Smashing a rut to pieces

So yeah, maybe the last article (#6 keeping your ear fresh) reaffirmed some things you sort of already knew but sometimes we all need to hear someone else say it, right? Well, Google is great, Youtube is a very powerful tool, Grooveshark will get you to some deep cuts, Cable/Satellite stations will open up a genre for you, and chasing influences is a great way to give yourself a degree in musical history. But if all of these are a part of your daily routine, what else can a minstrel do to add some zest to his ballad? What can a crooner do to reinvigorate their bebop lullaby? You may need to go medieval on yourself!!! Here are a few things I do when I am experiencing a renewal period musically OR when I am deep in a rut and need to break it! Can’t wait to hear some of your ideas, please share and feel free to suggest topics you’d like to explore in the article. And be warned…Weekly Worthy #7 gets a little more “touchy-feely” than any of the previous Weekly Worthy’s!

1.) Vinyl is the polyester of the musical universe! So, if you don’t have a record player…GET ONE!!! Then go browse your local record store, go into sections that you might not usually gravitate to…the Jazz…the Bluegrass…you get it. Vinyl/Records are addictive, they are often pieces of history and they frequently have something that is often missing from modern forms of musical packaging (since a lot of it is online) LINER NOTES. Some younger people might not even be familiar with the term, but I used to have these things memorized. The back of Stones albums had ’em…Miles Davis‘ albums…Peter Frampton…Buck Owens…Bob Dylan…they are a source of inspiration for me. But back to the point, vinyl can add a “quest” aspect to finding new music that will make music exciting and give back an anticipation to your “score” as well, unlike digital forms, you have to wait to get home to listen to your new record!!! Then the x factor…usual record store owners and employees have interesting music playing in their stores and I have found a lot of really good music that way. “Hey. who is this? I love it!”

Great Record Stores:
Streetlight Records: San Francisco, Santa Cruz…etc…

Recycled Records: San Francisco
Melody Records: Chico, Ca
Logo’s: Santa Cruz
Universes Records: RIP….Santa Cruz 🙁

2.) Go to the book store!!!! The arts are so intrinsically intertwined that often delving into one of the arts that you do NOT live and breathe will help your progress in the discipline that IS your forte. I love to read, but I don’t do it enough because I like to read without interruption and for long intervals. Since I have 4 kids and 2 jobs…the opportunity does not present itself in the manner that is conducive to me. However, when a window presents itself I can consume a 500-page book in 2-3 days, as I am sure you can. Reading has gotten me out of a lot of ruts, the book Mozart: A life by Maynard Solomon and the book How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony by Ross W. Duffin really built up my inner musician whereas the book The Shack helped restore my gratefulness for life in general…both types of growth were helpful to my musical endeavors. Painting, writing poems, prose, or Haiku…dancing…carving, I will do any or all of these if I feel the need to be “musical” within a different form. The book Miles which is Miles Davis’ autobiography is a must read for everyone…musician or otherwise.

3.) Put on some classical or jazz that you have never listened to before and go take a walk in nature BY YOURSELF!!!

Yes, that’s right, I went there…to the “Deep Thoughts” realm…Hey, it works!!! The last time I used this one I listened to a Pablo recording that had Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson playing with some other jazz greats, it was late Autumn and blustery and gray outside…I bought a cup of coffee and walked around Bidwell Park by the creek and had a series of breakthroughs mentally/emotionally while listening to L’impossible and Limehouse Blues. I think it was the taste of coffee, the endorphins from the walk, the visual of the colorful Autumn day, the smell of the creek, chimney smoke, and wet earth, as well as some superb jazz all happening in full intensities that forced a breakthrough…anyway, it works! Walk two miles and call me in the morning!!!

Sidenote: I could see this working with Dead Can Dance, The Cure, Neil Young, Shakti…any type of music as long as it gets out of its own comfort zone…it’ll help get you out of yours!

4.) Lovingly mess with your musical space!!! I once read a book called Sacred Space by Denise Linn and it really hit home with me (pun…yes). To give you the Cliffs notes, basically your “space” is an extension of yourself and investing time and energy into it, cleaning it, adorning it, and arranging it in an orderly way or a calculated disarray…is actually working on self and can actually fortify some of your inner dwelling. In a way, it actually breaks down the wall between external and internal self.

So pray in your space, ring some bells, dust things off, make an outright visible home for your notebook…your instrument, hang a painting or a tapestry, burn an incense…play a favorite record, and organize a drawer….it’ll make a difference…especially if you let it! If you want to apply this concept directly to your music…change your guitar string and polish your guitar, bass or drums, blow out your keyboard with compressed air and wipe it down thoroughly, re-tube your amp…buy a new stand or hook and display your instrument prominently in your space. I am 50% Hillbilly and 50% Hippie…so I get weird…I’ve turned my guitar upside down on two chairs and burned sage underneath it and let the smoke go into the sound hole…I’ve anointed the braces in my guitar with amber…to love your space and your things should be to love yourself. Key…love and want what you have!!!

5.) Close your eyes when you practice your instrument!

This can be a much more powerful technique than some might think…at first it’s not that noticeable, but after 2 to 3 minutes you WILL start to play differently if you are allowing yourself to be yielded to your ears…truly forsaking your physical vision. The effect can be amplified by playing in a room that has natural echo/reverberation. Leave big spaces and try to develop themes and occasionally play a chord or a sequence and give it little to no premeditation, get “out” and when you are really “in” try to let it happen…too much energy spent on trying to retain a moment or a feeling chases away the muse.

So minstrels, crooners, and rockers alike. I realize I’ve gone off the deep end in this edition, but that is exactly where I wanted to go! Outside of a dog, a book is a human being’s best friend. Desperate times call for spiritual measures, think about it. If you’re in a rut, you can’t “dig” yourself out, you’ve got to fill yourself in! Spend a night in Tunisia! Drink in some brew! Consider the intense journey of My Goals Beyond! Shyness is insecurity’s weak, but slightly cuter, cousin.