thanks all for checking out the new episode and for the feedback!
I think the stories about the Revival Drums show + Simon Scottās set are some of my favorite anecdotes thus far. Iām so glad Marcus shared those bits, as they highlight what @nuun connected with ā understanding your tools is key. That knowledge helps keep the ego out of the equation, so that opportunities for exploration and play donāt pass unnoticed / unfulfilled.
Itās funny: before the conversation, I had written a sprawl of thoughts because I really wanted to nail down the āsecret sauceā of his systems and process. I kept thinking that there had to be a larger structure to his live performances. And it really does feel like comes down to mastery of tools. Then, with all improvisation, listening and reactingā¦but I wonder how well we can listen when weāre grappling with the barriers erected by poor understanding of the objects weāre using? My own thoughts of ānew box will make me betterā definitely stand in the way of learning what Iāve got. And what happens when we use these half-learned tools in front of others? @Rodrigo sums this up really well in a blog entry I seem to reference every other post:
Having a figurative or literal ābag of toysā is fantastic as an improviser. You have access to worlds of sounds and performance techniques that wouldnāt have otherwise. But itās very easy to get sucked in to an accountant-like housekeeping when playing with objects and unusual performance techniques. Musicality gets left behind as a consideration and it becomes more about cataloging the objects/approaches, often in a subconscious way. Improvisations donāt need to be a survey of every possible sound or approach.
[ā¦]
As someone who largely hits things with other things, this is of particular interest. Each stick/beater/actuator takes some housekeeping to set up, and moving between playing surfaces equally requires some physical/mental overhead. It takes a keen discipline to override this tendency and desire to āmake the most out of itā, but I have found that listening with āreal-time earsā instead of āperformer earsā makes a huge difference here. Sometimes the most perfect use of a toy is when it is used only once.
Discipline and restraint, then, seem related to this mastery.
Beginnerās mind is also something that I come back to a lot. The first few days of exploring new thing, weāre caught in this boundless joy. Itās easy to think that everything weāre doing with new thing is the best stuff weāve ever done. Of course, to paraphrase something @tehn recently said, the 10,000 other people who just bought new thing are likely making the same discoveries. Persevering past this and THEN past the internal script that gets established when you use thing to get to a point of substance seems to require balance between discovery and disciplined use.
tl;dr
Marcus can make wonderful textures with a fuckinā pinecone because he knows his tools. At this point, I donāt need another plug-in or module, I need to learn the shit Iāve got.
