Music and time

Listening to and playing music, practicing and learning it, are ways to find quiet, as quiet often makes a space to find music. Both arise, I think, from the quality of focus, on the one hand, and being relaxed, on the other.

Some while back, I read that a person in medieval times received as much information in a year as a person now does in the course of one day’s time. As information, connectivity, and electronic devices -- and people’s expectations concerning all that -- continue to grow, we might be up to receiving several years’ worth of information in a day by now.

As this season unfolds, take time to step away from that flow of information and into the stream of listening to playing, and sharing music, relaxing into a landscape or a candle flame, and hearing the quiet.


music to go along with these ideas

Scotland's Highlands in music: Duncan Chisholm

Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen


the photograph is of sunset over the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. it is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

you may also wish to see

music, silence, and spiritual journey


and
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Music and trust

How does trust show up in music?

All through the listening, performing, and making of music, when you stop to consider it.

As a performer, it’s an act of trust in those who have come to listen: that they will hear you, that you’ll connect with them, that they will listen. It is also an act of trust in yourself, that you have gifts to share, and that you will do your part in connecting with your listeners.



“I’m the same person on stage as I am off stage. When you’re on stage, you have to be yourself. You have to be authentic. If you’re not, audiences can tell that a mile off, and then you’ve lost them.” -- Irish American singer and songwriter Cathie Ryan



In writing music, in recording it and taking all the steps to get recordings released, you have to trust your own voice and commitment, and just as you do on stage, you have to trust others who work with you. You also have to trust those who listen.

“In songwriting, there’s a line between being true, and being too personal. My songs aren’t my diaries: I have my diaries for that. But I use the details of my own life, my own experiences, to find words and stories for experiences we both share, stories that people will recognize, and think ah, I’ve felt that way, but I didn't have the words for it.” -- Americana singer and songwriter Carrie Newcomer


As a listener, it is an act of trust to give time and attention to what a musician has to offer. It is also an act of trust to follow those ideas where they may lead, be that to contemplation, action, laughter, or maybe dancing -- it is an act of trust all around to let music move you.

“A good song is powerful -- three minutes, and you come out of it and know you see the world a little differently. It’s rearranged your DNA.” -- country and folk songwriter Gretchen Peters.


Over at her site Nancy Marmolejo. has been considering how trust and vulnerability show up in business when your business is being a coach or a mentor. Thanks to Nancy for the idea of exploring ways this plays out in music. As always, your comments are welcome.

you may also wish to see
music and telling the long story
music and meditation
Best Music, 2011

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Music: reflection along the road

Music has always been a good companion along the road for me, whether that road be physical or spiritual, whether it is an unknown path or a well known one. Perhaps this is because music itself, especially the sort of music we consider here, has within it both familiar and new, aspects which both ask good questions and offer ways to think about answers. What do you think?

music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: listening through the changes
Music Road: artists of the decade
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After


you may also wish to see
Music Road: photographing music: connections
and
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.


photograph was made in Kelvingrove Park, in Glasgow, Scotland. it is copyrighted. I appreciate your respect for this

-->If you'd like to support my creative work at Music Road and elsewhere,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

music and focus

Focusing on a song or a tune, whether you are the one playing and singing or the one doing the listening, is a way to relax, and to create. That may seem a contradiction, at first.

Whichever side of that circumstance you are on at any given time, though, it can be a doorway in to deep source of peace and refreshment.










photographs from Glasgow, Scotland, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, copyright Kerry Dexter


Music to go along with these ideas

Music Road: national drum month: bodhran
Music Road: Scotland on the harp: Corrina Hewat
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After

you may also wish to see

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday
this week, be sure to check out the one with peanut butter and jelly included -- two things which also help with focus.