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Meditation
July 20th, 2020
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I've been a musician as long as I can remember.  Although it's not my
main source of income it has so far left a profound impression on my
life.  I spent some time today just randomly playing chords at the
piano like a child -- sometimes dischordant, sometimes consonant
sounding -- and playing them slowly.

I sang along while improvising wordlessly.  'Sang' is less like the
word I want to choose but 'play' is closer.  There's something about
stretching yourself creatively beyond your normal working point; going
beyond your point of comfort and your normal frames of references that
seem to spark something new.

My piano chords breathed and groaned with wild dissonaces and I took
my time to breathe, listen, and slide to quarter tones and something
else inbetween -- a language removed from my day to day notes.

I 'hit the wall' after about seven minutes, but pushed on until about
twenty. Afterwards I felt like I could easily create associatively --
basically improving a song from a deeper place than consciousness.

For further reading, I'd recommend two books by the same author:

- "Free Play - Improvisation in Life and Art" by Stephen Nachmanovitch
- "The Art of Is - Improvising as a way of life" by Stephen Nachmanovitch