One of my most memorable moments as a musician is a performance I did with a singer in a seedy, beer smelling, badly decorated, badly lit club, at the end of a week long tour. I can't remember the name of the town or the venue, but I vividly remember our rendition of the song "Georgia". The night before this performance, I had been struck down with a mysterious bug and was feeling like death warmed up.
As I climbed the stairs to the stage for a last minute rehearsal, sweat poured and my legs could barely hold me.
In the corner of my eye I saw the shape of a grand piano covered with a black blanket. There is a strange atmosphere in a venue such as this when it is totally void of people, and the silent, blanket covered grand piano, hidden in the recesses of the stage, seemed to amplify the strangeness.
A few slivers of light managed their way through the dirty, impossibly placed windows in the ceiling, creating a silvery path to the grand piano. Still shivering with fever I walked up to the piano. The grand piano seemed like a majestic, dignified, blanket covered thoroughbred stallion, deserving of respect, and humility. Gently I removed the blanket, folded it and put it to the side. With much care I opened the lid. The strings glistened as if made of gold and the lingering resonance from earlier performances dispersed into the air, tiny invisible droplets, of music.
I pulled out the piano stool, sat down, and just placed my hands on the keys without making a sound and then waited.
Until I knew, what I was supposed to play.
Three hours later, still feverish and shivering, we were coming to the end of our performance. The band had been somewhat lackluster, and although Leon, the singer, had tried his best, we were just too tired.
That's when I knew what to do. I told Leon to stall for time, tell a story, anything....while I walked away from my electric keyboard to the grand piano. It was on wheels so it was easy to move it to the front of the stage.
When in place, I sat down and began to play an introduction to "Georgia on my mind", but not like we had rehearsed it, but as the grand piano, the "stallion", had instructed me. Mellow, gentle, slow, every note carefully chosen....respectfully.
Suddenly all sounds except for those of the piano, vanished. People stopped speaking, the waiters stopped, the other band members quietly withdrew from their instruments and walked to the side of the stage. Leon removed the microphone from its stand and came and sat down on the corner of the piano stool and then sang Georgia as he had never done before. When we finished the song there was an unearthly silence......for a split second... that is.......then the audience stood up and every inch of that seedy, beer smelling club was filled with cheering, applause, and expressions of delight.
For a few moments, all of us; the performers, the audience, the waiting staff, had become one living, breathing, experiencing, entity.
Why have I told you this story?
Because I believe we all need to connect.
This may seem a strange thing to say since technology has made it possible for most of us to stay "connected" 24/7. Question is; are we connected or just superficially so?
Perhaps our communication tools are more cosmetic than we would like to admit?
Why bother going to a live concert when we can watch it on you tube?
Why bother going to an exhibition, a movie, a ballet, a cabaret, et cetera when we can do so via the internet?
Instead of cooking a meal together, we can buy take-outs, instead of going to a game, we can watch it on pay-tv, instead of going for a run in the park, you can run on a treadmill while listening to your I-thingy, instead of speaking face to face, we can use acronyms on another I-thingy, instead of saying we are sorry while looking someone in the eye, we can send a "sad" emoticon.
Are we using technology or are we abusing it?
Have we managed to found ways to avoid having to face up to the pesky aspects of human contact that includes: confrontation, conflict, challenge, rejection, social awkwardness, shyness, and so on?
"Now, hang on just a minute!"
"Think of all the amazing positive aspects of this new technology,"...I hear some say.
I agree, there are many, many positive aspects, I mean I am using one of those aspects right now to connect with you, the reader, so let me put it another way.
Social interaction, being in the company of actual people in the actual world as opposed to the virtual world, is beneficial to most of us according to most statistics/research. (Hence an isolation cell is a punishment, not a reward.)
Although we are all individuals, we are also all part of mankind, humanity, and according to some studies the reason homo sapiens managed to succeed as a species, is that we learned how to cohabit, to pool our resources.
Have you ever experienced the surge of energy when attending a live concert with friends?
Have you ever experienced the camaraderie when supporting a sports team in a stadium, or when making a "stand" with others for a shared "cause", exchanging ideas over a hobby, or an interest?
"People need people", so the song goes.
Imagine winning the lottery and having no one to share the good news with...............
When we connect with others hands on, we have the chance to improve our communication skills, to become good listeners, to speak clearly and effectively, to understand communicative subtleties, and to minimize misunderstandings.
Although confrontation, rejection, shyness, and social awkwardness, are all tricky issues to deal with, they also present opportunities for us to discover new strengths in ourselves when we face them head on.
Every time we face up to that which scare us, we become a little better at dealing with it and we increase our sense of self-worth.
"Little by little, Internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we have with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society. Instead of spending time in person with friends, we just call, text or instant message them. It may seem simpler, but we ultimately end up seeing our friends face to face a lot less. Ten texts can’t even begin to equal an hour spent chatting with a friend over lunch. And a smiley-face emoticon is cute, but it could never replace the ear-splitting grin and smiling eyes of one of your best friends. Face time is important, people." (Melissa Nilles)
"What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it."
