The Stretch

Towards the end of my practice on Monday I played a C# sus4 chord against an open C. I liked how it sounded and played around with it. Moved to another chord that I could tell was outside the scale of  the first chord so I did a little work with pitch inventory. Decided I was working around C phyrgian with the first chord and what google told me was a Romanian Major scale with the second.

Looked at this again yesterday and was still intrigued with it. Had read about Verdi's C Enigmatic scale so I moved the melodies in that direction. Now what the hell did I think I was doing? This is a new approach for me and decided that if nothing else I might learn something. I played around with it again this afternoon, trimming some notes, altering their values, but I was still unclear.

After a long walk in the surf I  jotted the following in my journal:
What is going on with these 3 scales. I am wondering if this melody was conveying any emotion or just an intellectual exercise. Perhaps this was a path that would lead to another path. What is certain is that I am probing; stretching my knowledge a bit. In itself this is worthy. All efforts interpenetrate all other efforts. One act of learning supports all acts of learning.

After dinner I posted the following status on FaceBook - " Returning to some melodies that are stretching me. While I know this is good, one part of me would rather leave it be and do something easy." Once again resistance rear's it's ugly little head. I've been discussing this with my wife lately and she wrote a post on being Comfortable With Discomfort earlier today. So I nudged forward. Played through the melodies with attention and heard what is there. At one point I found my body a bit tangled up.

I put down my guitar and thought through the Alexander Technique directions. Freeing up my body I then told myself that I am free to write this piece. Eventually the next section was revealed to me. Again due to poor use of self I was tense. After a short walk, this section was taken a bit further and I found a connection to the beginning of the piece. My left hand was tired and it was getting late so I let go for tonight. I did an AT lie down and then began writing. A great day in the creative life. Something learned physically, mentally, & emotionally.

To rest.