THE SPRITUAL DIMENTIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE

Now this might not mean much to you or probably you have never really given it much thought. But since we all here and now, just do stick around a little longer and satisfy your curiosity.  You would? HALALLUYAH!

I bet you’ve heard the saying; ‘MUSIC IS FOOD TO THE SOUL’, sure you must have! What does it mean to you? Just hold that thought!

Am sure it means many things to many people; however may I bring your attention to an aspect that is by far of least importance to many of us in this chosen career? Now put back on your imagination cap and come along with me and see…..

  

Have you ever seen a snake charmer at his best? With aid of a tune from a flute, he tends to make any snake do as he wishes. Now that’s awesome! What if we say you take the same flute and learn how to play the same tune? That’s easy right? Anyone can do that. Sure! But there is a catch!! Do you think you will be able to have the same effect on the same snake as that of the snake charmer? Your guess is as good as mine. Why is that? Well for one it has nothing to do with the snake not liking what your face looks like or your height. No Sir! This effect is the phenomenon called the spiritual dimensions and significance.

When the Bible says “Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.  Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.  Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.” (Psalms 33:1-3(KJV)), this is only an aspect of playing like the big boys; that is doing all you could as far as skill is concerned to give out the very best music as possible. That is why with skill alone you cannot in a thousand years have the same effect on the snake the way the charmer those. Yes! your skillful music is food to the soul (the faculty of intellectual reasoning, emotions and will) but that’s all it can feed. Not the SNAKE, neither the spirit of a man talk less of GOD.

I have lost you right? Not to worry, it always seems that way at first. You see the whole essence of the skillful part of music not minding the instrument of choice is to produce pleasant sounds or tune to the best of your ability. If one is able to do just that, it’s so overwhelming the responses you get from the souls that get fed by the show of your craftsmanship. It is hard not to notice the many that have perfected this skillful art of communicating (feeding to say the least) with the souls of many with their instrument of choice.

Am I saying that one can not only feed the soul but also the spirit of those that listen to the music one makes? No! I am saying you can do far better than that. HUH? Alright, I have your attention I guess. Let me quickly show you what I mean before I lose you. Just try and get the whole gist very fast from hear on; alright?

The bible says; “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on a harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him…. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. (1 Sam 16:14-23(KJV))

Now here is someone that has not only mastered the skillful aspect as clearly stated from the narrative (to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on a harp), but also has something extra. He is able to do to King Saul (the evil spirit) what the charmer does to the snake. Did I hear you say WOW!? You can say that again and still be far away from the truth. I don’t know about you but I believe this is what it really MEANS to play like the big boys don’t you think so? Now stay with me a little longer please and try not to lose your calm. I know is quit hard not to but do try.

There is yet one more illustration of a big boy kind of playing I would like to show you, after all a matter is settled in the mouth of two or three witnesses abi?

In 2 Kings 3:6-15, the Bible says; “And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, the king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses. And he said which way shall we go up? And he answered, the way through the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom: and they fetched a compass of seven days' journey: and there was no water for the host, and for the cattle that followed them.  And the king of Israel said, Alas! That the LORD hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab! But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the LORD that we may enquire of the LORD by him? And one of the kings of Israel's servants answered and said, here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, the word of the LORD is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, nay: for the LORD hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab.  And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah; I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him”. (KJV)

By definition from the Microsoft Encarta dictionary 2009, a minstrel is a medieval traveling musician: a medieval singer, musician, or reciter of poetry who traveled around from place to place giving performances. Whatever the most accurate definition might be depending on the dictionary of choice, the point is that this man (or woman as the case may be) has this extra phenomenon of the spiritual dimensions and significance under his sleeves. In his case he could move the “HAND OF GOD” to come over the prophet when the need arises. This is mind boggling!!! Instances abound to the fact that this aspect of playing like the big boys is not for a few selected elite group NO! It is for as many as are willing to pay the prize to grace the stage of this noble calling. The list is endless but here is just one reference to make it the third witness: 2Chronocles 20:21-23. One for the road if you wouldn’t mind; Joshua 6:6-20.

Let me wrap it up this way, recently I heard a music minister said “music is only music until words are put to it”. Many in the gospel music parlance have done so much injustice to this statement (I believe it’s a quote by Rick Warrens’ Purpose driven life) that today we can’t really tell which is gospel or Maryam Makeba, Awilo Lubamba or R Kelly. Many secular tunes are rebirthed into gospel by taking the same tunes; note for note and given lyrics with religious inclinations. The point is this; are you a minstrel? Then you can get inspiration from the Holy Spirit for sound made only by and from the throne room of God.

THE MOST UNDISPUTED VALUABLE TOOL IN THE MIX

To all aspiring exceptional instrumentalist that have read my previous posts, this will be the ‘icing on the cake’ of the journey so far. In case you just bump unto this post, I advise you read PLAYING BY EAR and THE UNDENIABLE MISSING LINK. This will bring you full speed in the mix of things.

