What if Now Sucks?

[mamza]

I'm not really sure what style I play anymore, but when I first got started it was all about the funk / funky metal. Funk is hands down the most satisfying thing to play in a band setting. Les Claypool is a huge part of why I started playing the bass.

I don't have any 'real' musical knowledge, everything's been mostly self-learned so far just by listening to what sounds work together. My problem is that I haven't really got much to say as far as expressing myself or whatever goes most of the time, so I just let anything that wants to be expressed use me as the expression rather than having me use the bass as my expression. Half of the time it's total garbage, but the garbage teaches in its own way so that the other half of the time is totally awesome.

When I'm not playing the bass, my goal is to get to the point where I can walk into any room and lay down a bass line that fits whatever mood there is. When I am playing the bass there aren't any goals, just sounds.

[heretic]

I've always admired how the bass player holds the whole thing together. They're always the most present member of the group, and they have to be as they're setting the table. Nothing appears to ever really knock them off stride, and there's so much freedom in that which is projected into their creativity. Yet, they always know where they are.

I'd have to say you're merging with your goal.

[mamza]

We also ruin the music completely when we can't stay focused. Without any musical knowledge it can be sort of difficult to play to what my friends are doing. It used to be that I would start and they would follow, but I got bored of that and started following the guitarist instead. My friends liked it better the other way, I think, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of hearing one of my low notes ring together with one of their high ones.

We're all just really into psychedelic metal / funk, so they like to play it most of the time whereas I like to try and continuously make new music. I don't like playing the same songs over and over.

[heretic]

I sense music is now more about being open, and feeling it, than being focused. It was about focus when I first started playing the blues harp, I never wanted to hit a wrong note. But that was born from playing the clarinet starting in grade school through high school. It was so restrictive because we had to follow the sheet music. Yeah, there was tone, and its quality, but it didn't really allow one to bust out and be a musician. It was more about conformity.

I've played a tune called- Everything's Going To Be Alright (Little Walter tune), quite a few times in my life. I don't recall ever playing it the same way twice. There were always similarities in the different renditions, but the energies within the band, and the audience created unique ways of expressing it on any given night. It's hardly boring. I love playing. Love takes many forms- it's up to you and I to choose what we wish to express.

[therealfake]

Jun 16, 2011 13:39:43 GMT -5 @heretic said:

I sense music is now more about being open, and feeling it, than being focused. It was about focus when I first started playing the blues harp, I never wanted to hit a wrong note. But that was born from playing the clarinet starting in grade school through high school. It was so restrictive because we had to follow the sheet music. Yeah, there was tone, and its quality, but it didn't really allow one to bust out and be a musician. It was more about conformity.

I've played a tune called- Everything's Going To Be Alright (Little Walter tune), quite a few times in my life. I don't recall ever playing it the same way twice. There were always similarities in the different renditions, but the energies within the band, and the audience created unique ways of expressing it on any given night. It's hardly boring. I love playing. Love takes many forms- it's up to you and I to choose what we wish to express.

Yes, it's always love that initiates the forgetting of the self...

Where there is love, there is no self...

Nicely stated...

[heretic]

Jun 17, 2011 21:59:15 GMT -5 @therealfake said:

Jun 16, 2011 13:39:43 GMT -5 @heretic said:

I sense music is now more about being open, and feeling it, than being focused. It was about focus when I first started playing the blues harp, I never wanted to hit a wrong note. But that was born from playing the clarinet starting in grade school through high school. It was so restrictive because we had to follow the sheet music. Yeah, there was tone, and its quality, but it didn't really allow one to bust out and be a musician. It was more about conformity.

I've played a tune called- Everything's Going To Be Alright (Little Walter tune), quite a few times in my life. I don't recall ever playing it the same way twice. There were always similarities in the different renditions, but the energies within the band, and the audience created unique ways of expressing it on any given night. It's hardly boring. I love playing. Love takes many forms- it's up to you and I to choose what we wish to express.

Yes, it's always love that initiates the forgetting of the self...

Where there is love, there is no self...

Nicely stated...

TRF

I see and feel the same thing when I read you, often. Which is why I felt you were pointing at the same thing Nisargadatta was pointing at on the theory of gone thread-

==========================================

"Relating to the unimaginable possibilities, resulting from setting ones awareness free from the chains of the conceptual world.

Poetically it's like taking off on the wings of awareness, for a journey into the infinite non conceptual world of being...

The ropes just there in case your body decides to tag along..." -TRF
==========================================

When I read this, I was reading ascension. Your loving intention in response was being transformed into ecstasy.

I feel it a lot in what you share here. You have passion.

[therealfake]

I haven't read much about Nis, but he sounds like a cool dude...

I'm starting to get comfortable with the 'not knowing' of what I really am, the awareness...

And how conceptualizing it, pointing to it, cannot grasp anything about it.

But I'm also discovering that although it cannot be known, it can be 'felt' in the body, which makes sense, because the body is a non conceptual instrument of perception...

And it is that unknown language of 'feelings' that reflects that immensity which we are, and in which I'm attempting to convey in my posts...

I'm feeling a kinship on this forum, a kind of growing and learning together, as we explore the unknown, of which words can't even begin to describe...

And although I don't understand it, it's beautiful...

[heretic]

I'm really enjoying everyone's willingness to share their insights, too, and including yours. The choice to do so in this ever renewing moment benefits each poster, and everything/everyone around them.

To feel beauty is to know the truth. To know the truth is to be in love.

Happy Birth O' Day!

[therealfake]

[heretic]

TRF

So I got to contemplatin' what you said, when you posted- "And although I don't understand it, it's beautiful..."

Then, a little later I was reading some Robert Pirsig, and he said- "Only people that are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet..."

54 times around the sun... WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!

God is Love?

::CANNONBALLLLLLL!!!::




"It Stoned Me" -Van Morrison

Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain keep pourin down
Me and billy standin there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin wet
With our backs against the fence

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Hope it don't rain all day

And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like jelly roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin home
And it stoned me

Then the rain let up and the sun came up
And we were gettin dry
Almost let a pick-up truck nearly pass us by
So we jumped right in and the driver grinned
And he dropped us up the road
We looked at the swim and we jumped right in
Not to mention fishing poles

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me

And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like jelly roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin home
And it stoned me

On the way back home we sang a song
But our throats were getting dry
Then we saw the man from across the road
With the sunshine in his eyes
Well he lived all alone in his own little home
With a great big gallon jar
There were bottles too, one for me and you
And he said hey! there you are

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Get it myself from the mountain stream

And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like jelly roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin home
And it stoned me

[therealfake]

Yes...

Get wet and dive deep...

Every time you break a conceptual barrier, you're expanding the presence that witnesses the infinite majesty that you are...

...and it also reveals the illusory self that you are not.

[heretic]

A few have been broken since arriving here. My visit has coincided with the reading of Yoga Vasistha. Between the posts of the members here, and the daily readings (I've been reading 7 days worth every morning) after meditation, it's pretty clear "I" never had a chance. Forgiveness in the heart does come about when the walls of separation in the mind fall.

Love to all of you.

Oh... here's the link to Yoga Vasistha

www.venkatesaya.com/241_vasistha01_months_tags/index.vasistha01_months_tags.php?m=1&d=31