[Harp-L] this recent thread on positions, notes, colors etc...

[Aeskow@xxxxxxx]

I dig synesthesia as much as the next guy, and I'm of the generation that's  
very comfortable seeing colors when they play chords, but in this fascinating  
back-and-forth about harp-positions and mind-sets I'm surprised that no-one  
brings up the analogy to sports (except for, occasionally, mi hermano estimado 
 Hurricane Ramon.) 
 
Playing harp, like singing, has always felt like an athletic rather than an  
intellectual adventure to me.  And navigating into "the zone"--whether it's  
running down a long fly ball or tantalizing a crowd with a building riff--feels 
 like a process of 1) knowing the fundamentals of "the game" to whatever 
extent  is needed to make you feel solidly "in play" at your position, 2) 
registering  the "weather"--the wind, the feel of the turf, or the mood of the 
audience, and  then 3) going ahead and "playing"--which means going into a state of 
what John  Keats called "negative capability," free of preconceptions, 
self-doubt, even the  most basic self-consciousness...  
 
For me, this has been the Way.  I guess I experience it as a goal,  rather 
than a technique, but when it happens it feels very close to  levitation.
 
Peace and Respect
Johnny T