Octopi: Training, Guidelines for Practicing Musical Instrument, Relaxation Response

Training can be invaluable for

~ eliciting the relaxation response {viz. meditation ~ it's helpful to keep ahimsa ~ nonharming ~ in mind}

~ different kinds of 'runner's highs'

~ developing 'flow'

~ building stamina

~ learning technique

~ developing physical fitness and strength when practicing ...



Vis-à-vis these ~

Guidelines for Practicing a Musical Instrument



Friends,

Here are 12 Guidelines for Practicing a Musical Instrument

By Wynton Marsalis and Yo-Yo Ma



INSPIRATION

1 Seek out private instruction.

2 Write out a schedule, a plan with goals. (Choose pieces you enjoy playing – S.M.).
Yo-yo Ma says, never make a sound without hearing it first; hear it in your mind.

3 Set goals to chart development.

4 Concentrate when you practice.
Yo-yo says join feelings into your music when you feel bad, to integrate your feelings with your mind and body.

5 Relax and practice slowly.

6 Practice hard parts longer.

7 Practice expressively.
Be serious – invest yourself expressively.

8 Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Learn from your mistakes.

9 Don’t show off.

10 Think for yourself.
Don’t become a robot, but don’t dismiss what you’re taught.

11 Be optimistic.
Nothing sounds worse than pessimism coming through a horn.

12 Look for connections. (Make the social aspect of practicing regenerative - S.M.)
Music washes away the dust of everyday life from your feet.


Enjoy,
Scott

scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingMusicalInstrument.htm


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Relaxation Response ... http://relaxationresponse.org/steps/ is nice to return while 'training,' and while playing itself ...



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How to train for loving bliss? :)



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Here's a start:)


Guidelines for practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis practicing a musical instrument



Articulating 12 Guidelines for Practicing a Musical Instrument (by Marsalis and Ma) with developing how to practice loving bliss

Friends,

Here are some practices to elicit loving bliss with which I'm beginning to articulate these 12 'how-to' guidelines below:). And here are what I think is love in some of its best senses. In the following ideas and explorations of how we might 'practice' loving bliss, as we would practice a musical instrument, I assume our bodyminds are like musical instruments. {Feel free to print, below, and add to this}. As I'm presently thinking about this, I'd love your thoughts about this ~ scott@scottmacleod.com.


INSPIRATION

~ Keep the 'vision' of making music in your mind

~ Make eliciting loving bliss, as practice, enjoyable (omega-3 fatty acids, 1000 mg flax seed oil, 3 times per day, as a basis?)



1 Seek out private instruction.

> ... for modeling and teaching qualities of loving bliss
> With whom?
> Might interactive media via the Internet help give shape to this, without private instruction?

2 Write out a schedule, a plan with goals. (Choose pieces you enjoy playing – S.M.).
Yo-yo Ma says, never make a sound without hearing it first; hear it in your mind.

> Are there 'loving bliss' musical pieces?
> What are the skills of loving bliss?
> Develop techniques of loving bliss, such as 'tuning,' expressiveness, breathing, relaxing, eliciting, remembering

> Questions vis-a-vis 'flow: the psychology of optimal experience' - choose learning situations for this
> Reading and engaging 'loving bliss in its best senses'


3 Set goals to chart development.

> These qualities of brain neurophysiology, then those qualities of brain neurophysiology?
> Engage a teacher for this goal charting
> Use a technology (what machines exist now that measure, or provide biofeedback about, loving bliss?)
> Use language, as a kind of technology
> Use your own inner sense of loving bliss 'response,' and then build on this
> Synthesize arts like Watsu {water shiatsu} with loving bliss, to develop ways to chart development


4 Concentrate when you practice.
Yo-yo says join feelings into your music when you feel bad, to integrate your feelings with your mind and body.

> Use feelings to integrate you as a musical instrument when you feel bad, then ~>
> Relax into the relaxation response
> Elicit the 'bubbling up' phase of loving bliss


> While listening to music
> While dancing
> While exploring positive emotions
> While eliciting loving bliss with a friend


5 Relax and practice slowly.

> Relaxation response, breathing, eliciting, 'practices to elicit loving bliss,' with your mind releasing
> Find pools of warm water to practice eliciting loving bliss, with ease and focus
> Find a friend to do this with


6 Practice hard parts longer.

> Go into, or release richly into, loving bliss?
> For transcendent & heightened experiences of loving bliss, focus on these often, and with depth

7 Practice expressively.
Be serious – invest yourself expressively.

> Let go into loving bliss fulsomely, imaginatively, exploratorily
> Bring emotion and 'oomph' to this practice
> Engage music (especially classical) as reference experiences


8 Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Learn from your mistakes.

> Focus, after not concentrating, - and care for yourself, while generating loving bliss


9 Don’t show off.

> A kind of Taoist approach {masking the brightness - (Feng and English 1975: #4)}?
> Don't put your loving bliss on display
> And also let your loving bliss shine out, especially when regenerative, and with friends who are also exploring this


10 Think for yourself.
Don’t become a robot, but don’t dismiss what you’re taught.

> Innovate vis-à-vis eliciting loving bliss
> Learn loving bliss techniques, as if learning Watsu (water shiatsu}, and with focus
> Don't repeat loving bliss 'techniques' by rote (e.g. by listening to Mozart's "Magic Flute" or dancing to elicit loving bliss ~> cultivate loving bliss with relaxed intention)
> I think all of the above have quite explicit biochemical, neurophysiological correlates, that, when known, we might begin to orchestrate profoundly, - keep thinking


11 Be optimistic.
Nothing sounds worse than pessimism coming through a horn.

> Cultivate optimism with loving bliss - it might be difficult not to


12 Look for connections. (Make the social aspect of practicing regenerative - S.M.)
Music washes away the dust of everyday life from your feet.

> Orient your mind to connecting with

* your own neurophysiology of loving bliss
* to other people~friends who are exploring this
* to innovating vis-à-vis generating loving bliss

> Explore doing this in multiple networks in your life (including playing musical instruments together:)
> Let's create a remarkable & profound language and culture for this


Warm regards,
Scott


scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingLovingBlissvavMusicalInstrument.htm


MMmmmm, music .... :)