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Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Part 3: THE JUDGEMENTAL MIND AND WHY IT'S WORTH LOSING FOR A MUSICIAN
Connie Crothers and, thru her, Lennie Tristano taught me to be original as an improvisor. Connie was not interested in creating clones of herself ( in those days we said "carbon copies!" can you believe it!). She wanted to help each student find something within themselves. She accomplished this with a zen like teaching method she derived from her teacher, the great Lennie Tristano.
I have written about two of the three most important concepts she taught me: nonmuscular piano playing, how to learn to improvise and thirdly, perhaps the most important lesson of all, the losing of the judgemental self.
I say that losing the fine art of picking good from bad, best from better, even right from wrong is the most important because, for me, the judgemental part of my brain is what drove me to look for a jazz teacher at age twenty-five. I had been playing since nine, began teaching pop piano at fourteen, playing in bands at sixteen, writing songs and musicals at twenty-one, but I always had the unrealized dream of playing like some of the greats I listened to then: Brubeck, Monk, Miles, Modern Jazz Quartet, Horace Silver and others. I especially wanted to play fast, those soaring lines the greats like Charlie Parker did so easily. But my lone attempts at playing real jazz all ended in abject failure. I would play for a few minutes and perhaps make a good beginning, but sooner than later I would clench up. Now, I had been "improvising" for years on jazz standards and pop music, but that, although people seemed to like it in the clubs I played, was a poor facsimile of the real thing. I played the same tired riffs over and over again but could not see anything new on the horizon.
Then, through chance or fate I was guided to Connie Crothers (by a Julliard grad who played written music at the highest levels, ironically) and the real thing began. Connie asked me to describe my improvising experience and just in the description of it I began to realize what was happening. If I improvised something, after a while one of two things would happen. Either it was bad and I would stop OR, and this is the interesting part, if it was good I would stop! Yes, judging it good was equally detrimental as judging it bad, and Connie, in her most life affirming way, pointed out what I could only see with her help: it is the judging in itself that gets in the way of the flow.
The problem is that judgements are what has have propelled Homo sapiens to the top of the food chain. The scientific method itself is based on discriminating what works from what doesn't. Perhaps Adam started this judging party in the Garden of Eden when he named all the animals, thus inventing the idea of this is different from that. Clearly if we did not distinguish hot from cold, or left from right, or blond from brunette we would have been eliminated from the game a long time ago. But along with the very best in terms of human accomplishment also comes the very worst... What is the one word that is used in its most perjorative sense when it comes to racial hatred? That's right, DISCRIMINATION! The greatest of all human attributes defining the very worst. The zen masters threw out the concept a long time ago. The great master, Rumi said, "there is a field beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there". It is not a new concept in the east, but in the west it is a bitter pill to swallow. My religion is better than yours, or worse, my religion is the only religion, your sucks! My tastes are superior to yours, my lifestyle the way to live, etc, this car superior to that and on and on till you want to take an aspirin but realize Tylenol would be better, or maybe better still, Ibuprofen.
So the most important part was identifying the problem: that true improvisation comes not from a discriminating mind, but from dis-empowering that deep rooted habit at least when it comes to making original music. One must suspend the belief in good and bad, push it to the side, disenfranchise it, and eventually annihilate it to make way for the wide road of energy available when the noise of discernment is turned off. How did Connie teach me this? It is actually hard to recall. It was imbued in every part of the teaching she gave me. Playing scales, for example. Connie showed me, usually by demonstration, that a lot of feeling could be put into a scale. Dynamics, tempo, touch, breathing especially, that could make an ordinary scale into music. Chords were a way of extending the ear to accept a much wider palette of sonorities, including that bad boy of music, dissonance. Melody existed everywhere and in both hands if you were a piano player. Maybe one of the most significant exchanges we had was early on in my study when I asked: "Connie, if I play a phrase I like, should I play it again?" Her reply: "Play anything but!". That is not to say that repetition is not allowed, but only to be experienced from a nonthinking, nonjudgmental place. To artificially insert a good "idea" is not appropriate to jazz improvisation in its deepest reality.
Please understand, this type of thoughtfully "composed" or constructed music can be great, but it is not jazz as the greats have mastered it. For sure, even the classical masters Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, to pick three, were all tremendous improvisers. Mozart realized symphonies in a moment in his soul, Beethoven broke the molds of the sonata, string quartet and symphony to create the startling new, unimaginable to even greats like Haydn who refused to push the envelope beyond his audience's ears. And Chopin improvised a lot of his music first and just wrote it down afterward.
