[Harp-L] Re: Creativity

[Wolf Kristiansen <wolfkristiansen@xxxxxxxx>]

I find the thoughful comments on creativity in
harmonica playing very interesting.  I find the
insults and barbs between some of the contributors
entertaining, but in the end can do without them,
because, if left unchecked, they take up too much
space and have little to do with what we all love, the
harmonica.

I am a blues harmonica player, nothing more, nothing
less.  If my chosen instrument were oboe, I would be
playing "blues oboe" on this earth. So the comments
that follow come from the perspective of a blues
player, which I am guessing describes about half of
the contributors to this list.

I don't think of myself as being particularly
creative.  I've written two songs in my life.  But
I've been playing for 30 years, and intend to play for
another 30. I backed up Albert Collins and John Lee
Hooker in my younger days. Most of my playing is on
stage, in front of an audience, and with a beer or
three inside me.  I still get stage fright if I'm
stone cold sober. 

When I think about it, I create every time I'm on
stage. I never play exactly the same.  Sure, I play
patterns, but there are subtle variations in the
patterns whenever I play.  There are also subtle
variations in the rhythm. 

But my greatest creativity comes when I, and my fellow
musicians, get collectively "in the zone".  This has
been well described by other posters in this thread,
and it's real.

For me, as a blues lover, it can also be described as
being when I truly "feel the blues" inside me.  It's
bursting to come out. It feels like an overflowing
spring. At times like that, my rhythm is effortless
(other times I struggle), my melodic and harmonic
ideas come effortlessly and spontaneously, and I truly
create! I play outside of my patterns.

Sometimes I hear recordings of those magic moments,
and try to create them the next time I play.  It
rarely works.

The recent posters are right, this kind of creativity
doesn't come solely from within.  It comes from
somewhere "out there". Where? I don't know. I'm an
atheist, I think, but there's something otherworldly
going on.  

When it does happen, it's the most satisfying feeling
in the world.  For both the performer and the
audience.  Make no mistake, the audience hears it when
you are "in the zone".  It electrifies them. I'm not
talking about the way they're moved to whistle and
cheer when a musician puts on a big show by playing
fast and loud and grimacing a lot. I'm talking about
the playing that leaves them in a trance. You know
that happens when there's a one or two second delay
before they applaud.  During those seconds, they're
busy coming back to earth after being transported to
another world.

And of course, that feeling, where you're creating in
every bar of the music, is better than any other
feeling, including sex.  Please don't tell our wives,
(or husbands, for the female players on the list).



      Get a sneak peak at messages with a handy reading pane with All new Yahoo! Mail: http://mrd.mail.yahoo.com/try_beta?.intl=ca