TeaDiddy

Hey all, Apologies to use the main forum board for this post, there doesn't seem to be anywhere in particular for this sort of thing. It's just a quick shout to see if there is anyone on this forum from the UK. I'm trying to get in touch with people closer to home to work on self-actualization topics, accountability, etc etc Drop me a line if you fancy Cheers! Nick

@Res Ipsa Loquitur amazing share, thanks! The addictions I had were never to any substances like you chaps and many others. I can only imagine how difficult i can be to overcome a substance addiction I had what Leo referred to as soft addictions, like: criticism, anger, self-pity, gaming. Even though they are soft addictions they still held me back from being the type of person I knew I could be. I started asking the question: This can't be it, what else is there out there for me? Similarly, I then came across the same video you did, after reading Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich'. This was 2 years ago now. I completed the Life Purpose course which has helped me to find what really engages me now. And although it's still tough and I'm nowhere near where I want to be... For the first time in my life, I know where I am going and how to get there. It's incredibly liberating.

@JackTimothy Double bass and electric bass. The picture is a 6-string bass Mainly work in jazz/world/latin music. Great fun I'm also creating a coaching company dedicated to helping musicians struggling with, well, i guess a lot of the same things we all do that stop us from being the best versions of ourselves! Keep writing that dance music !

Hey@JackTimothy @Moon ! nice to hear there are some brits around , I don't often go to Leicester or York but drop me a line if you're ever in the Manchester area, it's always nice to meet likeminded people. What are you working on right now?

@Greatnestwithin Hi, sorry for the slow reply. I'm in Manchester, occasionally pop down to london town. What's your story?

@seaneyboyjazz Thanks I'm actually re-reading Effortless Mastery at the moment. I agree it's an awesome book, it totally changed my perspective on studying music when I first read it years ago. Kenny is one of the few musicians teaching the real connectivity to creativity, it'd be great to meet him one day!

@IVONNE As a musician by trade, I am interested in this thread. This is something I've questioned a lot and there are much deeper things to consider here that aren't being said yet. Allow me to elaborate..... this might get a bit lofty and wordy... apologies! But stick with me For starters. To say "music is bad for you" is an over generalist and honestly quite a naive statement. The first juvenile retort would be: "Have you heard ALL the music in the world? And has it all had a bad affect on you?". If you indeed have done this colossal research (congratulations! :-P) or seriously know of any real studies on this matter I'd be very very interested to read them. Please reply and post! For the following I will call "music" how we usually refer to it, and "Music" as that that exists outside of what is commonly called "music". With me?! You may have all heard the phrase "music is a language" mentioned by musicians and teachers wanting to seem like they know it all. And... It is absolutely true. Music, as we experience it, is a language. As a musician, you learn the mechanics of the harmony, rhythm, and melody which become the palette to express whatever you desire, just as linguistics does as well. As a jazz musician, this is taken to an advanced level where the musical language becomes part of a detailed conversation between improvisers. Which is why improvised music is such a niche, most people don't understand it because it's like listening to Greek or Chinese (if you're not Greek or Chinese!) Even on this level, is it still conceptual and therefore doesn't exist the way we listen to it. All language, including musical language, is conceptual and doesn't exist in reality. If you feel it makes you stupid, you're probably right. If you think it makes you smarter, you're also probably right. It's about what you bring to it and the way you react to what you hear with your conceptualization of what you are listening to at each present moment. Here's what happens: Sounds Heard ---> Emotional Reaction (or not) ---> Internal Conceptualization / Judgement Also, most of the time follows: ---> External Expression of Judgement / Emotional Reaction (through regular language, some form of dance, or smashing your mate Tim on the arm to make sure he realises how EPIC that bangin' tune you just heard was. As part of my training, we were taught to recognise Music in nature and reality, the kind that exists outside of the common classical and contemporary conventions of "music" ie, the wind, birds, traffic, the beach. Anywhere you hear sound, there is vibration, collections of which make "Music". You may argue that "the M1 doesn't sound anything like music, dude you're stupid." (the M1 is a big highway in the UK), if you are asking questions like this then you are missing the point. It's a little extreme I'll warrant but if you can listen to a highway from a place of zero concepts, you'll discover that it really can be quite beautiful. We always think the sound of the waves is beautiful because of the labels and emotions we attach to 'knowing' we are hearing that sound. Without conceptual labels, Music exists in the universe, as in sounds from vibrations. As soon as you bring your conscious awareness into your hearing/listening then you bring all the judgements and distinctions of the ego. All there is, is Music. It doesn't make you dumber or smarter unless you apply some kind of conceptualization to it. As soon as you call it music (or Hip Hop/Jazz/Blues/whatever) and relate to it from this state, you are making it conceptual. We listen to it from a place of labelling. Music you like is 'Good' and music you don't like is 'Bad'. These are distinctions that don't exist. It's irrelevant. They are all labels of language. There is only the organised collection of sounds. We know that prominent beliefs that we hold can have psychosomatic effects. It's no accident that Emos are depressed and fans of Funk are happy. And there are mathematical reasons for our emotional reactions.... Certain styles of music elicit particular emotions. This we know. People who like to be angry listen to Metal, people who like to relax listen to Ambient and easy Classical, people who love adrenaline and partying listen to fast Dance/House and probably cocaine; whatever, we all know this. What we might not know is the reason why. Firstly, lyrical content. Easy. A song written about a long lost love will elicit in you the same emotions of the writer. Unless you've never experienced it and are a cold, dead, and rock-like inside, if you are, better work on that... So it's pretty easy to see how lyrical content can affect our emotional reaction to music from the way we conceptually relate to what is said. Secondly, Consonance and Dissonance! Juicy! We know that everything in the universe is made up of matter and energy in the form of particles and waves. The entire material world is made up of atoms and particles that are in a constant state of motion. "Everything in life is Vibration" - Albert Einstien If you vibrate a string that has certain physical dimensions and tension, it will create a specific tone: that is, the physical movement of the string creates particle fluctuations in the air that pass through the air as sound waves to your ear. Which then become electrical signals from the ear to the brain...blah blah ....These waves are what make-up music, it is really just mathematics made physical. When you play two notes together, if the frequencies are related (in a mathematical way which I won't get into here) then you'll either have consonance, which sounds pleasant; or dissonance, which doesn't sound pleasant. Imagine when you hear your niece sing the National Anthem flatter than an English pancake, you can tell It's pretty awful... but you pretend to enjoy it anyway. Now imagine when you hear an orchestra tuning up, the "amen chords" in classical music or an even better example is the THX sound. Dissonance moving into consonance is EXTREMELY satisfying! Using mixtures of dissonance and consonance (light and Dark) with single notes in series is how you get Melody. Using this with a group of notes moving collectively is Harmony, and the repetition of it is Rhythm (There is also rhythmic dissonance, but again not now.... I'm already going off on one). These devices used in various, possibly limitless ways, are what create the emotional reactions within us. But really, it's all still mathematics. Very basically, happy music uses more consonance and sad music uses more dissonance. Why? Why does dissonance make us uneasy and consonance make us content? Good question... There are some pseudo-scientists who claim that particular frequencies have healing benefits as they are derived from the Universal Frequency of 432Hz. And that these frequencies are in tune with our bodies... The juries out on that one. What do you think? Normally, in western music we are tuned to 440Hz so probably miss out on these benefits or is that where your "music is bad for you" statement comes from?! :-P For anyone interested in a what the music of an enlightened jazz musician sounds like, check out the pianist Kenny Werner. Sorry for the long post