How to

axercising the aeolian

| guitarbeau
2021 11 28 j’ART Original Digital Art by BEL

Did you see what I did there? Combining exercising with ax, a term some people use to describe a guitar, clever no?
Not certain when that terminology came into use, or when the riffs musicians played came to be known as chops? But as a species we do like to change things up, to keep it interesting. It was very probably someone trying to be clever that brought about such changes to descriptive analogies amidst the mix of humanities linguistic propensities. I personally don’t think things ever get boring, and this post is about the need to be interested in order to make progress.

About the image

Why is there an interest to share the vicissitudes of my life thusly? I don’t know, but there it is, a mangled morass of my mental ambiguity modified for mass consumption.
I multitask to make this.
First as a digital journal entry of my scatterbrained thoughts and then, by further manipulating that output I can express my experience of life to the light of day.
The thoughts rendered thusly can then be considered processed by me and leave something of interest I feel comfortable sharing.
There is also video of the process, to add as a visual backdrop for music I generate.
That will be available when the next musical composition is finished.

If you like this digital distortion of my thoughts and would like to see it in full, without the ‘Sonique Spiderweb Title’ obscuring the image, email me and I will send a .jpeg.

In the mean time here is another strand from the Sonique Spiderweb.

So I have been demonstrating the Sonique Spiderweb within the framework of the Ionian in the key of A. I have went through all the basic modes thus far now leading to the Aeolian in F# a natural minor scale.

So once again as with all modes Ionian, we have all the notes in A major but F# is the root making the A note the minor 3rd in the sequence.

The natural minor is remarkably fun to play in, and offers so much to use in any number of corresponding chord sequences, in whatever key we are playing in of course.

This is a fundamental skill that can best be appreciated by applying it within our practice.

The point of learning to use the scale to develop improvisational skill is demonstrated here in this short video about the mode.

FINDing THE WILL TO MAKE PROGRESS.

What is of interest when we imagine reaching our musical goals?

Performing a song perfectly, proficiently, painterly?
That term ‘painterly’ I mean as a painter paints, the brush strokes they use to express a tree or mountain for example, may not look like that at all, before the picture is complete. The same with playing a song, we may not hit every note exactly but we have sufficient grasp of the piece to convey it satisfyingly!

this could also be interesting.

Being on stage performing, playing in a band
Your music being streamed online and you’re banking some bucks.
Conveying a deep emotion to a significant other.
In a recording studio, comping some riffs for another musician you admire.
Writing music to inspire, to incite insight, to invigorate innovation.

options require CHOICES be made

Regardless of our level of interest though, the consistency of pursuit remains the determining factor in a sense of accomplishment.
What are we willing to do so that we can be the musician we want to be?
There is a lot of advice available to encourage action in accord with our aspirations, but such motivation can be short lived. I know this to be true, as my blog posting schedule seems to suggest. That is, I don’t really have one!?

Thus in anything we want to do, it helps if the thing that interests us is also compelling enough for our best effort to be engaged.
Consistent, constant, constructive, instructive, these are all words that are part of a vocabulary of attempting successful accomplishment. But wait there is so much to…

We CAN DO ANYTHING (+/-) we CANT DO EVERYTHING.

It is problematic to want to do everything. The wanting is possible, the doing is not.
There is always something else to pursue or is perhaps easier or more fun to do.
Distractions likewise abound and confound, challenging us to try to continue to make any real meaningful progress.
If we focus on why we want what we want then we can put in the effort needed to attain the level of success desired. To be a musician this effort will take many forms, practice, study, listening, recording, to name a few. So if we cant do one, another is available. Or we can distract ourselves and do such things later.

What matters and why? To me its all about being interested and involved, and that can have many degrees of intensity and attention. Given time we will become the musician, artist, idealistic aspirant we want to be!

So whatever the goal or task at hand then, please, prudently and patiently pursue the process of making proactive progress possible that are pertinent to your proclivities!

merci

Languishing in the lydian

| guitarbeau
Lydia Languishing

How does the word languish factor into a musical scale, other than the alliterative letter ‘L’ beginning both words? Well there is the time I spent putting this together. Hoping for a useful result.

So I imagined a person alone lying on on a guitar fret board somewhere with an arm outstretched to a stormy sky yearning for…

Some traction in gaining some useful working knowledge of the guitar.

I imagine many experience a struggle in that effort. That might feel like one is toiling and not making much if any progress.

Even after many years of playing I have sometimes felt that way.

Results might not even be seen or seem relevant to the end one imagines the effort should be leading to.

Nevertheless lessons continue to present themselves.

Lydian wants to exclaim “learn about me, I am interesting and worth knowing”

But wait there’s more !?

But we might rather right now be, watching TV, trying to get to sleep, looking at alternative art on Pinterest, reading comic books, drawing, rearranging the furniture, anything but advancing guitar playing ability, the audacity!

However to get to another level as a musician we have to approach our efforts dilligently.

A claim of being this or that, of going to do this or that, will make no difference until the this or that is actually done!

