up the guitar.

Feel your arm effortlessly glide/float and extend like a robot as you “watch” it reach for,
then touch and lift your guitar.

Then when you get the guitar into your lap let it rest there.

Regroup yourself into The Space, take a deep breath, and imagine
your arms and hands are being guided as they strap the guitar on . . .

Let it hang there for a moment, take another breath, and allow your hands to
get into position on the neck and on the string and then just wait . . .

Take a deep breath and let go while your hands are touching the guitar . . .

Wait until . . . from The Space . . . you are “witnessing” this happen.

Pay attention to your mind.

If it takes on the “responsibility” again to sound good, then drop your hands and breathe.

Just let the guitar hang there while you let go.

Then again, slowly, allow the arms and hands to be guided back to the guitar.

When you are in position and feeling completely detached,
allow the hands (not you!) to play.

Allow the left hand to press a string and the right hand to strike that string
without your participation.

Let the hands do it.

Then after one strike, drop your hands.

If there was any loss of neutrality, take a breath and go back to The Space . . .

The Space that is practiced with the guided meditations (in the book), where you sit
in the middle of your being and allow the body to perform without the mind.

If it goes well, you can play a few notes and then drop your hands.

It is most important that you experience this complete lack of participation or attachment.

From there, you can get the feel of “the hands playing for you.”

You must totally experience this detachment, because it is this physical state
that you want to bring into the second step, which is allowing the hands to move
around the instrument randomly while you stay centered in that same detached space.

Then you are building up to the goal of playing and even practicing new things
from The Space, which is where the most drastic results can be achieved.

Let the higher power play the music!

Thank you.

Click on this Amazon link to purchase your copy of Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery

Or, click on this Amazon link to purchase your copy of Kenny’s latest Blue Note release, Kenny Werner’s Lawn Chair Society

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People assume that if you play music that your life has meaning, but many of us who play know that’s not necessarily true.

Once I was talking to a well-known musician (who shall remain anonymous because he is famous in jazz). He had just come from a dinner attended by some other great jazz musicians. It was a male bonding kind of dinner, as they talked about their fathers and their careers, and basically what their inner feelings were.

He said something that was very revealing. Even though they were all great players and very successful, what did it all mean? I could really identify with the question, and felt compassion for him at that moment.

I didn’t say anything, though I had an answer in my mind.

The answer could be that nothing really does have meaning, no matter how much success you achieve, no matter how much of a master you become at what you do, if you do not offer it up to the divine power; God, if you like.

Without the desire to know this part of myself, or my true Self, I would be groping for meaning every second. It would very hard to please me, no matter how good things were going. I am grateful for the pain that led to the pursuit of a higher Self.

Every spiritual teaching confirms that it is better to give than to receive. This is a well-known, but little followed teaching. What happens is, by giving as much as you can to something, you become a channel to receive. The bible also says, “I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his work.”

I feel the same way about my solos. Whether you believe in the Father or not, this is the principle of effortless action.

Let the higher power play the music!

Thank you.

–excerpt from Effortless Mastery, (c) Kenny Werner
Click on this Amazon link to purchase your copy of Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery

Or, click on this Amazon link to purchase your copy of Kenny’s latest Blue Note release, Kenny Werner’s Lawn Chair Society

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