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Kenny Werner's "Effortless Mastery"

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:40 am
by Bob
Has anyone read Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. Care to discuss implications for performance, practice, composition; LCC or otherwise?

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:06 am
by bobappleton
kenny werner's book is great. it's not easy to write about the imagination, and educating it, but he did.

i was 27, and in the fine art foundations program at st martin's school of art in london, when i first learned from some amazing teachers that i could create authentically - from within - without copying others. and that i could sustain that throughout my creative life.

it comes from the basic belief that all humans are unique when they're born. and that our education is about how we reveal and enhance what's inside.

b

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:28 pm
by Bob
kenny werner's book is great. it's not easy to write about the imagination, and educating it, but he did.

Yes.
It's one of those books that gives one 'permission' to know what one already knows.

i was 27, and in the fine art foundations program at st martin's school of art in london, when i first learned from some amazing teachers that i could create authentically - from within - without copying others. and that i could sustain that throughout my creative life. it comes from the basic belief that all humans are unique when they're born. and that our education is about how we reveal and enhance what's inside.

Agreed.
One experiences this as 'channeling' (Unfortunately, every word has baggage.) Where this is coming from, I don't know. There are plenty of good metaphors, from the Hindu 'vessel' or 'conduit,' to Platonic Idealism, to "just play, baby," to "It will come out if it's in you. Yes indeed." 'My' doctoral psych students get homework: "Sit quietly, and see if you can catch the beginning of a thought; or do you find yourself in mid thought when you stopped watching." Cognitive-neuroscience, philosophy of mind, etc. are currently stumped (check out consc.net for links to a few thousand papers. Christoph Koch of Cal Tech is a good start for the empirically minded.). For me, the Japanese Soto Zen teacher, Tozan Akiyama, would answer my endless inquiries with "Just sit." (Shikantaza) (????). I can't begin to explain. Charlie Persip: 'Just play your own s..., and if you f... it up, play it again. " Where does my own s... come from?" "(&^($#!)" In effect, just sit. (Read LCC. Just sit. Play. Write) A partial list.

Your partial list, por favor? One would savor and sit.

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:12 pm
by bobappleton
well... i agree with you. and i think it's important enough to be willing to say 'where'

for me?

closing my eyes and drawing, playing, with my aposite hand (left v right)

playing, or drawing what i can imagine rather than what i hear or see: the sound behind my head, beneath my chair; the relative pitch of two trees in the landscape

perception of all kinds

having the great honor to improvise with so many, including a parakeet, a mouse, and a groundhog (on different days)

when george russell said to cathe and me "ecoutez le silence"

b

interesting links.. thanks ;)

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:52 pm
by Bob
Parler du Silence, Cage's most timeless gift is the notion of going for a walk and listening to the music, everything fits because it is.

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:32 pm
by bobappleton
yes. and the idea that by removing our will from the creative process, we can liberate ourselves from our own limitations

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:23 pm
by Bob
bobappleton wrote:yes. and the idea that by removing our will from the creative process, we can liberate ourselves from our own limitations
"The Self (Consciousness, ______ ) is the clearing in which phenomena occur (including the self, ego, will _____)." (Dogen-Heiddeger-?? splice)

One can step back into the clearing (space (KW), zone, ??) and listen to the music, watch the hands, etc; leaving the ego and its limitations intact in the landscape, which will change anyway.

Stepping into the neuro-landscape, in any give 1/50th of a second frame, the ratio of conscious to unconscious bits of info being processed is @
16/55,000,000. The 16 usually is a thumbnail of what already happened. So "Let go, let brain." (anon?) The ego is best at tidying the house and getting out of the way. Do I even know where these words are coming from? Ultimately, no.

An innocent bystander may be thinking, "What the hell does this topic have to do with the LCC? Well for one, put Chart A on the /, 'channel Chano Dominguez, and let every chordmode express itself in 'Deep Song.' You will have internalized 'Chart A' before the first "Ole."

Mucho Agradece