"The world of the musician.” Wow, it was exciting! Hearing that information made me understand the importance and potential power of music. I thought about how I would use this kind of power if I had it. I could be like Elvis. I could be the Bass King, I playfully fantasized. I liked the idea of using music in a powerful way, but it bothered me that music or musicians could be frightening to anyone. I just couldn’t fully understand it. The possibility of being watched by the government, the way Michael described, disturbed me. That couldn’t happen in this day and age, could it? The thought of another King who had been assassinated because of his power brought me back to reality.
“Michael, I don’t want to frighten anyone with my music, but I do wanna know more about ‘the world of the musician.’ If music really is powerful, how can I develop it to the high level you speak of? You talked about emotion. If this power is developed through emotion, how do I develop it and express it through my music in a positive way?”
“Intention!” he answered without hesitation. “Intention is the key to everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Emotions are natural. You have always had them and you will never get away from them. I look at my emotions the same way that I look at musical mistakes. Trying to get rid of them or control them can seem an impossible task. Learn to recognize and understand what they have to tell you. Only then can you effectively work with and use your emotions. How they are used is up to you. This is where intention comes in.
“Pure, honest intention can bring out the beauty of any emotion. And like notes, there is a world of beauty residing inside each one. The proper technique can bring you to the understanding and use of each emotion. Now you can start to see how the different elements of Music relate to and help each other.”
“But how do I use intention?” I asked. “You haven’t told me that yet.”
“Just have a good heart. That is all.”
I expected a more complicated answer. Michael paused in order to allow the simplicity to sink in. Sometimes he could discuss a concept for hours, and other times, just a few words did the trick. After I smiled and nodded, showing him that I understood, he continued.
“It is like trusting the river current to take you where you want to go. To fight the current could be disastrous. In each situation, whether it be in Music or in Life, take a moment to close your eyes and feel the current of your heart taking you where you need to be. After your awareness develops, you will no longer need to close your eyes. You will feel the pull of your heart’s current and ride it with open eyes, allowing you to view all the astounding scenery around you. I tell you this: If you can follow the current at all times, you will not have a thing to worry about, ever.”
“Ever?” I asked.
Seemingly ignoring my question, Michael rolled down the window allowing the cool fall breeze to fill the car’s interior. For the first time, I felt that he was actually taking time to think of something to say.
With his long hair fluttering out the window, he turned and asked, “Why do you practice Music?” Before I could answer, he continued. “Is your intention only to make yourself better? If so, all the forces of your being may come to help you. But if your pure intention is to make all musicians better, the same way musicians before you have done, the forces of all these beings may come to your aid. The spirit of Music herself will be on your side. Now listen closely.” Michael leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Strive to make all Life better, and you will have all of Life’s power backing you. With this power on your side, you will not have a thing to worry about, ever.” He smiled and turned away, looking out the window.
We were off the highway and riding through an area called Music Row. This small area is home to most of Nashville’s record labels, recording studios, and music businesses. There is even a Music Row wedding chapel. We drove by an office building with a sign that read “Creating Music is our Business.”
Pointing at the sign, Michael continued his monologue. “Music is already alive. You do not create it. So if that is your intention, you are already mistaken. You cannot create Music any more than you can create a child. Music, like children, already exist somewhere in complete wholeness. Your job is to recognize that. So, in other words, you re-cognize. To ‘cognize’ means to become ‘aware of something,’ so the word ‘recognize’ implies that you were ‘previously aware.’ That is important. You help re-create the wholeness of Music by bringing it into existence on this plane. Do you understand?”
“You are throwing so many new concepts at me so fast that I don’t know what I understand.”
Michael chuckled. “Look at it this way. It’s akin to what Michelangelo once said when asked how he created such beautiful statues. ‘I did not create them,’ he answered. ’They were already there. I just removed the excess marble surrounding them.’ ”
“I like that and I understand it,” I replied. "That’s a beautiful way of looking at it.”
“He was a wise man,” Michael said, painting with his finger in the air. “He understood, as you must, that he created nothing. If you do not re-cognize that, you are mis-taken, and you may be taken somewhere you did not intend to go. Follow the current of your heart, and you will re-member how to play musically.”
He continued talking, transforming his painting finger into a conductor’s baton. With both hands flailing to some unheard music, he conducted while he spoke. His tone was more playful.
