Notes From A Bass
Guru (Vol.25, Dec.12) “Music is alive!”
Just like everything in the Universe, Music (with a capital M) is
alive! It lives and breathes and even has a mind of its own. So, if
you want to live within Music, you have to learn to FEEL the
heartbeat. With no pulse, there is no life, and without life there
is no Music. Now there lies the question of how one goes about being
one with this living spirit called Music.
First, how can I prove to you that Music is alive? Did you ever
suddenly get a tune stuck in your head and you just could not stop
feeling it, even when the notes aren't audible. You know, those
notes that are all in your head that noone else can hear? That is
the sound of the spiritual entity known as Music communicating with
you in some way! It does this because even when the notes stop, the
song is still alive!
Now that you know Music is alive, now you have to learn to be in
touch with it so that you and Music can strengthen each other into
making a great song. Music is like the Force from Star Wars, it
surrounds us and binds us and when we learn to become it, we can use
it! You must reach out to feel it, your mind is like a radio, you
must quiet it and enable it to focus on the frequencies of Life that
are all around you, so that you know what Nature is trying to tell
you. Use your “radio” to pick up on the Life around you, and
focus yourself on trying to make Life even better. When you do this,
you will have all the forces of Life backing you, the Music will flow
freely through you now! Your job as a musician is to interpret these
frequencies of Life and deliver them to the rest of the world, you
are the antennae that must pick up the signals! You as an artist
have that gift!
The first thing you will notice after you pick up on all Music's
signals, is that it has a pulse. Feel this groove! If you stick to
this heartbeat, you can never go wrong! Forget how to think for a
while and just feel. The signals you feel will think for themselves
and they are never wrong! Do not forget, that when you are playing,
Music itself has a say in all matters, not only you!
What will you do next now that you feel the pulse? Well, first, let
the Music tell you what it wants you to play, it is never wrong, as
it is a force in Nature and Nature knows itself better than you ever
will! With this said, let all notes come out naturally, do not fight
it. You must play your music with trust and with love (it is the
most powerful emotion), and the notes will tell you where they want
to go. Each note has its own life, listen to it and let it live, let
it be YOUR note!
All of these concepts may seem abstract until you do this, but with
this all said, I am not saying to forget technique and theory. I
wrote this in another article, but as I said in my “Building
Techniques” article, your technique should be at a high enough
level that you don't have to think about it, it will just happen.
With that said, if you really are at a point with some techniques
that it is a part of your playing truly without having to be forced,
Music will know and it will use these skills you acquired! Just
remember to keep it as natural as you could, you are an artist and
you have this purpose in life! You are there to serve Nature and
Music in the end!
Your brother in Nature,
Mark McAnaney (composer/bassist)
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