African Tribal Dance - Rich Musical Context Starting in the Womb
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
Technorati Tags:
Kenny Werner, Kenny Werner Live, KennyWernerLive.com, Effortless Mastery, Living Effortless Mastery, Dr. Andrew Colyer, ConsciousWorldMedia.com
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
We had a baby grand, and I remember sitting under it while my brother played; its just about my earliest memory. I must have been about four. My older cousin, a classical pianist, came over to the house one day, and sat with me at the piano. I remember her telling my mother that I was very musical. There was no higher praise, even then.
yes i remember my first time, i was about four years old, my parents bought a Heintzman upright grand piano, my father sat down with me and played a triad, so it was the first time i HEARD a musical instrument “up close and personal”, that major triad was “the most beautiful sound I had ever heard”…i’ll never forget, sitting there on the piano bench beside my father and listening with astonishment to the harmonics vibrating and fading away through the piano…unforgettable and forever fascinating. Later my friend Penny would come over to play and we would play together on the piano the most beautiful sagas of music, i remember the SOUND was fantastic, exciting…we were only four so egos were easily forgotten.
I was probably 8 or 9. My older brother came home with a drumset from one of his friends. I was mesmerized by all the sounds, the power, the subtleness. He then bought Max Roach’s LP “Drums Unlimited” and my life was marked forever.
thank you!
When I discovered an instrument for the first time I was on summer vacation with my family. One day I came into the room with a Harmoium and I sat down and started to play. Slowly pushing the pedals down, like I was riding a bike for the first time. The harmonium started to sing! I loved the way it sounded, it just blew me away! It was like those carussels with horses on them going round and round! I sat there for over an hour and just played, totally absorbed by the music I was experiencing! It was one of the best days of my life!
Thank you all for sharing!
When I was 12, my dad was a band instructor and during Summer Band he wanted me to play the oboe. I had my heart set on playing the flute, and really hated the oboe. Finally, I insisted on trading in the oboe for a flute. The first time I putting it together and playing a note was difficult and my tone was awful, but I KNEW I loved it. One day, out of nowhere, it clicked. The sound, the fingers, the joy. We were playing whole notes, but they were the most beautiful whole notes ever! Then, my Dad bought me a Hubert Laws LP and I fell in love with the flute. It’s been a love affair ever since.
There was really no escape possible in our house from music. My mom had her singing lessons in our living room where we all sat very quiet to listen. singing entered my heart.
My parents had a record store and we lived above it. All the great different music that came through my feet inside my body, made me always open to all kinds of music.
With every instrument i played after that i had this same curiousity. But my voice is the instrument that touches me the most. More and more each day it deepens and i am 48 years old now. I can’t imagine myself a life without music.
I grew up in a home of musicians.
The piano was there from my childhood.I used to play 4 hands with my parents and grandparents.That was so much fun!
And then we would go to visit my grandparents to their city and there was a baby grand piano.I could not wait after say hello there to put my hands on that precious piano and hear the beautiful tones that came from it,whatever I played…great memories!
Thanks for being there,Kenny and community of E.Mastery.
M.Gabriela
I can clearly remember the first time:
there it was, in the back of the closet,
the case a little dusty. Not too sure
exactly what it was, I carefully
lifted it free of the stored winter clothes
(breathing in that sour faint lingering scent
of mothballs and dry cleaning plastic wrap)
and set it carefully down on the floor.
At the moment my fingers hit the strings
and that big sound came out, filling the room,
vibrating down and through my whole body,
I knew I would spend the rest of my life
hearing things I just had to learn to play,
and wanting all my friends to sing along.
25 FEB 2003
I think I must have been 7 or 8.
We went to a wedding reception.
There on the stage was a jazz band.
Out of everything going on, it was the bass that caught my eye, my ear and my heart.
So beautiful, black, sleek, and mysterious.
To this day it is always the bass that gives me chills.
I love how its sound vibrates my whole body.
Wow that entry could make me cry.
I honestly can’t remember the first time I touched an instrument (how sad!). The first memory I have of music is my mother singing to me. Was an (East) Indian folk song. I have no no idea what it’s called but can sing it note for note.
Some family friends gave us their old upright piano when I was about 5. For some reason, it was put in the kitchen. I played and played (and it was indeed playing, not working!) while my mother contentedly did the dishes. I remember how I discovered that if I just played the black notes, it was always beautiful. I then played standing up with my foot on the pedal to make it even more beautiful. I thought I had discovered a secret song… all mine. I was in heaven. Now, if I hear children banging on a piano, I will gently teach them my black key secret. It’s transformational. The power of the fifth!
I then discovered my singing voice, but was a closet crooner until the chills and goose bumps I experienced, brought me out to sing. Still singing, still getting chills. It’s all love.