Behold...

This is something I found on a site that I dont even remember how I got to. But at first I thought it was written by Robert Fripp. And if you dont know who Robert Fripp is then too bad cause Im not telling. But I dont think it was actually written by him, it was just something he relayed to someone from a magazine in Argentina or somewhere that related to his own feelings on music and connections within it.

"The musician acquires discipline in order to operate reliably and efficiently in the world. Discipline confers the capacity to be effectual in time. We begin by practising, and in time this becomes a practice. A practice is the external form of any discipline, and may be considered as a body of exercises, techniques and principles of working which make recognisable the identity of any particular practice. The exercises and techniques are specific to the particular practice, the principles underlying them are common to all.

The musician has three disciplines: of the head, the heart and the hands. The exercises and techniques of the practice therefore address the cognitive, affective and motor skills of the student. The aim is to acquire a balanced functioning of all three. The three disciplines are there for actually one discipline. The acquisition of this discipline is impossible without our capacity to experience, and to experience our experiencing. The functions of thinking, feeling and organic sensation are each seats of insight, or perceptual "organs", into different kinds of experience. The development of our experiencing, our perceptual abilities, through these three functions is the beginning of any practice. When a school of craft undertakes an action or undertaking in the world, it develops a body of practices to train those who wish to become part of that action. Traditionally, these are called apprentices.

A practice addresses the "what" and "how" of what we do. The "why" is determined by the particular craft of which the practice is a part. The practice is the visible side of craft and is generally referred to as technique. In a school of music, it prepares the apprentice musician for performance. The greater the technique, the less it is apparent. The apprentice musician plays music. When music plays the musician, the invisible side of the craft has presented itself. Then, the apprentice sees directly for themself what is actually and really involved. A performance of music becomes the act of music, in which process and content are inseparable. A school of craft aims to create conditions under which this experience becomes available to its apprentices. At this point, the concern for technique per se is placed in perspective.

XIII

Expectation closes our ears to what is happening in the moment.
Listening is how we eat music.
Hearing is how we digest it.
Hearing transforms sound into music.
Listening is a craft.
Hearing is an art.
Listening changes the performance to which we are listening.
Music changes when people hear it.
What we hear is the quality of our listening.
Our understanding changes what it is that we understand.
Silence is the field of creative musical intelligence which dwells in the space between the notes, and holds them in place.
Silence is a bridge between worlds.
The science is in knowing, the art is in perceiving.
The future is what the present can bear.
The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world.
How we think of our world governs how we interpret our world.
How we interpret our world directs how we participate in it.
How we participate in the world shapes the world.
The presence of absence is an entry into loss.
Things are not as bad as they seem.
They are worse than that.
They are also better than that."

November 1st.1996.
San Jose
Seminary, Gandara, Argentina.

I thought that to be very very well worded and is as of now one of my favorite peices of musical explanation for someone like myself who is very eager to know about this sort of thing. As I have thought of things of that nature but have not found the right words to express how I feel about it. I think that article puts it in good perspective. Well ya know, some of it. Anyway, have a good day.