Sonny Rollins interview
Found this interview with Sonny Rollins recently (via the Bill Frisell Facebook page):
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/03/309047616/sonny-rollins-you-cant-think-and-play-at-the-same-time
I found the whole interview enlightening. It's worth a read/listen. But I found Sonny's answer to the question, "What has yoga brought to your playing?" particularly interesting:
"Well, it's the concentration level. A lot of people think of yoga as the exercises — hatha yoga — which is only one form. There are other forms of yoga, and they are more contemplative, introspective, meditational. The thing is this: When I play, what I try to do is to reach my subconscious level. I don't want to overtly think about anything, because you can't think and play at the same time — believe me, I've tried it (laughs). It goes by too fast. So when you're into yoga and when you're into improvisation, you want to reach that other level."
I'm curious if anyone else here has tried various forms of mediation, yoga or other, to try to better channel their subconscious mind through their playing.
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/03/309047616/sonny-rollins-you-cant-think-and-play-at-the-same-time
I found the whole interview enlightening. It's worth a read/listen. But I found Sonny's answer to the question, "What has yoga brought to your playing?" particularly interesting:
"Well, it's the concentration level. A lot of people think of yoga as the exercises — hatha yoga — which is only one form. There are other forms of yoga, and they are more contemplative, introspective, meditational. The thing is this: When I play, what I try to do is to reach my subconscious level. I don't want to overtly think about anything, because you can't think and play at the same time — believe me, I've tried it (laughs). It goes by too fast. So when you're into yoga and when you're into improvisation, you want to reach that other level."
I'm curious if anyone else here has tried various forms of mediation, yoga or other, to try to better channel their subconscious mind through their playing.
Comments
That said, I will say that the things I do on guitar fall into two categories: (a) stuff I can play easily without thinking about it, and (b) stuff I have not internalized and wouldn't pull out in a gig unless I was feeling really confident and relaxed.
Maybe that's similar, or maybe that's a superficial interpretation of Bill's comment.