"The word ‘musically’, broken up, becomes music-ally. That’s right! Play musically, and you become an ally of Music. You actually help Music do what it is here to do. The same is true with Nature. Play and act natur-ally, and you become a Nature ally, a friend, a helper, and a contributor to Nature.
“The word ‘natural’ means ‘having the characteristics of Nature,’ but it also means ‘without sharps or flats.’ Now perhaps you see why I speak of Music and Nature in the same breath. They are the same thing, and it is in everyone’s best interest to become their ally. Your pure intention, combined with emotion, is the best way to do that. Do you understand? ”
Wow! I thought, not answering him out loud. He rarely stayed serious for so long. Maybe it was the car ride, or maybe he was just in the mood. I didn’t know. I was just happy listening to him. I sat there driving with rapt attention the whole time. Even though I questioned some of his information, I didn’t want to miss a word. I never knew where his knowledge came from, and I guess I didn’t really care. It was all so interesting. Sometimes I knew that he would say anything just to make me think, but it was okay with me because it was working. The twenty-plus miles we’d driven seemed to fly by. In that short time he’d given me enough to think about to last a lifetime.
After we pulled up to my house and parked the car, Michael got out and picked up a rock. He held it in his hands for a few seconds and then placed it on the hood of my car. He instructed me to get four more rocks about the same size and place them on the hood of the car. I had no idea what he was going to do, but I did what he asked and waited in silence. He turned his back, closed his eyes, and told me to move the five rocks around so that they were all in different places, leaving him no way of knowing where his rock was now sitting. He asked me to make a mental note of where it was.
With his eyes still closed, he turned around, walked over to the car, and immediately picked up his rock. I was shocked. Without opening his eyes, he handed the rock back to me and asked me to rearrange the rocks again. He turned back around, and I positioned the five rocks in a different order spreading them further apart. I did it as quietly as I could. I didn’t think he could tell where I was moving his rock by the sounds I was making, but who knew with this guy? To my surprise, he repeated the demonstration four more times with complete accuracy.
His ability stunned me. I couldn’t begin to understand how such a feat was accomplished. I know he wasn’t looking because I watched his eyes. This guy is unreal.
He handed the rocks to me and said, “Your turn.�
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“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked. Before he could answer my question with my question, I spoke again. “I know, I know. How am I supposed to do that?”
He just looked at me and remained silent with a slight smile on his face.
“Please!” I begged.
“Choose a rock and pour your emotions into it. Speak to it and allow it to speak to you.”
Strangely, these were the only directions he gave. I looked at him for more help. He just stared back at me.
Not knowing what else to do, I picked out a rock and held it in my hands rubbing it gently, as if I was giving it a massage. I tried to muster up as many feelings as I could and pour them into the rock. I felt silly. I didn’t know what I was doing and Michael knew it. After half a minute, I said I was ready. Smiling to hide my insecurity, I sat the rock down and turned around. Once the rocks were positioned, I closed my eyes and approached the car. After the pain and embarrassment of banging my leg on the car bumper wore off, I reached for my rock.
“Wrong!” he said, trying to suppress his laughter. “Again!”
I put the rock aside and reached again.
“Wrong again. Only three rocks left.”
When it got down to two rocks, I finally got it right. I opened my eyes, feeling disappointed.
“Very good,” he said. “Next time do it on the first try.”
Before I had a chance to protest, he handed my rock back to me and instructed me to spend more time with it.
“Take all the time you need. We are in no rush. Handling emotions can be like juggling. The more balls you have, the harder it gets. This time, make it easy on yourself. Focus on one emotion at a time. Choose one emotion and work with that. Pour that one emotion into your rock with all you have.”
I was still confused. How was I supposed to pour emotion into a rock? I wasn’t about to ask because I knew what his answer would be. Since my mind was cluttered during my first attempt, I tried to do as he’d suggested and focus on one thing at a time. I decided to choose love as my emotion. But what I was supposed to do with that emotion was still unclear.
Again, as if reading my thoughts, Michael responded. “Love is the strongest of all emotions. It is also the root of all emotions. In a sense, it is what all things are made of. It is definitely what all things eventually revert back to. So using love as an emotion will allow you to blend with the very essence of the thing you are focused on.”
“Love is the strongest of all emotions,” was the only thing I understood. “Okay, I’ll give it my best shot,” I said.
I held the rock in my hands, caressing it and loving it until it began to feel warm. I kept that up for a few more minutes until, to my surprise, the rock began to feel hot. At that point I placed it on the car, turned around, and got set for the next round.