The Muscle Factor:

What on earth has the muscles have to do with becoming the instrumentalist of my dream? Like seriously? Just stick around with the reading if you can and find out.

I once read an article about a Maestro pianist that had to undergo brain surgery. The procedure requires that almost half his brain be completely removed to save his life. That’s a good thing right? The dilemma to the operation is the fear of what become of his musical prowess after the surgery, the doctors are concerned he might have memory loss and not be able to play any musical instrument ever again. Now that was a course for concern to the Maestro himself. To him there was only one option; as much as he wants to live, hence the need for the brain surgery, he sure would rather die than not being able play the piano for the rest of his life. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF IT WHERE YOU?

Well, he finally agreed to go through with the operation after all “life” they say “is all about risk taking”. And guess what? The fears everyone entertained were actually just that; FEARS! Everyone was surprised with how fast he recuperated from the surgery. The most amazing thing however happened when he tried playing the piano for the very first time after the operation, it was as though there was no lost time, and he was the maestro as usual. No one would know if not told that he was making this beautiful music with only half of his brain available. Unbelievable! Isn’t it? Well that’s what the doctors concluded.  And yes of course, this amazing and unbelievable event led to a research that resulted to what today we call MUSCLE MEMORY.

Simply put, muscle memory is the phenomenon that the muscles of the human body have an amazing ability to REMEMBER.  Huh? You heard me right! Now before you say this is not true and stop reading my very long gist, just take a deep breath and use your imagination a little. Are you still with me? YES? Imagine you have a nail that you want to nail on a wall or board, how would you go about it? SERIOUSLY? Yes! Just give it some thought. I assume you will position the nail and then holding unto the hammer you take a few practice swing by slowly bringing the hammer down to the head of the nail once or twice, guiding your hand and the hammer gently along the path you would want it to take when you swing fast and with force. Then after a few practice swings you will let it fly. You see your muscle remembers the path it took at the slow speed and have no difficulty repeating the movement necessary to take the path again and hit the nail on the head.  

Now back to playing any instrument. The same thing happens with your fingers, they have the amazing ability to remember the movement made during learning the instrument by practice. That was why the maestro pianist was able to still play skillfully despite the surgery that took half of his brain. Why? Well the memory to some extent is not in the brain but in the muscles. The key to muscle memory is slowing down what you want to learn so that the muscles are trained to remember the necessary movement repeatedly at a very slow speed. Once this is accomplished then you can repeat the movements fast just like the case of the hammer and nail.

THE UNDENIABLE MISSING LINK

THE UNDENIABLE MISSING LINK

Can you relate to any of these statements?

I cannot seem to play what I am hearing in my head.

I am not where I want to be with my playing.

I sound good but I know there is so much room for improvement.

I am giving it time and effort, always practicing and improving but am not just there yet.

If you said yes to any of the above, then THE UNDENIABLE MISSING LINK is written with you and your likes at heart. It’s a bit long reading but I assure you it will be worth your while if you will read it through. Enjoy your reading.

The art of learning is an interesting human phenomenon, it permeate every facet of human being. From the cradle till the day we breadth our last, we never for once stop learning. It’s as needful as the fabric of life itself. It however sad that we tend to want to change the flow of things as soon as we have the opportunity to do so, how? We will get to that in a moment.

The baby has no problem with the learning phenomenon it is usually the adult that seem to always without number tries to short circuit the system. How sad.

Learning to play the instrument of your choice is no different especially if one happens to start learning as an adult. We tend to break all the rules of the game and expect to come out tops and awarded the Medal of Honor with the obvious satisfaction that come with such feat. Sadly that is not the case; we many times end up at best as mediocre instrumentalist that is king only in his or her comfort zone. NOTE!! Mediocre don’t set out to be mediocre; they are mediocre because they focus on just getting by.

If you really want to be fulfilled with your playing, and are willing to make the necessary minor adjustments to incorporate the undeniable missing link into your system of learning, then read on you will be thankful you did. The intent of this write up is so that at the end of it all you can identify with the statement;

I may not have arrived yet, but am not what I use to be; I have just learned how to rightly keep going on until I get there.

Am glad you are still reading, it shows you are on way to a fulfilling playing experience.

GENESIS: Where it all began:

The Brain Factor:

Have ever wondered why it takes only few hours for a kid (Goat, Sheep or a Cow) to learn and perfect the act of walking, hopping and running? On the other hand it takes a baby a minimum of ten months to one year to begin to have a grasp of the same experience? Simply put, we are wired and programmed differently. The brain capacity and development process of a goat and that of man is quite different. Unlike the goat that needs minimal intelligence for its existence, our brain being the control tower, needs continuous growth and development starting from birth to the day it can send out the necessary information to all the different parts of the body responsible for let’s say walking. Even after the necessary instruction is given there is still a lot more to be put in place for the perfecting of the act of walking, hopping and running or any other activity.

