Mid-January, Rain - January 13, 2012 |
January 02, 2005 My List Unlike past years, this year I've made a list of New Year's Resolutions. I thought if I made just a few attainable ones, it wouldn't be so tough keeping them. So here they are: Be Nice Ten songs might be tricky, and "in Shape" is a subjective concept, especially as I sit here wolfing down orange-pineapple bundt cake, but the year is young and, for the moment anyway, the possibilities are endless. ******** I was thinking about singing today, as Carol was talking with our presenter, at the hall where we were playing, about how good it is for you, what with all the breathing and the self expression. Said presenter had spoken earlier about some Buddhist monastery where they did a lot of chanting, and a new group came in and changed the rituals around so there wasn't much chanting, and the monks began to get sick. This went on unremedied for a number of years, until chanting was reinstated in the daily rituals, and the monks got better. It's funny that this came up because when we were playing at our yoga retreat on Christmas eve, I was drawn to some CDs about how to chant, though I didn't buy any. But I've been thinking about it. Before the gig I went into a very Buddhist-looking tea shop and was looking at a large bowl of chanting beads. They're like rosaries, used to count the numbers of chants. I read that any given chant needs to be repeated, what, like 25,000 times for it to really be effective. (Fortunately they're shorter than Hail Marys.)But you sit and count them off on the necklace, maybe 200 beads or something, and they add up. It's like visualization, or prayer, or magic. I don't know why this is starting to sound cool to me, but it is. So I was thinking suddenly about how singing is like chanting, and we do so much of it, the same songs over and over, and on New Year's Eve I had a little insight during the set about imbuing whatever music you're playing with an intention. I've long believed that music is a higher language and that certain chord progressions and melodies have amazing and powerful results, like a spell, but though it moves us deeply, we really can't articulate what it all means because it's not verbal, or linear, or logical. So suddenly I had this thought that what it means is whatever we make it mean, like an intention. Leonard Cohen said, "There's a blaze of light in every word," and he was right; words are real things and they have effects based on their meaning; and music has the effect we instill into it. ******** And, of course, there's all that breathing. ******** We had a lovely gig in Shelburne Falls today. I love a crowd that's not afraid to guffaw. We outran the freezing rain and got home safely, and now it's almost time for bed. |
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