Even though I wasn’t holding it, I was surprised I could still feel the rock in my hand. When Michael was ready, I closed my eyes, faced the car, and approached it with my right palm facing up as if I was still holding the rock. I slowly moved my hand, palm up, back and forth over the hood of the car. Suddenly, I felt my hand heat up. I could feel a tingling sensation running through my palm and fingers. At that point, I knew that my hand was just above my rock. I don’t know how I knew, but I was sure of it, and I became excited.
As soon as I recognized my excitement, I felt a shred of doubt start to creep into my mind. Would my rock really be there when I reached for it? Did I really feel the tingling sensation? Maybe I should keep searching. The sensation in my palm started to recede. Before the doubt could totally take hold, I turned my hand over and placed it down on my rock.
“Excellent!” Michael exclaimed with a smile. “Most people would say what you just did is impossible. But you, blending your emotion of love with your palm-up technique, just communicated with a rock. What do you think about that?”
I didn’t know what to say. I was proud of myself. Very proud, I might add. And for the first time, I felt that Michael was proud of me too. A spectator may have called it luck, but I knew that it wasn’t.
I’d read about George Washington Carver coming up with over three hundred different uses for the peanut plant. When asked how he’d come upon his knowledge, he replied that he’d simply asked the plant. I never totally understood that story until that moment with my rock.
As we walked into the house, I could still feel the tingling in my hand. I thought about the many years I’d played my Univox bass. There must be tons of my emotions stored in that instrument. I wondered if I could find my bass without looking using the same technique I’d used to find my rock. I thought of many experiments that would be interesting to try. Was it luck, or was Michael really onto something? Was I onto something?
Michael looked at me and commented, “I tell you once again, my friend, emotion is a powerful thing. It is the force that drew me to you.”
I didn’t know whether he was drawn to me or I was drawn to him.
“What’s the difference?” Michael replied.
I was getting used to it by then.
MEASURE SIX
Dynamics
Most people play louder to get someone’s attention,
but getting quieter can stop a bull from charging.
The exercise with the rock had me thinking. I’d never seen or accomplished anything like it, and I wondered how else that ability could be used. Feeling tired and excited from our morning excursion, I threw myself onto the couch.
Michael sat in the chair across from me with his eyes closed. Every so often, he would face his right palm toward the wall, slowly moving it back and forth. I knew that he lived in a different world, so I didn’t pay much attention to what he was doing. I was half asleep, day-dreaming about my rock when he asked me an apparently non-related question.
“Got any Curtis Mayfield?”
“Oh yeah. CD, vinyl, 8-track—I have it all. I love Curtis Mayfield. What do you wanna hear?”
“A CD will do. How about Superfly?”
“I have that one,” I replied, hopping off the couch.
“I know you do,” Michael stated. “Close your eyes and find it for me.”
I stopped in my tracks. “What do you mean? Close my— How am I supposed to do that?” I looked at him and frowned.
“You did it with a rock,” he answered, opening his eyes to look at me.
He was right. I had done it with a rock, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to do the same thing with a CD. Also, there were only five rocks to choose from. I had hundreds of CDs in my living room alone. My excitement quickly faded. I shifted my weight back and forth, trying to decide what to do. Feeling confused and frustrated, I chose to sit back down on the couch.
Ignoring my frustration, Michael gave more instructions. "This time, you should not feel for your emotion; you should feel for his.”
“Whose?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.
“Curtis Mayfield’s.” He leaned back and closed his eyes again.
“Oh boy,” I thought out loud. I fell back on the couch trying to figure out where to begin. I was lost. I tried to relate the CDs to the rocks, but it didn’t help. Maybe if I could hold the CD for a while first. I looked at Michael. His eyes were still closed. I was about to ask for more help, but he spoke first.
Motioning toward the shelf with his finger, he commanded, “Stop thinking and go do it!”
Not trusting myself to keep my eyes closed, I picked up a skull cap from the floor and pulled it down over my eyes. I managed to walk over to the bookshelf without bumping into anything (which, to me, was worth a treat), but I had no idea where any of my Curtis Mayfield CDs were. I also had no idea how I was supposed to find them without looking. I didn’t even know if they were in that room. The thought of giving up was making its way to the forefront, but I forced it back. With no confidence on my side, I took a wild guess.
The Music Lesson Page 11
