Musical Meditation

A few years ago, I ran across an article written by Steve Vai. The article was part of a series called "Martian Love Secrets". I'm using the title of that article and giving you my perspective of the practice of musical meditation.

There are varying degrees of meditation. There is meditation that is meant to empty or still your mind. There are practices of meditation meant to focus the mind on a single point, or fill your mind with the divine. As Vai describes in his article, "People meditate all the time without realizing it." When you reflect on a piece of writing, a song, or even watching TV, you are, in a sense, meditating.

I have made attempts at meditation. The problem I had, the problem anybody has when they carve out time to meditate, is the mind would not sit still. The human brain's natural tendency is to wander. It is a very complicated part of our anatomy and therefore, very difficult to control.

So how is this going to help you learn how to play the guitar? For that, I will turn you over to Steve Vai and the exercise that has been helping me with many different techniques. This one covers vibrato:

"The following exercise will help you develop your musical meditation skills. Take one isolated musical idea, such as a single chord or riff. For our example, let's take vibrato. Vibrato is a very expressive technique, and can say a thousand different things when properly used (or misused). Sit with your guitar and a clock, and vibrate a note for one hour. Sounds simple, but here's the catch...

Never deviate from holding that note.

Pick it as many times as you like. Try many different vibrato approaches (fast, slow, soulful, mellifluous, etc).

Most important, don't let your mind wander. When you find yourself thinking of anything other than vibrato (and you will, probably in the first few seconds), pull your mind back to the note. Your mind will wander off into thoughts such as "Am I doing this right?", then "Boy, what a waste of time this is!" Eventually, you'll find yourself thinking about your friends, your financial situation, what you did yesterday, what you're going to do tomorrow, and of course, "Let's eat!" This is the hard part. Just keep pulling your mind back to vibrating that note. It's a discipline worth working on.

Eventually, you'll exhaust all conventional vibrato approaches, all the ways you saw someone else do it. Then (if you have the discipline to continue), your mind will enter private realms and you will reach deeper into your own uniqueness for different ideas." - Excerpt from Steve Vai's "Martian Love Secrets" March, 1989.

So you may have to take baby steps with this one, especially if you have never attempted any kind of mind controlling discipline. Start with maybe just a few minutes, gradually building up to a full hour. If you try this and you are constantly discouraged and think "there is no way I can do this for a #%@*ing hour!", then I have some tips for you:

* Make sure you are completely secluded.
* Turn off the phone, TV, the computer monitor, anything that gives off artificial blue light.
* Have the lighting to your liking. Nature lover? Do it outside or next to an open window. Feeling more mellow? Sit in a room with dim lighting, or even no lighting.
* Pleasant smells can help. Light candles or some incense.
* Have a nice, tasty beverage right before the exercise. Some hot tea, or perhaps an adult beverage (providing you are of age, of course). This can help to relax you before you delve into your trance. Consider it "mental stretching". Not too much, though. You don't wanna have to use the bathroom in the middle of your meditation!

Another form of this musical meditation I have done is to take a scale or mode, select just a few notes (maybe 3 or 4), and just play around with those notes. Using many different techniques, tempos, and inflections with those few notes, I will eventually find something in there that I never would have found otherwise.

It's a tough thing to do, but it is so worth it. Try to do an hour of meditation once every week with your instrument. Not only will it improve your playing, it will deepen the connection you have with your instrument. It will help your fingers on the fretboard to translate some of the deepest thoughts and emotions into a truly unique musical voice.