Kung fu piano playing

Not as weird as it sounds. This pianist has developed an idea of continuous music and which necessitates long periods of piano playing sometimes culminating in 19 notes a second being played. Lubomyr Melnyk says that this requires a martial arts mindset: in order to achieve this speed one needs to turn one's body "into water".

"The technique is based on a martial arts, kung fu use of the body and the energy"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16794606

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubomyr_Melnyk

Be water, my friend…..

More on music

Dave Russell

08 July at 08:11----

Hey up Chris,

I'm trying hard to learn a piece of country guitar at the moment which comes off a tuitional DVD, which involves copying what the guy does note for note and I was struck by a parallel with martial arts. Naturally, I want to know what you think.

All the note for note stuff that we learn, like I'm doing currently, or like learning a solo, or intro exactly is like the choreographed floor routines that you have to learn in martial arts (I wish I could remember the proper word, but you know what I mean).

This then gives you ideas and armoury to engage in improvisation, which is like sparring, or combat.

What think?

Christopher Littlefair

08 July at 17:07 ----

Oh, Oh! Nice one! I think I'll be able to expand a blog entry I did about this once. And yours is a slightly different take on it.

Here's my article:http://diaryofamartialartist.blogspot.com/2009/02/rhythm-in-hyungs-kata.html

I think it is very similar, if not exactly the same sort of learning process. We drill a lot on individual techniques, then build them up into sequences (especially in forms and kata) then take it further into free fighting which is, as you say, a direct parallel with music learning. Equally each of these exercises are valid in their own right. It's perfectly reasonable to perform kata on their own just as it is to free fight. On the guitar you might happily play a known song which you have to follow: that is to say a pre-determined sequence like kata, or you might want to improvise/create new songs, like free fighting creates 'new' forms of expressing oneself in combat.

Neat comparison Mr Russell!

More music entries.

Japanese warrior woman

Ok, so technically, Yoko Noge isn't a warrior woman in the sense of a fighting woman but man, what a life! I listened to her amazing life story on this radio documentary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00b4mhx

This Japanese woman moved to Chicago to follow her passion: blues music. Upon arrival she was asked to sing in a club and has been ever since. Initially she and her husband fought poverty but kept their spirit with their music and their relationships which they forged in the poor neighbourhood where they lived. "It's been always poor but you see always toughness in human beings".

She says of that time, "it gives me the feeling back of a time when I really wasn't sure of myself and wasn't sure of anything but this interest to the music". Her slight Japanese accent stuttering only over int-ter-est only endears you more to her.

Indomitable spirit, passion and drive.

Rhythm in hyungs (kata)

A brief training session in the garden today threw up the idea of rhythm within hyung or kata.

Although my main focus currently is Shorinji Kempo I still like to keep to date with my Tang Soo Do forms and as I was running through them today I was focusing on recalling them thoroughly, moving fluidly (thanks to this blog) and having strong techniques (not flopping my arms around just for the sake of trying to recall the hyungs). Along with these ideas another one came to mind and that is rhythm in forms. There is a natural rhythm to forms. I don't mean consistent and unchanging one-a-two-a-three-a-four-a- throughout.... Music is often syncopated to make it sound more interesting and music uses crescendo, diminuendo, staccato, stopping and so on. This gives more feeling to the music and helps tell a story more accurately.

Forms do tell a story but they should do much more too, so it's important to know when to pause, when to run two or three techniques together and when to speed up or slow down. Often in the lower forms there is a short pause after the punch but the block-punch is somewhat run together. So the tempo would be 'block-punch, block-punch'. This example is not a universal truth throughout all forms practice but it illustrates that forms must be performed with this 'punctuation' in mind otherwise it turns into one long chain of techniques. If you don't know where this punctuatino is in your forms, my advice is to find out!

Pyung ahn Ee Dan performed by a Tang Soo Do master and followed by Heian Nidan by a Japanese sensei. Both different interpretations of this same form but both with a rhythm to it punctuated by pauses, linking techniques together, crescendo and diminuendo (If you don't like the music analogy try thinking of commas, semi-colons, full stops...).

Music and focus

I studied art to A level and loved it! It helped that our sixth form teacher was a passionate artist, well known locally, and his lessons never failed to inject us with enthusiasm.

One day I heard that while we were all sketching outside (as we'd been told to) Big Sharpey had been admonished by Big Bob Watson for wearing his Walkman. Remember those?- Yup the things that used to play cassettes? I know it seems unreal but there you are. That was the 1980s. Mr Watson wanted Sharpey to feel the atmosphere, hear all the sounds which really add up to the illustrative experience. Feel it and it'll come out in the art.

Anyway we were all on Sharpey's side of course. Well he was our chum. And he was big! We didn't really get what Big Bob (er, I mean Mr) Watson really meant by this seemingly killjoy attitude.

But I do now. I own an ipod and I love music (don't get me started!) but if not carefully listened to music becomes part of the background, numbing the senses (not only the hearing!) so that neither the music is really enjoyed, nor the activity being partaken of. I still need music but there are moments when an appreciation of stillness is needed. That's why I don't listen to music while practicing martial arts. So I can hear and feel everything and be completely lost in the moment of my experience. That's true training. Full commitment to the task in hand.

So Bob Watson didn't realise he was a martial artist. Maybe he didn't realise he had a warrior spirit but he certainly had an appreciation of the moment.

Thanks Bob.