So how does one remove or displace the judgemental mind. Well, one thing is for sure you cannot remove it using itself as a tool! Einstein said something like "the problems of today's technology can only be solved with tomorrow's." Einstein said it better, of course, but the answer lies in finding something outside the mind to deal with the judging habit. Mental techniques are like a finger pointing at the moon. It is too easy to mistake the pointing finger for the moon itself. (Zen expression, not mine)
Shunryu Suzuki said: To the beginner the possibilities are many. To the expert they are few. "Beginner's luck" is a very real thing, but it is not luck, rather the total openness to every possibility. Becoming an "expert" means a long process of discriminating and removing the unworkable, the unlikely and the unexpected. What is left can be pretty dry. People never say, "oh, he is an expert in music!" The two don't really jive in the playing world. A musical great is always a "Master" or "Maestro" a word that takes in much more than "expert". That is why the great musician and the great zen teachers are both called "Masters". Whether consciously or unconsciously acknowledged, the departure from the judgemental mind is what creates breakthroughs in art, music and the spiritual realms.
For more help on this read some zen! This concludes my three part series, or the three most important things about improvisation from Connie Crothers. When you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha, that is the best advice I can leave you with. Except this: Music is the only art form to use the word "Play" as its operant verb. You paint pictures, write poetry, sculpt, draw, craft....but "To play."... That is reserved for us kids. Happy Independence Day!
Comments
Thank you
This is all you needed... 😜
In my post-professional photography phase of the current century, I would post small handfuls of my freestyle output to flickr. I was forever astounded at how people would vote up the pictures that I considered fairly throwaway and inconsequential, and almost totally ignore the real works of genius that I was reknowned for among myself. How could people be so dumb and shallow, and miss the true art?
Now, I simply don’t have an opinion, life’s far easier that way. There’s stuff that happens, there’s qualia attached, that’s the way things are. All I can do now is discern whether something of mine comes up to the criteria of being suitable for release, or is not ready and needs to go back for more work. Here’s a new thing in the way I currently work, too: Whether I actually like it or not is now immaterial, someone else might like what I don’t. In the past, it wouldn’t have seen the light of day unless it totally satisfied my own indulgence. Now, as long as it fulfils the criteria of being proper finished work, I’m happy to put the work in even if I don’t actually like the end result. That’s new for me in my own stuff, yet it’s how I’ve always had to do it as a freelance designer for others. I think that’s the best way – don’t place any stock in whether you like your output or not, just make sure it is up to standard.
Interesting take. My first reaction is that this is advanced stuff, and beginners and intermediates do need to self-criticize. But I will have to think about it some more.
I have found that there is an audience for any music. Audiences judge what they want to hear and "tune in". The brain seeks input stimulates it to specific states of awareness.
Stopping the internal "critic" is the ultimate state of awareness: being.
Make music that feels right for you. We "play" music because it means we "engage fully".
We also "play" tennis and think of little else at the time. We put on "Plays" and rehearse them to perfection down to the smallest utterance. "Play" is not a trivial activity... it's just focused.
So, playing deeply: (1) without wasted movement or energy, (2) spontaneously and (3) without self-criticism are the highest forms of "play" engagement: being in the timeless moment of now. A journey that only terminates in death (IMHO... yours may re-cycle or change venues).
The Zen Master hears music in all sounds.
I prefer something with more structured thought and a good sense of rhythm. I also waste a lot of energy and tend to get... "Squirrel"!
Another GREAT topic @LinearLineman
Thank you
Sort of reminds me of something I heard a famous art professor say, paraphrasing here: Art students seem more interested in sitting in cafes and talking about art than they are in creating anything.
As for that creative process, be the ball:
I like you Betty.
“Your clothes are black …”
@e121, @dawdles. My creative posts speak for themselves, guys. I don't see either of you posting here. As for the info I have given, I didn't make it up. It was given as a gift to me and many others who understand the value of mindfulness. As to you two, well I really don't mind. Put up or shut up. Fair enough?
Geez, guys, I almost forgot. I have 5 CDs out on a jazz label founded by Max Roach, played at the Blue Note and Birdland
In NYC which I am guessing you two have never heard of. And I have been playing fifty years, probably longer than the two of you have graced the planet with your majestic presences, especially you, @Dawdles. Aren't you the one who showed himself a pipsqueak on the SynthMaster thread.i suggest you review your standards of comraderie, @e121.
Huh???
My post was essentially a more succinct version of yours, more zen if you will, with a touch of humor at the end.
In other words, I was agreeing with you. Art students sitting around in cafes discussing art is akin to using the judgemental mind, whereas actually creating is NOT using the judgemental mind.