(Jiddu Krishnamurti)
As I climbed the stairs to the stage for a last minute rehearsal, sweat poured and my legs could barely hold me.
In the corner of my eye I saw the shape of a grand piano covered with a black blanket. There is a strange atmosphere in a venue such as this when it is totally void of people, and the silent, blanket covered grand piano, hidden in the recesses of the stage, seemed to amplify the strangeness.
A few slivers of light managed their way through the dirty, impossibly placed windows in the ceiling, creating a silvery path to the grand piano. Still shivering with fever I walked up to the piano. The grand piano seemed like a majestic, dignified, blanket covered thoroughbred stallion, deserving of respect, and humility. Gently I removed the blanket, folded it and put it to the side. With much care I opened the lid. The strings glistened as if made of gold and the lingering resonance from earlier performances dispersed into the air, tiny invisible droplets, of music.
I pulled out the piano stool, sat down, and just placed my hands on the keys without making a sound and then waited.
Until I knew, what I was supposed to play.
Three hours later, still feverish and shivering, we were coming to the end of our performance. The band had been somewhat lackluster, and although Leon, the singer, had tried his best, we were just too tired.
That's when I knew what to do. I told Leon to stall for time, tell a story, anything....while I walked away from my electric keyboard to the grand piano. It was on wheels so it was easy to move it to the front of the stage.
When in place, I sat down and began to play an introduction to "Georgia on my mind", but not like we had rehearsed it, but as the grand piano, the "stallion", had instructed me. Mellow, gentle, slow, every note carefully chosen....respectfully.
Suddenly all sounds except for those of the piano, vanished. People stopped speaking, the waiters stopped, the other band members quietly withdrew from their instruments and walked to the side of the stage. Leon removed the microphone from its stand and came and sat down on the corner of the piano stool and then sang Georgia as he had never done before. When we finished the song there was an unearthly silence......for a split second... that is.......then the audience stood up and every inch of that seedy, beer smelling club was filled with cheering, applause, and expressions of delight.
For a few moments, all of us; the performers, the audience, the waiting staff, had become one living, breathing, experiencing, entity.
Why have I told you this story?
Because I believe we all need to connect.
This may seem a strange thing to say since technology has made it possible for most of us to stay "connected" 24/7. Question is; are we connected or just superficially so?
Perhaps our communication tools are more cosmetic than we would like to admit?
Why bother going to a live concert when we can watch it on you tube?
Why bother going to an exhibition, a movie, a ballet, a cabaret, et cetera when we can do so via the internet?
Instead of cooking a meal together, we can buy take-outs, instead of going to a game, we can watch it on pay-tv, instead of going for a run in the park, you can run on a treadmill while listening to your I-thingy, instead of speaking face to face, we can use acronyms on another I-thingy, instead of saying we are sorry while looking someone in the eye, we can send a "sad" emoticon.
Are we using technology or are we abusing it?
Have we managed to found ways to avoid having to face up to the pesky aspects of human contact that includes: confrontation, conflict, challenge, rejection, social awkwardness, shyness, and so on?
"Now, hang on just a minute!"
"Think of all the amazing positive aspects of this new technology,"...I hear some say.
I agree, there are many, many positive aspects, I mean I am using one of those aspects right now to connect with you, the reader, so let me put it another way.
Social interaction, being in the company of actual people in the actual world as opposed to the virtual world, is beneficial to most of us according to most statistics/research. (Hence an isolation cell is a punishment, not a reward.)
Although we are all individuals, we are also all part of mankind, humanity, and according to some studies the reason homo sapiens managed to succeed as a species, is that we learned how to cohabit, to pool our resources.
Have you ever experienced the surge of energy when attending a live concert with friends?
Have you ever experienced the camaraderie when supporting a sports team in a stadium, or when making a "stand" with others for a shared "cause", exchanging ideas over a hobby, or an interest?
"People need people", so the song goes.
Imagine winning the lottery and having no one to share the good news with...............
When we connect with others hands on, we have the chance to improve our communication skills, to become good listeners, to speak clearly and effectively, to understand communicative subtleties, and to minimize misunderstandings.
Although confrontation, rejection, shyness, and social awkwardness, are all tricky issues to deal with, they also present opportunities for us to discover new strengths in ourselves when we face them head on.
Every time we face up to that which scare us, we become a little better at dealing with it and we increase our sense of self-worth.
"Little by little, Internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we have with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society. Instead of spending time in person with friends, we just call, text or instant message them. It may seem simpler, but we ultimately end up seeing our friends face to face a lot less. Ten texts can’t even begin to equal an hour spent chatting with a friend over lunch. And a smiley-face emoticon is cute, but it could never replace the ear-splitting grin and smiling eyes of one of your best friends. Face time is important, people." (Melissa Nilles)
"What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it."
(Jiddu Krishnamurti)
No comments:
Post a Comment