Despite compulsions, the weather, various obligations all around. We can usually choose to do what we want, we just might need to focus our intention into attention.

That seems simple enough, so how can we stimulate momentum in the direction of our goals?

Answers but the questions still remain

Some questions might help.

(Why) am I working at this? ( I put why in parenthesis because, I think most times it is not needed to ask a question.

And ‘am I ?’ suggests that we have more control or capability in the equation than we give ourselves credit for)

So my answer to ‘am I working at this?’ is:
Here is an opportunity to grow as a musician, to further develop skills that I want to share.
I want to take music seriously and to share my enjoyment of the creative process.

Which in my case, is a perpetual work in progress.

Is it enough to be creative without any reward or recognition?


YES. I would still be and am creative sans reward or recognition. I have to be to survive this existence.
AND. To create something and attempt to share it, with so many options available to do so these days.
NO. Recognition and reward are not my tasks as a creative.

That is someone else’s task to recognize or ignore, reward or refute. Though as I think of recognition and reward now, I realize that in fact:

the mind never stops making connections

re = again; cognition = to learn; is happening within and,

re= again; ward = to watch over (of germanic origin); it is rewarding in and of itself to produce something even if the only one enjoying the result is the one making the effort. But that is rarely the case. I believe we cannot undertake a creative task with out having the effort affect us and subsequently those with whom we interact in some particular way, regardless if the result produced is put on display or not.

However I didn’t get to this point in my existence without input from and acknowledging the efforts of others

SO. Creative output can and should be shared as best one can for any of the above to have an effect.

inciting insight invigorating innovation

What do I hope is going to come from this effort?
A blog post that incites insight and invigorates innovation.

An outlook, an approach, a take on life and the making of music that keeps it real and at the forefront of my life

What I offer to benefit myself and any one else that might find this then, is another video demonstrating how to use the sonique spiderweb with an emphasis on the Lydian mode as found within the Ionian in the key of A major. Languishing in the Lydian video link

While the obvious forward and across the fret board approach is all that is needed for a cursory understanding of the scale.

Should one be so inclined to develop it to another level I offer my take on the subject.

There are many ways to play scales on the guitar that are unique and instructive.

Which can advance ones musical vocabulary significantly.

These that I offer can of course be applied to other scales and modes, as knowledge of the fret board becomes increasingly innate or 2nd nature.

The options available to have scale study impart a unique aspect to ones musical vocabulary can thus always be improved upon.

There is truly a wealth of possibilities available in the so called ‘basics’ if one can make some time to for it!

There is a Turning the Lydian inside out.pdf of some of the scale studies I’m advocating, available here as I’ve recently got some new software that helps me to produce that. Hope it proves useful!

MERCI

j’ART

| guitarbeau
an original available artistic expression for purchase.
Recent artistique result derived from the information in the post below
2021 08 31 matter blog 02 vivid

j’ART 0563

The above original image is available to purchase. 18″ by 24″ ink on mixed media paper

$100.00

So I like to be practical and somehow creative. How to multitask so I can do what needs to be done, as well as, do what wants to be done?

Combinations can work. I have had jobs that afforded me a lot of free mental space to think about things that were not work related, sex notwithstanding. Coming up with new ideas that can be utilized outside of the employment paradigm, wherein I want to be proactively and productively creative! 

One such example comes to mind. Once whilst stocking shelves I thought up a game for my 5 year old grand niece (is that a thing?) to play. This involved hiding several of her toys about the house and yard, leaving written clues next to each that lead to finding one after another, and of course blaming it all on the cat! She enjoyed that so much she asked for more of the same. So I consider that and what follows a form of multitasking.

So I also want to express myself to myself sometimes, putting things down on paper sounding out my thoughts as it were. Sometimes stream of consciousness stuff, sometimes pragmatic, sometimes wistful and sometimes pedantic. Not stuff I need to share with the world but need to get out of my head for one reason or another.

I have found away to do that and make something in the process.

j’ART

Art from journaling. 

When writing with this intention, the words I am thinking, get scrawled on the page in a rather haphazard and non linear fashion. As well as in a variety of handwritten fonts and sizes and languages, to say nothing of direction, oops just said something of direction. 

Then in the clearly monochromatic style that has been my go to for ever. And within the spaces between the marks made from the letters written, I color (?) those in. 

music and media to incite insight and invigorate innovation.

Here is a 2.5 minute video of the effort, and some additional artistique expression.

As I look at/within these combinations of letters, color, of light and dark, I seek some indication of what interests me. Or  maybe I’m just projecting desire into the result of the endeavor?

I ask (sarcastically sardonic) ‘if only there was some way to know what I really want ?’ 

Mundane proclivities aside, and aren’t they all mundane ? 

The want is to matter!

As we are made up of matter, and have interests that matter, sometimes wondering, what’s the matter? Seeing the word in these contexts begs the question. Does it matter?

But there is no escaping that this is a significant part of existence. 

So figuring out how to do that, how to matter and realizing the many ways in which we already do, can and does make it all the more challenging and interesting to continue to do so. I hope you know you do.

We matter, we need to, we do and we are.

Merci