Creating Music and Playing an Instrument... Same?
Oliver Sack's book, "An Anthropologist on Mars" is an awakening for mortals who are involved in soul stirring. Though I have yet to finish all the essays, but the fourth essay, To See and Not to See has a profound effect for those who understand what is food for thought. Mentioning the whole story is like stealing the essence of the book, for those who are interested can mail me, but moral of the essay is essentially in the human tryst with understanding the world within and without(sic). My teacher always says, "there is an outer world and there is an inner world and you are searching for answers of the outer world with the help of Science, but understanding and searching for answers for the inner world is My Life Time Goal!" I often wondered about it, but perhaps due to lack of experience and also understanding in his terms is not my capacity yet, but some where along the line of his thought I could relate due to Oliver Sack's this Master Piece.
To cut a long story short, One can play a musical instrument very well, but creating music is a different ball game. Indeed it is true, but the essence of the sentence is not an advice, but actually it projects an attitude one should have. For an illustration, I would take a leaf from my Martial Art experience, my Teacher taught me. Teacher always taught me how to defend than attack. Reason? Simple, he would say, "We are not learning Martial Art to attack people. Even a dog can attack. Attacking is the instinct and there is nothing I need to teach you on that. We are not street fighters. What is important is to learn to defend. Often in a street fight both the opponents keep hitting each other. Do you find some thing wrong?" All of us used to religiously nod head and point the obvious. Teacher would remind the same fact once again that attacking is basic instinct, like it happens with all animals(though it is mostly for hunting, survival or mating) unlike humans do it for(ego, prestige, personal space, selfishness...). "So learn to defend, because anyway Martial Art is not about attack. By learning that aspect, one also develops patience. Learning to attack fuels the instinct. A true Martial Artist fuels his patience and control" will be teacher's humble words.
To tap a practical aspect, when we use to do sparring, focus on attack and only attack made us aggressive. In the event when the opponent retaliated often we got hit and it looked like a street fight. Teacher would analyze the same and guide us through the defense mechanism. In short what he would reflect upon us is that when the punch / kick comes towards us, we know that it is coming, but instead of defending ourselves, we focus on our attack strategy and that was just aggression. Trick to win any fight is not aggression, angst or temper, since they come with our animal instinct anyway. The only trick is to analyze the opponent and that comes only if your defense is strong which can happen if we are not aggressive. How true...!
Though these words were definitely philosophical in terms of an art that is fatal, but I recently related the same preachings towards life. It just came alive when Sacks reflects that creating music is not the same as playing an instrument well. To create a music, one has to choose the right chord and put the feeling. Focusing on Instrument is like focusing on attacking (making people hear) with your instrument. Music is more like letting people listen and not hear. Quiet defensive. How true...!
The revelation also brings about the knowledge of life. Like teacher's eternal analysis of Inner World, one can realize about oneself, one's actions' consequences, purpose of the action, purpose of existence, purpose of Life in all, only if one chooses to. Search for inner world answers questions that are metaphysical but one learns to listen to the music than hear the instrument. Hearing the instrument is the outer world, which amateur Physicists like me understand and rest of the world just hears. How often it is true that people make a pass on a Scientist...! It really makes no difference because people just hear him. But it does not take a Einstein to know that people listen when life's problems are not solved by Science alone but things beyond( in a way within), the outer world, that is the inner world.
For now, I find that it absolutely makes sense that one has to learn to play the music than the instrument alone, since they are not the same.
To cut a long story short, One can play a musical instrument very well, but creating music is a different ball game. Indeed it is true, but the essence of the sentence is not an advice, but actually it projects an attitude one should have. For an illustration, I would take a leaf from my Martial Art experience, my Teacher taught me. Teacher always taught me how to defend than attack. Reason? Simple, he would say, "We are not learning Martial Art to attack people. Even a dog can attack. Attacking is the instinct and there is nothing I need to teach you on that. We are not street fighters. What is important is to learn to defend. Often in a street fight both the opponents keep hitting each other. Do you find some thing wrong?" All of us used to religiously nod head and point the obvious. Teacher would remind the same fact once again that attacking is basic instinct, like it happens with all animals(though it is mostly for hunting, survival or mating) unlike humans do it for(ego, prestige, personal space, selfishness...). "So learn to defend, because anyway Martial Art is not about attack. By learning that aspect, one also develops patience. Learning to attack fuels the instinct. A true Martial Artist fuels his patience and control" will be teacher's humble words.
To tap a practical aspect, when we use to do sparring, focus on attack and only attack made us aggressive. In the event when the opponent retaliated often we got hit and it looked like a street fight. Teacher would analyze the same and guide us through the defense mechanism. In short what he would reflect upon us is that when the punch / kick comes towards us, we know that it is coming, but instead of defending ourselves, we focus on our attack strategy and that was just aggression. Trick to win any fight is not aggression, angst or temper, since they come with our animal instinct anyway. The only trick is to analyze the opponent and that comes only if your defense is strong which can happen if we are not aggressive. How true...!
Though these words were definitely philosophical in terms of an art that is fatal, but I recently related the same preachings towards life. It just came alive when Sacks reflects that creating music is not the same as playing an instrument well. To create a music, one has to choose the right chord and put the feeling. Focusing on Instrument is like focusing on attacking (making people hear) with your instrument. Music is more like letting people listen and not hear. Quiet defensive. How true...!
The revelation also brings about the knowledge of life. Like teacher's eternal analysis of Inner World, one can realize about oneself, one's actions' consequences, purpose of the action, purpose of existence, purpose of Life in all, only if one chooses to. Search for inner world answers questions that are metaphysical but one learns to listen to the music than hear the instrument. Hearing the instrument is the outer world, which amateur Physicists like me understand and rest of the world just hears. How often it is true that people make a pass on a Scientist...! It really makes no difference because people just hear him. But it does not take a Einstein to know that people listen when life's problems are not solved by Science alone but things beyond( in a way within), the outer world, that is the inner world.
For now, I find that it absolutely makes sense that one has to learn to play the music than the instrument alone, since they are not the same.
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