Repeat notes

I recently realised that one can write sound, only once one starts making sound. In a much needed hourlong riyaaz session day before, I started playing an old piece - renowned via The Wizard of Oz - Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The first seven bars of the sheet look complicated but are actually really simple; I add slurs to the second, sixth, and seventh bars. It’s the second phrase where one plays a combination of F sharp and A, and G and A, for eight beats, again followed by a long B, that on paper look really simple and repetitive. But are so not. This musical phrase came out horribly. My elbow does not change position at quick succession as I would like it to. This is a bodily issue, I read the notes correctly and understand their intention well enough. But the body doesn’t cooperate.

This lack of other intelligences has been confounding in my musical journey. Too much mind - not enough consiousness, not enough agility of the body. The other lesson of the world that emerges from music is that repetition builds memory, habit, it is a kind of intelligence that aids creativity. But it is not creativity itself. The right kind of elbow shifts, the right musical exercises, the stregnthening of fingers all sound really boring. But there is no playing without these things. Habits and repetitive work are pathways into creative openings; they are enablers. I wish we didn’t diminute them so much in the dire glorification of the creative process.

I managed to intellectualise music, yes? Go figure.