Having this concept at the back of your mind try humming a tune of your choice; where do you think the hum is originating from? Your mouth I guess? Try humming the tune again, this time be conscious of what you are humming see if you can identify where it’s really coming from. Yes! It’s coming all the way from your mind (or brain); it’s more like the subconscious instructing the vocal cavity to sound the tune in a hum. A careful research will show you how science has over the years proved that virtually every action or motion of any part of the body emanates from the brain.

The point is this; the most important skill or ability required for an exceptional playing of any instrument should be the effectual development of the link between the brain and the part of the body responsible for playing the instrument. WHAT???  YES! It’s as you read it. It is not how many lush chords you have mastered or how many exotic scales you know and certainly it has nothing to do with how many tunes or songs you have scored. Now please don’t get me wrong, sure there are other factors that are as well of significance and must be considered and not taken for granted however the truth is first things must, and should always come first. The horse must always be before the cart for a smooth ride. The foundation is not the only necessary requirement for a beautiful structure but in my opinion it’s the most important, without a good one, an expensive building will soon be rubles in a matter of days or months. You see playing the instrument is no different. Unfortunately we tend to short circuit the process to suit our desire to want to start making music on our instrument of choice, sure it’s fun to start hearing yourself make beautiful sounds almost instantly on the piano or say the guitar, but this fun many times don’t last a life time. Soon you begin to notice limitations in the way you play which ends up killing all the fun you once had at the beginning.

This concept is the foundation of what is called “PLAYING BY EAR”. It simply means producing any sound you can hear with your ears or better put any sound in your head. Imagine you hear a bird singing, instantly you can naturally replicate it by whistling. This happens intuitively with almost no effort on your side or so it seems. Why is that? How is it that the lips can easily replicate a bird’s sound? This is because over the years, one has effectually developed the link between the brain and the part of the body responsible for whistling.

Consider a baby trying to utter out his or her first word. This word is usually MAMA, BABA or DADA and the likes. In the head, the baby knows what he or she want to say but cannot because the vocal cavity, tongue, lips etc. involve in speech are yet to completely align with the instructions generating from the brain. This limitation of course in due time is overcome. The baby not only utters the word BABA or MAMA, but is fluent in speech. Worry as much as the parents could, they will just have to let that all important links to develop. There is no short circuiting the process except they would want the baby have some kind of speech impediment.

Many of us today have playing impediment or limitations because we jump the gun in our learning process. Yes we can play the instrument but not to the extent we would love to. We would love to be able to replicate intuitively every note sung, ad lib and chant that a singer makes but we are not able.

Sure it is possible to score the song before time and be ready for the presentation; it is also good that we have some wicked slush chords and riffs up our sleeves ready to be unleashed when the need arises (there are many resources available in the market to meet this need); while on stage however, it is usually a different ball game. The mechanical instrumentalist tends to be stiff and ends up throwing his prepared arsenals off target or at best in a predictable way. The intuitive player on the other hand is king of the ring. Why? Well for one, he is only having fun since he is only playing what his brain tells him at the moment. He is doing what he always does; “TALKING”. The only difference is that his fingers are doing what his mouth should be doing.

If you really want to move to the next level playing the instrument of your choice then you need to as a matter of urgency engage the missing link of which the first step is working on the brain factor.

How do I go about this simple but important step in my desire to be the player I want to be you might ask?

If you ask me, I will say you do the following:

·            1. Google on PLAYING BY EAR and use the information you find.

·            2. Ask someone you know that can help you OR

·   3.SMS ONLY TO 08146277105 MAKE YOUR DETAIL REQUEST. EXPECT A RESPONSE WITHIN A WEEK.

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER

Have you ever heard the term Play by Ear? What of Perfect or Relative Pitch?

These are just a few concepts that separate the Men from the Boys as it were as far as playing any musical instrument is concern.

You see, it’s one thing for you to know or be shown the score of a tune, all the major or minor scales on your instrument of choice and probably a fee riffs here and there and the likes…… Yes!!! All these are necessary for one to play like the men, but they all sum up to what I’ll call a drop of water in an ocean.

Picture it this way, you happen to be in the Wild West; TEXAS to be precise and you are saddled with the responsibility of delivering a crate full of gold to the bank for safe keeping. You are fully equipped with all the necessary gadgets for the mission impossible!!!!!  Yes!! There will be the bad and the ugly on your trail so you have to be BONDY the good.

So here you are in your best COWBOY suite and hat,  a double pistil (gun) belt, a long rifle  All the necessary weaponry required for a successful mission  and of course a horse (white stallion) and a cart full of crates of gold. With everything set and ready to go, you have only one thing left to do, that is to position your horse, saddle it and YHEEEEYAAAAA off you go.

To chagrin everyone you put the cart before the horse and of you go.

How good is your imagination? Is the horse meant to pull or push the cart?

The point is this you may be equipped with the most expensive instruments available all the how to play books and even a promise of a music co ntract worth millions as soon as you are ready, Important as all these might be, it will be as though you are putting the cart before the horse if you take for granted to develop a relative pitch at least so as to play by ear.

I have seen many try real hard but never succeeded in playing like the Yanni or Gorge Duke, at best their playing is mechanical not intuitive.