always slow down
use fewer notes, im tempted to use a lot of notes cause i got so many
but basically find one of the many traditional kalimbas in there and use
it and gradually add more chords to it, mulitple single kalimbas in there
i want to use the whole keyboard eventually, i want to use that range
i am very conscious of finding out its strengths and its weaknesses
compensating for the weaknesses and using the strengths
that bell sound sometimes sounds asian, sometimes sounds like a xylophone
i want a blues sound out of it, which means use of those lower registers
and that slowed beat, consciously work the lower registers to get stronger at them
they have a very unique sound you get with your thumb (of course)
tape practice sessions, listen for the seeds, those fleeting moments when i do something
beautiful and i try to get it again and fail but listening to it on the tape i can try over
and over till i find it
the big thing is to train my fingers so when i hear it in my head my fingers know where to go
and even at rest im making music not noise, when im just resting my fingers on the board its
wonderful music, listening to it now im hearing some beautiful moments and its only been a week
also during this approved obsessional, teach myself how to use pro tools
and set up a home recording studio basically, i have equipment ive accumulated
over the years just never invested the time, this would be perfect, as i get these
7 pieces together put them on youtube, find a filmmaker to work with
work out 1 geas, 2 trouble, 3 goodloving, 4 witer, 5 promiseland,
i need background for these 5 beats, make it 7, good hoodoo #
practice doing any of these on beats i do
for a performance abandon preconcepts, just sit there and find beats
and when you find one try to perfect it, be meditative at all times
always try to be smoother, more cosmic, more meditative
remember to work the murmurs
faintly stroke for that graceful dancing sound, the chord
coordination im not sure of, i have no musical theory
but it appears that the left hand favors F A while
right goes up two octaves to around F A
(fitting F A is go to chord, spells Fa/fate)
that pattern seems to hold whatever key combo im playing, the other
pattern is both hands right up on each other, something overlapping
always slow down, its more meditative when i slow down
when i find a beat i play it, then i slow it down and slow it down some more
and then the misnotes are more obvious but that's what i want to learn
the slow meditative trancework
right hand much weaker than the left so i practice w/it more so
i use it to play melodies by itself and just use it more, lean on it more
it means for weaker practice runs but when i get loose its willing to do more
before it was basically just sitting there unless i consciously forced it to participate
amazing, i got a diff level of music out of it over last couple of days
trying to get it ready for the point of contact gig but didn't make the cut
but i got better with it, enuf to be obsessed with getting better and ive allowed
myelf to become obsessed, hours of playing a day, having to force myself to
stop playing and im going to share obligatory novel obsession because i
want this skill and it has taken my performance chops to another level
for some reason with it i actually sing and i sing pretty well, when its just
me im okay but something happens when i get on stage and with this im
feeling a level of presentation ive not felt before,
im actually singing and sounding good
right now what im doing is i find beats and i play them repeatedly trying to
program them and trying to perfect them and just see what i can do with them
then i start trying one of my 7 performances on them so what im getting is
fragments with fragments, hours and hours of tape w/moments of grace
today, after i do my work ima go thru them all and pull out the moments
worth listening to, werhere there are seeds of something interesting to find
i got to go,, im supposed to do novel all morning
patrick said keeping it in tune is easy, rarely goes out he says
but im working this bad boy hard, its going to go out, problem is
its so complicated with its 100 tines that keeping it really tuned is
going to be an amazing task taking days but ima make sure its finely
tuned before all performances so when you get a moment do a tuning
chart, the keys are on the tine sequences so it should be easier
ive learned over the years that keeping a kalimba tuned means everything
if its tuned well all you got to do is touch it and it will make music
i got to go, mormings are for novel, i got to be ruthless about that
i am in an obsession mode with the mbira, i will accept that though
i want to let the novel be my only obsession for next few months
obsessions by nature don't like to share
but its so impo to me to learn how to really play this mbira before i die
or am otherwise fully disabled, i so want ot make this thing sing
and raise my griotic game to make it worthy of the hoodoo book of flowers
and my next phase
i got to go
all my love
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