Category Archives: Minimalism

Steve Reich minimalist music related stuffs

so many ideas and goals, have I

I’ve SO. MANY.
goals and Ideas I want to do, but doing day-to-day things get in the way of them so often, as does procrastinating said day-to-day thing. (I don’t even have that many day-to-day things, Imagine being married, a parent…)
I lose track of them.
writing them down doesn’t help “much”, I misplace the things they are written on, particular if they are written in a computer.
I don’t know often HOW to work towards such things, (often the way that seems logical to ME, is lambasted by others (but what do they know, indeed (but too often, I give them my thoughts, and end up self-underminging my own instincts, getting all stressed…)
then I calm down, reconnect (ahhh, one of those elusive words that yoga people and hippies use) with myself, and my own instincts, and then repeat, but there so many of them.
I do need better habits.
I’ve had good habits for two days.
there are just so many of these nifty goals and ideas…. they are chaos, they overwhelm. I shall not be told that I must go against my own instincts in the HOW TO advice from others who do not understand what being me is all about.
if any of you friends are or are to be my “partners” in such ventures, I ask you to get together with me often, so we can do these things.

crawling before walking “is” true, but

it seems as I become older, that I somehow DO see more and more that “doing the basics” and not moving beyond where you can handle, when it comes to learning music, (and everything, (such as me learning how to “have relationships (which frankly, we’ve not even beGUN, I’m still in the “I like myself, I deserve to be happy” phase…)

is wise….

you really DO need to crawl before you can walk.

unless you are super gifted and insane, like Anakin…

so in THAT case, one size does NOT fit ALL, just many.

don’t ignore the exceptions.
(that, ignoring the exceptions, has LONG been my Major concern, it is merely occurring to me, an obviousness, that most people are not in fact exceptions.)
but some of us (like me) are. at least sometimes.

simplicity eludes me, and does not, also.

I should most certainly not be so quick to jealously begrudge persons who seem… easier-going and less-troubled than I…
it is probably easier being them… at least when it comes to over-thinking…
I even over-think and over-analyze when it comes to music, (obviously.)
thankfully, SOME Music is powerful enough to remove me from this and get me in the moment…
either the (classic)High Stimulations of
Holst, Stravinsky, WAGNER, etc…
or
the blessedness that is Minimalism….
not to mention African and Indian (and yes, Indonesian) musics in their fabulous repetitivenesses. (nice word.)

Music=music cooler than politics

wow, after three or four days of rehearsing and playing music with many friends far and wide, for many hours, I am reminded not for the 100th time,

that playing music is a lot cooler than being on facebook and getting all indignant about politics and such.

something I seem to take for granted

something I seem to take for granted ALL of the time is that
1. I have some nifty musical knowledge at all, and that
2. I have A TON of musical friends who love music so much that they actually make it, no matter how difficult, and that
3. I live in a place which has, all things considered, A LOT of such people, (even if there are a billion more people who are not these.)
I really do like that.
how awful would it be to lose that.
how much more tragic would it be to never have discovered it.
see? life really is pretty amazing.

all of the music I play is repetitive

is there ANY music that I actually PLAY that IS NOT…
“REPETITIVE AS HELL?”

let’s see

used to play gamelan. check
Reich. check.
Glass. check.
African from not-Ghana. check
African from Ghana. check.
Harmonium on Indian Music. check.
BoorBaar PErcussion Ensemble music. Check.
some other music (Kandam) Check.
hopefully soon some Brazilian music. Check.

is there ANY music that I actually PLAY that IS NOT…
“REPETITIVE AS HELL?”

let’s see

used to play gamelan. check
Reich. check.
Glass. check.
African from not-Ghana. check
African from Ghana. check.
Harmonium on Indian Music. check.
BoorBaar PErcussion Ensemble music. Check.
some other music (Kandam) Check.
hopefully soon some Brazilian music. Check.

is there ANY music that I actually PLAY that IS NOT…
“REPETITIVE AS HELL?”

let’s see

used to play gamelan. check
Reich. check.
Glass. check.
African from not-Ghana. check
African from Ghana. check.
Harmonium on Indian Music. check.
BoorBaar PErcussion Ensemble music. Check.
some other music (Kandam) Check.
hopefully soon some Brazilian music. Check.

is there ANY music that I actually PLAY that IS NOT…
“REPETITIVE AS HELL?”

let’s see

used to play gamelan. check
Reich. check.
Glass. check.
African from not-Ghana. check
African from Ghana. check.
Harmonium on Indian Music. check.
BoorBaar PErcussion Ensemble music. Check.
some other music (Kandam) Check.
hopefully soon some Brazilian music. Check.

is there ANY music that I actually PLAY that IS NOT…
“REPETITIVE AS HELL?”

let’s see

used to play gamelan. check
Reich. check.
Glass. check.
African from not-Ghana. check
African from Ghana. check.
Harmonium on Indian Music. check.
BoorBaar PErcussion Ensemble music. Check.
some other music (Kandam) Check.
hopefully soon some Brazilian music. Check.

is MY high stimulation music right for you

so, as a HYPER dude (an ADHD dude, whatever…)
what RIGHT do I have, to TELL OTHER people who are ADHD, that MY MUSIC OF CHOICE might be right for THEM?

that it might help THEM feel EXTREME JOY and give THEIR some direction as well?

(this is rhetorical)

(I PLAY a lot of said music, I organize groups and rehearse and perform it, not just listening (though listening is the bomb as well.)

I want to maybe do it with YOU TOO, whomever you are, if you are the right person, THE RIGHT MONKEYS….

today it’s this, though I don’t currently have a SAMBA group (and never HAVE had, one of MY own, though I’ve been in others’s a little.)
more of this, more of this, yes.

HIGH STIMULATION MUSIC, mine 1 24 15

There is some music and dance that I REALLY REALLY love to play, and listen to.

it is of SUCH intense joy, that it pretty much is my favorite thing in life.

my PERSONAL TASTE in such matters is pretty much as follows:
(in no particular order of puesto (course)
1. James Brown
2. Wagner, namely The Ring, Der Ring des Nibelungen
3. plenty of West African Dance-Drumming, from Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, etc.
4. The Planets by Gustav Holst
5. The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
6. Brazilian Music, particularly Brazilian Jazz
7. and yes, there’s always “Jazz”, yes yes.
8. don’t leave out CERTAIN HARMONIES (I’ll get to which ones)
and
9. STEVE REICH’s Minimalist Music and that of
10.. PHILIP GLASS as well.

African Dance, yes yes yes…. doing that is one of the awesomest things ever… total exhaustion, VERY stimulating, so much so that at the end, you are exhausted… and yet, you would (and do) continue dancing for more hours…

THIS is what I want… THIS is HIGH STIMULATION.

THIS is LIFE.

James Brown once said something along the lines of “I want to give them MORE than they came for, I want to make them (the audience) tired, ’cause THAT’S what they came for!”

Energy Usage.




perhaps I am a Hedonist. (perhaps I should google such terms before I use them, not “completely
certain if I have the right word in mind. (but where’s the fun in that, where’s the fun in that, inDeed…)