Re: [Harp-L] martial arts, music theory, pop music, and harmonica.

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

*<maurice richard libby wrote:> *

*The similarities between the two disciplines are most apparent when you are
improvising. Improvisation is in many way's exactly like fighting--you need
to react instantaneously with precise and accurate physical actions--there
is no time to think--if you stop to think the
moment is past.*

* *

There really is a tremendous similarity between the study of the martial
arts and the study of music -- and the study of many other disciplines. In
woodworking, for example, the creativity only really comes out once the
physical skills and basic mental skills have been mastered so that the
conscious mind is no longer burdened by the inanities of how and what needs
to happen -- only how it is desired that things to turn out.

 In the martial arts, the mind is the weapon; the body is the mechanism by
which the weapon achieves its goals. So the body and the mind must be
repetitively worked together until they can function as one so that the mind
can then be free to more creatively approach life. Life is the purpose of
the training. If a fight becomes a part of the moment, then the mind must
creatively approach the situation to make certain that life is the result.
To that end, a fight is very much like improvised music. But the martial
arts does not direct the practitioner toward a fight. It teaches about
living and learning to become the better part of one's self.

 In music, we repetitively learn the basic mental lessons and train our
physical parts to perform what we demand of them so that, when our
opportunity to play arrives, we will be able to join "in" the moment so
completely that we will play better than we have ever played before and the
trip we take with the music becomes more satisfying to our psyche than
anything we have ever done. Our goal is "the zone", the moment, where
nothing but beauty and emotion reside.

 In improvisation, we must be able to move above the inanities of how we
play to get to the taste of the moment we really want to communicate (so all
of that study and practice frees us to be creative). It matters little what
we tell ourselves later about how we played, the moment when we played will
have passed -- like that fight. The games we play in jams with one another
are like the sparring in the dojo: practices and jests that create a common
bond between people with common interests -- a social interaction where in
we can share that part of ourselves that we find so special, and learn from
the specialness of others. From these interactions we learn about others and
ourselves and practice the skills we need to rise above what we are. That is
why musicians and martial artists frequently consider themselves students,
not masters. Our goals require lifelong mastery.

* *

*<maurice richard libby wrote:> *

*One more thing--it's a hell of a lot easier to teach karate than it is to
teach music. :-D*

* *

In music, we teach the student what he already knows, but has not completely
defined. We help him learn to hear and understand, and teach him the skills
through which he can learn to understand and do more.

 In the martial arts, we re-teach what is already known and predefined so
that it is better than when the student began, then we build on that. The
foundation of understanding already exists. We are usually not that lucky in
music. The few times we are, a "natural" or a "prodigy" results.


*< Chesper Nevins wrote:>*

*Karate Kid was on TV last night, and I often like to watch it. (I don't
know what you real martial arts guys think of that movie, but it does convey
that general idea of muscle memory, repetition, etc, right?)*

* *

For many martial artists, movies like "Karate Kid" and Chuck Norris'
"Sidekicks" were wonderful introductions to the martial arts and some of the
lessons learned in its practice. They did not focus on "fighting", but on
"developing the physical to develop the mental". They focused on life. In
each, the characters, while training to learn to fight, learned how to avoid
the fight -- though it is sometimes necessary to "stand your ground". There
were some nice historical references in the way in which the children
learned in the movies, as well, that taught that the martial arts 'is not a
coat that you take off when you are warm, but is your skin, which you
cannot'. It is a way of life.

 Huh? So is music!!

  ['I will stop playing the harmonica when you pry it from my cold, dead
fingers!']

 Cara Cooke

www.cyberharp.isonfire.com <http://www.cyberharp.isonfire.com/>