I still like you Betty.
If you play those CDs in a forest and no one is around to hear them, do they make a noise?
Na-Na-Na-Na-Na
Yeah well I have 5 followers on Soundcloud, 2 of which I think are real people, so I got that going for me..... Which is nice.
If you are still stuck in a state of being offended, maybe take your own advice and lose the judgemental mind!
If no one is there to be offended, can any offense take place?
And if someone farts on my grandpa, will he smell like powdered milk?
Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga.
Absolutely right. No one is perfect @e121. I still like you, too,. Five followers, huh. I'm happy for you. Don't run for president. I still like you, too, Phallus, I mean Phyllis
hugga mugga you're my brutha.
You deserved it @dawdles and still do.
Either of you desperadoes going to post? Strangely, I think both of you do good stuff. Will we ever know if you don't show up?
You must admit this is fun!
Still no posting @Dawdles? And no release of your latest synth?
I guess we have nothing further to talk about.
Good man.
Wow, this is zen!
Back to topic, I don’t totally agree. Ego is useful, we use it to make choices. Self judgement is a tool in music. When I compose a track, I make choices, I use my taste, I have some goals I want to reach. This is certainly why I don’t achieve tracks that often. But I’m fine with that. Again, choices. While playing sax, I agree it’s better to have some distance with what I produce, in quality terms. Being cool with myself when it’s bad, stay focused when it’s good. But again, I need to evaluate my playing if I want to reach some musical authenticity. My personality. Certainly there is some choice involved here too.
I think that there are lot of ways to reach what is more or less common goals. It seems that there are some human rules, in body, mind or even not so well knowed chi/energy. But at the end, the most important is, for anybody, to choose what is good for ourselves.
@Janosax. Of course this is zen! Perhaps you know what quat means(don't remember the spelling,) well, a quat is when the master hits the student on the back and knocks him off his cushion and the porch when he discerns the student might be ready for enlightenment. Sudden, violent satori. The zen masters were a rowdy bunch in the old days. No shortage of violence, harsh behavior and tough love jokes. They seem to be more refined today.
Your points are well taken and you know I personally believe you are one of the best on this forum. You have demonstrated your thoughtfulness on these matters in other threads and I have read your observations with keen interest. But I am primarily an improvisor and this nonjudgemental tool is particularly good in that respect. I am not a master of improvisation nor of chi utilization. But I am fascinated that when I make an iOS track, I am pretty much gone from the scene. Yes, I make a lot of choices as I go, but they are so swift they do not seem to imply thought. I am not saying the results are always good. As a piano player I "judged", quite accurately, I believe, that 75% of my efforts didn't make it. But when I "succeeded" it was always with the utilization of these principles and my ego was taking a nap.
Of course everyone finds his or her own best way. I just offer the lessons I learned from my teacher for those who might resonate with them and might profit from their implied freedom. That is what I was personally looking for. Thanks for your insights!
Not sure "sudden and violent satori" fits well on internet forums, as screens interaction and written posts don't allow for perfect human communication
I'm firstly an improviser too, all my "from mind" produced tracks are made to receive my sax "from feelings" improvised solos. But it's not that opposed, and limits often leaks in song making process. Coming from "Free jazz" or "New thing", if such classification makes sense, music is a life style for me. Freedom is everything, what I feel and hear in me I try to play it without any discrimination nor censure. Spontaneity is the word, as is intuition and "let go". Music playing essence for sure. But I'm sure judgement is still used, even in a hidden way. Mind tricks or ego subterfuges. Even if the ancient sage look at the moon, he still need its finger to show it to its patient disciple !!
Yeah, @Janosax your instincts seem right on. The problem with the finger is that the student latches onto it and misses the moon. Maybe a better example is the answer a sage gave a seeker to the question "what is zen?" The master says "Do you hear that mountain stream?" The disciple stretches his ears to the max, "yes, I hear it, master!" "That is zen," the master replies.
"But," the student replies, "I could barely hear it! What if I heard nothing?" "That is zen," replies the master.
Or maybe even more to the point. A monk was wandering through a market thinking about zen. He happens to overhear a butcher bantering with a woman. "I want the best piece you have," the woman says. The butcher looks at her honestly, "Why lady, they are all the best piece!" The monk was enlightened (sans violence). Finally, after two zen devotees argued this or that abstruse point they would always conclude by saying, "Let's have a cup of tea!" Spontaneity! Intuition! Freedom! Let's have a cup of tea!
That trick only works once @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr.
I can't help but wonder how Seagal achieved enlightenment.
Did he? @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr
Anyone with that little talent and that much success must be in tune with the universe.