The Healing Power of Music

While listening to the radio on Memorial Day, I happened to hear a caller to Coast to Coast Radio mention this program for Veterans. Musicians in the Milwaukee area donate time to provide guitar instruction as well as guitars to injured veterans. The healing power of creating music seems to be especially helpful to those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The initiators of the project have acquired non-profit status, and hope to expand the program throughout the country. For more information, visit guitarsforvets.org .

Cigar Box Guitars

The 2009 Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza will be held at the Flying Monkey Arts Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday, May 30th.  Microwave Dave, Ben Prestage, and Johnny Lowebow are just a few of the performers on the schedule.  If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and see how much amazing music these folks can get out of a box, some sticks, and a few strings.

Just Gotta Vent

Okay, so I get this Federal Jury Questionnaire in the mail. I have 10 days to respond. I put it in a safe place so I won't lose it, forget about it for a week, then spend two more days trying to remember where the safe place was. 

This morning I finally remembered, and went to fill it out like the dutiful citizen I am. Then I read the instructions. It must be filled out with a #2 pencil. I laugh. They've got to be kidding, right? I mean, it's bad enough they're still doing this via snailmail, but seriously, a #2 pencil? I haven't had one of those since I took the SATs, and even if I did, the chances of finding a pencil sharpener are about nil. 

I look through the instruction sheet for an alternative. Certainly in this day and age there's a website you can go to to fill out the form. Or maybe you can use a black marker like they have in voting booths. But no. No alternatives. It's a #2 pencil or nothing: "If a questionnaire is not completely filled out, unsigned, and/or completed with something other than a number 2 pencil, it will be remailed to you for corrective action." Hmmm. I don't like the sound of that corrective action thing. 

After turning the desks in several rooms upside down, and shaking out a variety of containers with pens, markers, crayons, and other assorted implements of construction, I finally locate a badly chewed Dixon Ticonderoga 3/H and fill out the form. I wonder how long it will take them to track me down and send me to pencil reeducation camp? Geez, that might go in my permanent file. 

Seriously, how can we expect even our existing systems, much less anything remotely novel, to function if the government is stuck in this kind of timewarp? And if they insist on retaining their archaic methods because somebody's brother-in-law has a monopoly on electronic score sheets, couldn't they at least include the stinking #2 pencil with the form? Heck, they could foil stamp it with some kind of advertising (AAA BAIL BONDS? The Law Offices of Snipp, Snapp, & Snurr?) and make a buck or two in the process . . . 

Getting Back to Bassics

I had the privilege of attending a bass clinic given by Victor Wooten last weekend at Bass Central in Orlando.  Together with bass player Anthony Wellington, he gave me a whole new perspective on what bass playing . . . no, what being a musician . . . is all about.  The discussion centered on the fact that most players concentrate on notes--are "addicted to notes," as he put it.  He pointed out that notes are just one of many factors that are involved in playing music, and that most instructional materials and techniques ignore many other important elements: space, listening, tone, articulation, groove, etc.  As one who struggles with theory, but loves to play, it was mind-opening and validating.

Following the workshop, I made a point of purchasing his book, The Music Lesson, A Spiritual Search for Growth through Music.  Set in the form of a fable, it covers many of the points he emphasized in the workshop, and explains them in an entertaining and memorable fashion. For me, this book is a keeper.  It's going on my shelf of favorite books, right next to Zen Guitar, to be read and reread when inspiration flags.  

I will never play bass the way Victor Wooten does. My abilities are different.  My background is different.  My choices are different.  If music is a language, my voice is different.  But I think what brings me to the music is not so very different at all.   And I'm grateful to have had the chance for this "music lesson" from a teacher who has something truly fresh to say to all of us who love Music.

Never Too Old to Play

Recently, writer Becky Blanton posed a question in a forum I read regularly. If you had to write your memoir in six words, what would they be?  My response was, "never got too old to play."

One of the catalysts for my answer was this video of Jerrie Thill produced by songwriter/artist Allee Willis.  I first encountered it after listening to a radio feature from Growing Bolder, a media enterprise that presents inspirational stories of older Americans doing interesting things.  The video captivated me. It gave me a role model, a goal to aim for.  

Will I still be laying down basslines when I'm ninety-something?  I sure hope so.  Means I've got about 40 more years to play.  Maybe I'll learn how to solo by then . . .  

Finding Beauty in the Unassuming

When I stepped out my door the other day, I discovered a mushroom had popped out of the ground seemingly overnight. Since my yard can't even seem to grow grass, I was a little amazed that it had the potential for mushrooms. My first whimsical thought was that the fairies had been dancing there. My second thought was to pull out the camera. You never know when you're going to need a good picture of a mushroom. After a little cropping and a photoshop filter or two, it became something expressive, something iconic for me. 

So many times when we think our creativity is blocked, a barren landscape with nothing growing, we're really just overlooking great little ideas that come popping out of nowhere. There's nothing wrong with our imagination. There's something wrong with our focus. We're looking for the big idea, the million dollar baby, and overlooking the fertile growth, half hidden by leaves, that requires nothing more than our attention to become a thing of beauty and a catalyst for creativity. 

For a little while, I think I'll keep the macro lens on, think small, and see what treasures I can find in unexpected places.