Wow ya'll are getting deep here! I agree about silence tho, as a struggling pedal steel player ( the HARDEST instrument in the world!!!) I can say thats a big thing, especially for that instrument, the space between the notes is what counts!!
Man I must be getting dingy here, drove my 4 wheeler off a cliff ten days ago and dislocated my left shoulder, amongst multiple other injuries and have not been able to play a lick. Was able to scratch my left ear yesterday tho lol!!
Too old for that stuff!!! Andy Owens 1-800-AndyOwens Sent from my iPhone So the typing might not be my best!
On 7/22/64 11:59 AM, Jeff Duke wrote:
> From a book "Silence: Lectures and Writings" by John Cage
> page 87: http://tinyurl.com/283p4vq
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0819560286
> <http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0819560286>
I have to chime in proudly and say that I have a first edition copy of
that amazing book,
signed by Cage himself for me when I got a chance to meet and talk to him
briefly in the early 70's at UCSC when he came to lecture.
His zen stories about mushroom hunting are worth the price of admission.
They led me to the amazing book of Zen stories called Zen Bones, Zen Flesh.
The 100 Zen Stories in that three in one book are amongst the best
things I ever
read. They all, to me, relate directly to music.
While we are at it, when I have a student who is really special and
finally gets to that
point where they fall in love with (or first learn to wrestle with) the
notion of practicing
a simple thing over and over again, I always buy them a copy of
Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. This is not D.T. Suzuki, the
popularizer of Zen in the
witness, but the Suzuki who ran the Zen Center in San Francisco for many
years.
He refused to write a book so his students finally transcribed a talk he
once gave on
how to meditate.
If you take the word 'zazen' (the meditative practise of following one's
breath in and out used in
Zen meditation) and substitute the word 'practise' (as in musical
practise) it is the best book
ever written, imho, on how to successfully practise, especially vis a
viz the minds tendency
to wander.
Absolutely a desert island book for musicians, I think.
rick walker
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