Originally Posted by: maggiorSo then perhaps you are drawn to the style of music you have a predisposition to play. It's an interesting angle.

Keith Jarrett talks about music flowing out of him in explanation of how he would perform improvised pieces an hour or so long in concert. Some of the music on the Koln Concerts and The Sun Bear Concerts is very moving to me. Different instrument as he is a piano player, but same idea.

hmmmm.

maggior,

In your last Am post of you playing I made a comment that it seems like there is a 20 – 30 second clip of it that what you are playing was moving through you. The rest of it you seem to be thinking of what to play next. I bet when you listen back you can hear the part I am talking about and have already said to yourself, wow that was cool, how did I do that.

For me that only seems to happen when I stop thinking and stop telling my hands\body what to do, only then can what I am calling a force move through me. It can be lead or finger picking chords. We spend our lives protecting that part of us, not letting it show and be judged by others. So we train our self’s not to let it flow. People have to retrain them self’s to let go and trust that their body will make a beautiful sound.

I believe the first trick to getting there is to play with your eyes closed, and clear your mind, do not think of what you are about to play, just let the body play what it wants. Just start playing. Like most things at first what you play is pretty scattered and is made up of things you already know how to play. Your mind and body is learning to trust each other. After more time spent playing like that your body begins to learn how to release what is in it. You are breaking years of training not to let it do that. So it takes time to undo it.

Like you I do not think the instrument being played matters, it is the connection one feels as one listens or plays.