Music explained

Some days ago I posted this on my instagram, asking the audience:

"Are you able to make the very point of this yourself?"

As it appeared too much hermetic for some and too much simplistic to others, here I am making some explanations.

First video shows me playing some variations on "Mosquito Song" by Queen of the Stone Age. Despite my rather mediocre self-taught guitar skills, I clearly have been displaying some main interpretations and different ways to play the same song:

- first, most basic version, mechanic execution, rather good but not remarkable;

- second, very similar but introducing more "sentimento", adding depth to notes and volume;

- third, extremizing the previous variations, each note played "alone" resulting in separated entities;

- fourth, playing on rhythm, more "breath", still aiming to create a dramatic effect;

- fifth, pace rushing to higher speed, bridge part played quietly in palm mute technique becoming a secondary element.

As you see, main structure is quite always the same, melody almost unaltered, picking same notes, but... result is different. Each of this variations add a more specific overall feeling, it can be dramatic, annoying, energetic, sad.

Now let's go to the parkour videos: they're showing me executing rather a simple line on rails, two vaults, a landing and steps in between.

At first glance it appears I'm moving slower or faster, playing a bit with rhythm. Rather correct but we've been hitting just the surface.

Second thing you'll notice is that I'm playing on volume, adding "depth" to the line, expressed in consciousness of each movement.

On a deeper layer I'm incorporating feelings, displaying anger or serenity, then images and concepts, that is primary expressed through the way I connect my body with the support. It can be just a light touch or engaging with floor in a spiral pressure, like my feet were screws.

Finally, I'm shifting my focus on different goals: to be fast, harmonious, effortless, powerful on takeoffs, silent and controlled on landings. Each of those philters and details are actively making the soup unsalty or really tasty and full of personality. And for many of these details that came to my experience I've to thanks an underrated movement practice such as the one of playing musical instruments.

Why is meaningful to explore a deeper level of details and how it can be implemented within our training.

I'm not prone to be too much sophisticated and unpractical on what I'm doing, so here a list of first use application of this concept:

- improving kinesthetic differentiation (efficiency, generating and distributing power, improving some conceptual practices such as stealth training);
- training footplacement and the way you connect to floor/surfaces;
- development of a personal "style" and adding colors to "self expression" through movement;
- experimenting different breath patterns and solutions (apnea vs regular vs distributed);
- overall improvement of sense of "flow".

Implementing this in our practice it's rather simple, it takes just a training aimed to repetitions (two birds with one stone) that includes a combo of few movements. Conceptually it's the same of training variations on a line, instead of using different vaults or looking for challenging upgrades of the same we're just playing on a micro-scale, focusing on all that lays under the tip of the iceberg.

Enjoy.

(link to extended video)