zen & the art of the turntable
ah blah practice day. I feel stationed in a plateau, more psychological than physical, as I have observed my breathing and scratch are more relaxed; and my chirp has improved, even my crab for that matter. The later I don’t practice that much as I haven’t been sold on its sound advantage. While I admire the creative finger play, it seems more show than anything. Still, I try at least to keep it in my repetoire. It could be that perfecting the crab is like a lot of skilz cultivation in that you don’t get it till you got it. Anyway, my approach needs a recharge. I need to see something new, not just better, but new- conceptually.
Oh great selectah in the sky, I’m looking for another ah ha moment.
Having said that, I read it once that mastery comes to those who survive the plateaus. That always stuck with me just ahead of the 99% perspiration 1% inspiration one.
At the moment, juggling is what has me most intrigued. It’s been a cornerstone of my daily practice and is the perfect pre-scratch warm-up, loosening up the wrists, fingers and crossfader, putting you in the swing and rhythm and getting your vinyl touch just right for the oncoming session. Having said that, juggling has never served as just vinyl foreplay. For a scratch musician, ultimately, it is where you can compose. But the learning curve is steep and can’t be rushed; so one has to just sink into the incessant repetiton for the first little while.
Now at this point with juggling I am starting to develop a fluency, and through my daily table dialogue, I am starting to really understand the language of music, not in theory but intuitively. Meeting riffs with rhythms, my fingertips speak in beats and melodies, deconstructing and rebuilding a track, or more accurately the smallest but best part of a track. As my juggling ability develops, music is teaching me about music, kind of like going to a foreign country with no guide book or translation tool and picking -up the language by simple immersion. Within my musical immersion, technique is becoming an effortless dance, and my mind more and more rests in a void where it only serves as a vehicle of motor control.
Related posts:
- Zen & The Art of the Turntable pt 4 It’s all about being mindful. No matter where you are, what you do. Simple or complex, presence is to be mindful. Of what you do, pay attention, to detail and sensation, inhale through every pore. In the breath of this attention, requiring the broadest of mind and most enduring focus, arrives the no mind. In analysis to awareness, the conscious is lost. The me thinking about [...]...
- zen & the art of the turntable part 3 ...when you start to think that is when you start to stumble....
