I often wonder why it is that people will seek out beauty. Whether it be in the form of nature itself, beauty in the form of music, fine art, abstract art, photography, theatre etc. People may also find 'the beautiful' in the academic world too. In learning a language, in studying philosophy. Beauty is not only confined to what we commonly know it to be.
People are, and have been seeking out beauty intentionally for hundreds, if not thousands of years. You will see people at art museums, at the local theatre house, at symphony orchestras every week. What is it that draws them to such places? What is it about beauty that keeps people coming back?
There certainly seems to be a desire to 'see' something. Well it seems obvious doesn't it, they wouldn't be there if they didn't want to see it. But I am referring to something deeper. Why do they desire to seek it out? Might it be because they like it? But then, why do they like it? I think if you got down to the bottom of it, they would say because they desire to see beauty. Perhaps they would not use the word 'beauty' itself but they might say something like:
"I went to that play to get glimpse of something surreal"
"I love listening to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra because there is something 'other-worldly' about classical music"
"When I look at the works of Salvador Dali... words just escape me!"
There certainly is something inexpressible about most of the beautiful things we seek out and I believe it is that 'inexpressible feeling' that we are all seeking. This is saying something about us and who we are. On a personal level I find that after listening to my favourite classical piece 'Sueno en la Floresta' by Barrios, everything else seems much smaller in comparison. I was less bothered by little things and I felt I could see more clearly. Mind was clear, body relaxed. Calm and Tranquil. I think most of you will know 'what' I am talking about but may see it in a slightly different way. Still something I am trying to work out for myself so if you have any ideas, let me know :)
See you next week ;)
JL
PS: Hey guys! So this is my 3rd original I am uploading to Youtube and I have decided to make a music video out of it this time. I have tried to keep it simple to stick with the 'Less is More' idea so I hope you like it :)
So I just uploaded a new video a couple of days ago and at the end announced that I was taking part in this year's World's Greatest Shave.
For those of your who don't know it's a fundraiser run by the Leukaemia Foundation Australia to help raise money for blood cancer. In taking part the person raising the money has to shave their hair and so you'll all get to see that in my next video. Im not exactly looking forward to it but my hair grows pretty quickly so shouldn't be long before I am back to normal :).
My next video will also be an original and it is in the genre (I guess you could say) 'New 'Age'. A nice mix of electric and classical guitar. It is nothing too fancy, I've tried to keep it simple at least for now. I already have quite a few ideas for more upbeat pieces and those you will see in the near future :) So working title at the moment - Less is More - pretty typical of that I have been blogging about lately but an appropriate title for the piece nonetheless.
Thanks to everyone for the support in the World's Greatest Shave fundraiser. I have raised 75% of my $1000 goal and there is still just under two weeks to go! If anymore of you would like to help out I'll put a link down below to my sponsorship page. It's amazing what we can achieve some of the time with the help of others. I guess as humans that's what we're meant to do. I don't know of too many people who think they can make it through life on their own. At some point we all need somebody else to share life's laughs and burdens with.
'Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind'
That's how the wise man Solomon once put it regarding desire and envy. A lot of the time we are not at peace with what we have. We always want more. We always try to fill our lives with as much as we can just so we don't miss out on something.
Socrates the famous Greek philosopher said something similar in regard to this. He said those who are at peace with what they have are like a person who collects jars of honey from a bee hive. Once they have filled their jars they seal off the lid and store them away. They can rest easy. Their job is done. However, the one with a constant desire for pleasure is like one who is trying to collect honey from the bee hive but their jars are cracked and flawed. They spend all their time trying to fill the jars but really they are getting no where. It is a form self-enslavement. 'A chasing after the wind'. Meaningless really....
The photo above I took whilst in Hawaii. Along the side of a highway was a scenic spot. There lay a large area of ancient solidified lava that slowly led down to the ocean. I saw this rock and something about it struck me. It wasn't particularly fancy, nor very big. It just stood there. Tranquil. At peace. Well at least I thought that's what it would be feeling if it could think. It is just one of those moments that you feel you don't need anything else. That if all you had was food and clothing you could be content with that. Riches and fame didn't really matter. Why would they when I could have this experience for free? I was in my own place, my own state of mind and nothing was bothering me.
I think if we try to look for these moments more often we would find that they are all around us. I mean if a rock can do that to me then I'm sure a million other things could too. The most of obvious place I find this feeling is in music of course. Tiny little vibrations are grouped together to form patterns that we recognise as notes and melodies. These sounds are more than just particles hitting one another in air and finding their way to our ears in that they somehow can create a meaningful experience of beauty and peace. Instead of chasing the wind, why not listen to it....?
