Tuesday, November 22, 2005
This week the neighbors are gone so I can write blogs while blasting Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Week after week I have troubles expressing my musical desires to my guitar teacher, Ray. Every time I try to explain to him my ideals of learning music I always fall short in my descriptions. The last few weeks it seems that right when I go into my fumbling diatribes he has had this uncanny ability to stop my inferences short. Like his intuition knows where to stop my rapid phrases. He’ll shield my onslaught of pronouns with his anecdotes and his descriptions of the musical journey mostly by negating my futile stabs at expression. For example, Ray is an old school jazz man (and an amazing player I should add) and I’ll complain, how will I use this reading music stuff in a practical way?
In Spanish it is customary to use the subject pronoun redundantly. This concept is deployed 90% of the time but is not necessary. So, when pronouns are taught in school they will usually teach us to use the subject and pronoun is each sentence. My current Spanish professor said he didn’t know that one had the option to use the pronoun or not (because he was always taught to use it) until it came up in grad school! Case in point my teacher is versed in the abstract knowledge of Spanish but he wasn’t using it practically. I guess it has to do with one’s value of practicality. Anyone could retaliate to my comments by saying…”what’s more practical than being able to write in Spanish?” For me the answer is easy…To be able to communicate through speech in Spanish.
So, I tried to tell Ray my big analogy of my Spanish teacher and the inability of education to lead a person to the realization to see the forest for the trees. I asked him, “How is it practical to read music? I don’t know what the language is saying.” My question failed miserably due to his rebuttal of, “What’s more practical then reading and playing the language of music?” There’s two possible ways that my imagination sums up these occurrences with Ray.
1st- I get all giddied up and romanticize in my own little reverie that perhaps I’m some gifted unique individual and the reason that Ray’s and my conversation doesn’t work is because I have this brilliant way of conceptualizing music that would be 1,000% percent useful to me if I embrace it. No one will understand these ideas in my head until I spend the time to solidify them and bring tangible fruitful gifts to the world by utilizing the gifts of my undiscovered tools. Then everyone will say…ahh I get it and sell my knowledge in some infomercial pyramid scheme somewhere. Yes, this is idea is perhaps my testification due to a delusion of grandeur which in my psychology class is associated with schizophrenia. No, I don’t really believe this is true but it’s a damn fun reverie.
2nd- Ray is some sort of enlightened teacher. He can gage my talents and abilities. He knows that my conceptualized knowledge is much higher than my practical knowledge (that’s what’s causing all my futile questions) and he is expertly shielding me from information that would be distracting to my growth at this point and time. Just like in Spanish we are taught the verb gustar and we are told to say we like things by always saying me gusta. We finally learn in chapter 8 the mysterious ways in which this verb is used. (Back on topic) by shielding me from important knowledge but knowledge that is inhibiting to my growth at this moment Ray also does one extremely underrated and largely over looked virtue in learning….He saves me the power of the ah ha moment. Ray is giving disjointed basic necessarily building blocks to a good music foundation. Right now they are all at such as low level and across the board of music but soon my mind will be able to take these bits of un-contextual info and piece them together like one giant jig-saw puzzle. I will say ah ha this connects to this or oh yeah this applies here nicely etc. He might be able to explain something conceptually to me and I will understand is superficially. Then when it comes time to use that bit of knowledge I might fail to utilize it because I truly didn’t earn it…I guess I’m trying to say that information is not really owned until you have ah ha’d it.
For now it’ back to practicing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Week after week I have troubles expressing my musical desires to my guitar teacher, Ray. Every time I try to explain to him my ideals of learning music I always fall short in my descriptions. The last few weeks it seems that right when I go into my fumbling diatribes he has had this uncanny ability to stop my inferences short. Like his intuition knows where to stop my rapid phrases. He’ll shield my onslaught of pronouns with his anecdotes and his descriptions of the musical journey mostly by negating my futile stabs at expression. For example, Ray is an old school jazz man (and an amazing player I should add) and I’ll complain, how will I use this reading music stuff in a practical way?
