learning

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Raul wrote:
"......thinking about Rick's last post on discipline vs. inspiration i'd be
willing to know/ask... which's your method(s) for progressing as a
musician? where does the principal input comes from that makes you
grow? sorry for my rude english."

Firstly,  I think you probably meant 'crude' english,  as you have never 
been 
rude in this forum.  

I have to say, paranthetically, that I'm extremely appreciative of 
all the people from Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland,
France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Argentina,Mexico, Brazil, Singapore 
and Japan (and other country that I may have missed) who post on this list 
all the time 
without using their native language.    We native English speakers owe a 
tremendous 
debt to the fact that you've all put so much effort into sharing your 
wisdom and 
knowledge with us.   Thanks!




Now to your query:

I have a lot of things that make me grow,  many of which I do consciously 
and a few (and I'll save the 
best for last) that occur without any part of my own ego or decision.

I find that if I push myself to do these things, that I will always grow 
some (if not a lot)

1)  I try to periodically pick up a new instrument and preferably one 
whose technique for me 
represents a completely new paradigm of technique from what I already know.
I've spent the last year of my life (when not touring or putting on that 
damned loop festival) 
chipping away at learning how to play trumpet (and a little flugelhorn, 
euphonium and conch shell), duduk, zurna 
and shenai (all double reeded instruments that require more breath than I 
generally have available to me) 
and then tentative forays into strumstick, guitar, mandolin, and very, 
very primitive banjo playing.

Right after the start of the new year,  I'm going to take some formal 
violin lessons and perhaps, if I get to 
it in the year or get a rare chance to see Zoe Keating,   some cello 
lessons.     Just yesterday, I spent on 
hour trying to teach myself 'fiddling' styled bowing techniques on a 
strumstick and a musical saw (not to 
successful on that last one there).

I don't have a bats chance in hell of being good in my lifetime on any of 
these instruments but 
taking them on does a few salient things for my musicality

a) It helps me compose for the instruments, once I get a gander at their 
ranges and technical limitations
b) It helps improve my overall confidence as a musician and helps me to be 
unafraid to tackle anything 
new:    fear has been a huge negative motivator for me in my life;  one 
that I decided I want to confront 
head on for the sake of my own psyche and for the sake of the depth of my 
musicality
c) It allows me to bring really cool textures and timbres into both my 
melodic world and my timbral world 
(I say this because I always like to explore each instrument as a sound 
source FIRST before I try to explore 
it as a melodic or timbral source.............I've been really inpsired by 
players in our community who have 
exploited a single instrument and created noise sources and drum machines 
out of single instruments.  As an example, I 
promised myself that I would only do avant garde and experimental things 
on my pocket trumpet (inspired by 
Jeff Kaiser and Englands' Paul Shearsmith) when I was learning about the 
instrument.  By the time I could create 
really weird high shrieking sounds it was not so difficult to get higher 
pitches on the instrument in a melodic way.
d)  I get to stay really , really humble all the time
e)  I get to maintain a sense of what the Buddhists call 'Beginners Mind'
f)  I get to stay turned on all the time about how fast I'm growing  
(after 40 plus years work as a trapset drummer 
    it's much harder to stay inspired and it takes much longer to make 
significant progress technically speaking.
    This is perhaps a tad immature to admit, but I like to be turned on 
about creativity all the time.

2)   I love to take on a brand new scale, mode, rag or maqam and play it 
to death for a few weeks until 
I can play it on several instruments as well as my voice in high and low 
registers.

This really opens up things for me and keeps expanding my world.      
I have loved modal music (largely third world in origin but not 
necessarily) and I think essentially this way 
when I approach music.

One way I approach this is by purchasing a record of ethnic music that is 
exotic and new to my ears and then 
trying to learn how express myself with the contraints of the scale that 
they are using.
In the past few days I've been listening to this fascinating record of the 
Master Fiddlers of Dagbon (in Nigeria).
These guys play very primitive one string fiddles (in beautiful scales 
that I haven't sat down yet to figure out).
Then they play these hypnotic parts that are all unison and sing over the 
top of them.    They had me bowing 
everything i could in my house yesterday..............it was an exciting 
day for me.

3) Another approach is if I play with a musician who really blows me away 
or otherwise inspires me.
I'll just ask them what their favorite scales are and then start to learn 
them.

I have a set of rags that are Deepak Rams favorites.  To do an improv show 
with him he gave me a set of 8 rags 
and the key signatures he most loved to play them in (different sized 
Bansuri flutes).   I'm still working my way through that.

4) Next,   I can just ask my brother Bill to teach me something that he's 
particularly into in music.
He's got such vast harmonic knowledge that he always can show me something 
that will send me off for weeks to 
investigate.

5) I buy a new piece of gear ("My name is Rick,   I'm a 
gearaholic."...................."HIGH RICK") 
or learn a brand new sophisticated (or simple) plugin or effect........
that always provides new knowledge and new inspiration to both play and to 
grow.    Currently I have 
five pieces of gear (six if you include a computer as an instrument) that 
I have so much to learn 
about that it's almost silly to own the stuff.     I honestly get off on 
being a beginner , though, so 
that's cool----oh those five:   Looperlative, Gibson EDP, Kaos Pad 3 
-deeper than shit,  Boss Slicer 
and Berhinger Feedback eliminator---that's for an attempt to purposefully 
control feedback that I"m creating)


In terms of things that I don't have control over:

1)  the biggest one is the Looping Festival.    I learn shitloads every 
single year.
2)  the next is the annual PASIC convention:  the best drummers and 
percussionists in the world 
all hanging out in one place for four days , once a year.  I have the next 
year of my learning life 
planned out by only what I saw with framedrummers this past November in 
Austin, Texas
3)  the NAMM show.........always a source for new knowledge.
4)  My students.   I'm always encouraging them to innovate and think out 
of the box.  and they never fail 
to inspire me with the creative things they come up with that I would have 
never thought of
5) going to see shows with loved ones or students , watching music that 
I"m NOT INTO.   I just love getting 
the contact high of seeing a death metal band with a student and seeing 
why they love it as much as they 
do.   I get drum chops continually from drummers in styles I"m not deeply 
into.
6)  Going to see fantastic musicians
7)  Going to see musicians who are really not very 
advanced.............this is a bit of negative learning, but 
I frequently get some of my most creative thoughts about what to do 
watching bands that are kind of boring to me.
8) There are more, I'm sure but I doubt anyone has read this far 
anyway................lol!

Great thread starter,  Raul!