Sometimes we need to take a step back in order to move forward. Or so said my teaches back in high school. That's what I have been doing lately and after a lot of thinking and a couple of live gigs I think I might have actually found a sound. At least for the moment. I kind of found it going back to my roots.
The music that always inspired me the most even before I picked up the guitar was the music of Govi. I had no idea who he was but I loved the music. The pleasant blend of latin rhythms mixed with romantic melodic phrases and the occasional pan flute just left me in awe. I remember trying to figure out which genre of music it was and learning that is was called 'World' or 'New Age'. Since then that familiar sound has stuck with me and I have always been able to pick out other New Age artists. So is New Age my sound? Well yes and no. I want to be able to create that atmosphere that Govi created for me. Somewhat 'spanishy' yet contemplative. A sound that has a latin feel yet somewhat atmospheric. Rich romantic melodies but also spiced up with a little jazz. I wouldn't even know what to call the style. It certainly would be a mix and I don't think it could solely be based on one style or genre. But I feel it is what I am going to stick to in terms of originals for now.
We can often be so focussed on the future, or even the busy-ness of life in the present that we can forget where we came from and how we got here. Sometimes it's those moments between everything that we need to pause and reflect on the past. Reflection. That's another aspect I want my sound to have. As I said before 'contemplative'. I guess everything musician wants people to listen to their music and be taken to another place. To bring them into the writers mind. That is partially what I would want my music to create for others, yet I would also like to create a moment for people to reflect for themselves, on themselves. To give them a breathe of fresh air free from whatever else their lives had been consumed with. It's what I felt when I listened to Govi and it is my dream to do the same for you.
So when I'm not playing guitar, working, studying or wasting time on youtube I sometimes get my camera out with my very average 18-55mm lens and try to take a really nice photo. Most of the time I get caught up trying to make it fancy by adding all these effects and taking shots in very crowded areas to make the photo look busy and impressive; but it usually ends up being one that I am never happy with.
As with my music, when I am trying to create a melody or a 'solo' I am almost habitually inclined to try and make it complicated. Whether it be a complicated melody, a complicated solo, a complicated harmony, I always seem to try to make it 'hard' and often try in vain. Why? Well I guess it's that juvenile concept I still have about making things look impressive, and if it's not fast and complicated, it's no good right? Slowly I have learned that often simplicity can be a lot nicer than over complication and a lot more effective. You need to give people time to breathe. To take in the music, the notes. As I mentioned in a blog earlier 'Less is More'. That's not to say that fast and complicated music isn't good, some of the greatest pieces of music are so hard I wouldn't even be able to play the first two bars. But creating a fast and 'hard' melody for the sake of being fast and 'difficult' definitely misses the point of a melody. Sometimes one simple idea is all it takes.
Like the in the photo I took above (yes I know the lighting and exposure could be better) what attracted me was the 3 simple colours of the flower, the glasses, and the flower's stem. The image hardly has any depth (actually it is rather flat), and there was nothing difficult about taking the actual photo. It's just three flowers. Yet there is definitely an aesthetic quality in it's simplicity. Actually when you think about it life is a whole lot nicer when it's simple. When you don't have to worry about work, studying, exams, how to pay rent etc. you can actually just sit back and appreciate things for what they are. And sometimes we still then try to make things complicated for ourselves. We think, 'well I am relaxed now I can go and buy something else to pay off', or 'I can work towards something else that I haven't done yet' meanwhile creating the whole complicated lifestyle we just got out of not too long ago. Now I don't know if that is necessarily a bad thing or not, you tell me, but I do know that making things complicated for the sake of being complicated ain't going to do you any favours.
However, the funny thing is that sometimes, we find that the simpler songs are harder to perform. How do you stand out amongst the crowd of people that have played this song a hundred times? How do you write a nice simple melody over the same three chords that everyone else uses? How do you take a really great photo of a flower than a thousand people on flikr have shot? And so on and so forth.
Turns out less not only is more, but more work too.
Besides my rant on all that contradictory stuff (simplicity not being simple after all) I had a gig which went well about a week ago. Performed Manuel De Falla's 'La Vida Breve' and Paulo Belinati's 'Jongo'. Was definitely sweating by the end of them. Got a couple of weddings coming up and a new video in about a week. As well as a new original this month so make sure you stayed posted.
If you haven't seen my latest video let me know what you think.