In Spanish it is customary to use the subject pronoun redundantly. This concept is deployed 90% of the time but is not necessary. So, when pronouns are taught in school they will usually teach us to use the subject and pronoun is each sentence. My current Spanish professor said he didn’t know that one had the option to use the pronoun or not (because he was always taught to use it) until it came up in grad school! Case in point my teacher is versed in the abstract knowledge of Spanish but he wasn’t using it practically. I guess it has to do with one’s value of practicality. Anyone could retaliate to my comments by saying…”what’s more practical than being able to write in Spanish?” For me the answer is easy…To be able to communicate through speech in Spanish.
So, I tried to tell Ray my big analogy of my Spanish teacher and the inability of education to lead a person to the realization to see the forest for the trees. I asked him, “How is it practical to read music? I don’t know what the language is saying.” My question failed miserably due to his rebuttal of, “What’s more practical then reading and playing the language of music?” There’s two possible ways that my imagination sums up these occurrences with Ray.
1st- I get all giddied up and romanticize in my own little reverie that perhaps I’m some gifted unique individual and the reason that Ray’s and my conversation doesn’t work is because I have this brilliant way of conceptualizing music that would be 1,000% percent useful to me if I embrace it. No one will understand these ideas in my head until I spend the time to solidify them and bring tangible fruitful gifts to the world by utilizing the gifts of my undiscovered tools. Then everyone will say…ahh I get it and sell my knowledge in some infomercial pyramid scheme somewhere. Yes, this is idea is perhaps my testification due to a delusion of grandeur which in my psychology class is associated with schizophrenia. No, I don’t really believe this is true but it’s a damn fun reverie.
2nd- Ray is some sort of enlightened teacher. He can gage my talents and abilities. He knows that my conceptualized knowledge is much higher than my practical knowledge (that’s what’s causing all my futile questions) and he is expertly shielding me from information that would be distracting to my growth at this point and time. Just like in Spanish we are taught the verb gustar and we are told to say we like things by always saying me gusta. We finally learn in chapter 8 the mysterious ways in which this verb is used. (Back on topic) by shielding me from important knowledge but knowledge that is inhibiting to my growth at this moment Ray also does one extremely underrated and largely over looked virtue in learning….He saves me the power of the ah ha moment. Ray is giving disjointed basic necessarily building blocks to a good music foundation. Right now they are all at such as low level and across the board of music but soon my mind will be able to take these bits of un-contextual info and piece them together like one giant jig-saw puzzle. I will say ah ha this connects to this or oh yeah this applies here nicely etc. He might be able to explain something conceptually to me and I will understand is superficially. Then when it comes time to use that bit of knowledge I might fail to utilize it because I truly didn’t earn it…I guess I’m trying to say that information is not really owned until you have ah ha’d it.
For now it’ back to practicing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
# posted by Nick D @ 11:32 PM 
Comments:
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I'm having a hard time stringing one thought to another today. But I'm compelled to chime in, so here goes. Commence rambling ...
You of all people Nick, I say as if I know you. Heh. Anyway, you of all people, a writer. Should know the importance of the written word, regardless of which language you're using. What if you knew how to speak (you figured it out by listening and watching others) but couldn't read or write (insert any language here). Imagine how limited your life and every experience would be.
I think you already know, and were possibly saying this in your post. But knowing how to read and write music ... that could be what lifts you up to the place you are yearning to be. Having that knowledge, will definitely lessen any insecurities about your craft later on down the road. Maybe your gift is song writing and you haven't discovered it yet. Who knows? You certainly have a way with words.
Desist rambling.
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You of all people Nick, I say as if I know you. Heh. Anyway, you of all people, a writer. Should know the importance of the written word, regardless of which language you're using. What if you knew how to speak (you figured it out by listening and watching others) but couldn't read or write (insert any language here). Imagine how limited your life and every experience would be.
I think you already know, and were possibly saying this in your post. But knowing how to read and write music ... that could be what lifts you up to the place you are yearning to be. Having that knowledge, will definitely lessen any insecurities about your craft later on down the road. Maybe your gift is song writing and you haven't discovered it yet. Who knows? You certainly have a way with words.
Desist rambling.
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