Stay Curious

Exhausted.  Simply no more economical way to state this.  Napped, had dinner, and then watched a CSI. At the beginning of this investigation, one of the team asked Grissom how they would deal with all the information at this crime scene.  "Stay curious," was his reply.  Hell yes, was my response to Grissom's answer.

As I was resting in my chair, watching this show, I became curious as to how I would connect with my body in this exhausted state? How would I connect with my guitar? I could call it a night off and even I would not fault me for this.  But then the sheer joy and exhilaration that pulsed through me the past evenings, when I was also wiped out, nudged me.  Again my work tonight may not be of a long duration, but I will pick up my guitar was the decision I arrived at.

To prepare myself, I began with an AT lie down.  Surprised to find that my back did not ache at all, I did notice that my attention wandered immensely.  Grissoms words returned to me, how might I be curious with my guitar?   A thought emerged to pick one note on one of the middle strings, in the middle of the neck, and explore the various dyads available to my hand.  And so I did.

Nothing happened; and yet everything happened.  I was playing, listening, even singing some of the intervals.  Then I let go and played through Here We Are.  I noticed that being exhausted my body was somehow different while playing.  Certain habitual reactions were not kicking in.  I began to improvise and then let go of this also.  I thought of playing White to see where this was, but instead I began to just play around.  A dyad followed by a harmonic, followed by another dyad and a harmonic had my attention.  Following where this might lead me, I was engaged, delighted even. 

I paused to stretch a bit, and then returned to the guitar.  I played through the idea again, and then recorded this potential beginning.  Further investigations did not take develop this further, though I did discover an underlying emotional theme.  Letting go, I have a bridge to my practice tomorrow, and more importantly a connection to music today.

Be curious, not judgmental.
Walt Whitman