THE ART OF CRAFT - VI
Posted by Mariana Scaravilli on Jul 24, 2017

VI

 
Practice will become stale unless our exercising is playful, spontaneous, and fun. Invention is as necessary in our practice as in real life. When practising ceases to be fun, we will intentionally or unintentionally turn away from it, and lose the possibility of acquiring discipline. And discipline is a vehicle for joy. The difference between play, spontaneous and joyful activity, and the creative efforts of the mature artist, is in intention. Play is in the moment, without demands or the expectation of results. The work of the mature artist is also play in the moment, but harnessed to a disciplined and alert mechanism of trained response to the promptings of the creative moment. This is intentional play in the service of an aim: the artist plays, with the intention of generating creative repercussions.

It is difficult to exaggerate the power of habit. Nearly all our activity is habitual. We are an amalgam of automatic responses and series of reactions, each habit reinforcing each other. A particular posture gives rise to an emotional impulse connected to that posture, a remembered image triggers an associated posture, or my mood is reflected in my thinking and bodily movement. Habit is historical. There is good habit, and bad habit. Bad habits damage the organism. Good habits serve the efficient functioning of our organism, and when linked with attention become skill. If all I am is habit, even good habit, I am a machine. I may be mechanically useful, and mechanically helpful, but I am mechanical.

Habit is inevitable and also necessary. The development of skill is the training of efficient habits directed in service of the creative impulse. I must have contact with my automatism: awareness of my body and how it moves, the organic sensation of the presence of life within me; noticing thoughts flowing continuously and associatively; my attraction to what I like and avoidance of what I dislike. Noticing is the outcome of an alert and engaged attention. When I am in this state, I am in contact with myself, and also my surroundings. Automatism is rigidity; contact with my automatism confers flexibility. But contact with skill is not authority over it. Authority will speak to my training with a single voice, hold a unified overview of what is involved, and possess the capacity for judgment. If I can find this authority, perspective, and judgment, I am close to having discipline.

One day, while the musician is in a moment of intentional play, music flies by. The disciplined artist, alert and in contact with the moment, flies with the music. The musician places a trained, tuned, and responsive instrument—themselves—at the service of music, to be played directly by the creative impulse. If the music is good, the music is playing the musician. If the music is not so good, the musician is playing the music. If the music is bad, the musician is playing the musician.

The master musician is a musician with discipline. They are their own person, and speak for themselves with their own voice. The genius goes beyond their own person, and speaks to all of us in our own voice. One musician of genius is all musicians, united within the creative act of music. 

 

The Art Of Craft - VII

 

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