Musical Vibes

 

In "raw" creativity which involves work, it is almost impossible to always have to stop in mid-stream and re-analyze what you're doing. When I'm playing an instrument I must turn off the frontal lobe. There's just too much thinking and analysis there. It's a "System 1" phenomenon--as in Kahnemann's theory. Also, it's a part of a decision I've made not to be too philosophical, or simply to be present in the moment without doing anything. But I'm a "do-er" by nature, as opposed to a be-er. I've felt that the world presents more possibilities while you're in motion, but either you're moving and/or the world is moving around you.

A question was asked on Quora: "Is a lot of the music or the majority of music low-vibrational music and does it form low vibration to manifest negativity into your life?"

This will depend on how “higher vibrational” music is defined. 

The Chakra System is an interesting metaphor to apply. I’ve dabbled in this area (such as using Bhajans and African rhythm styles in the music I’ve played and composed), but I sometimes found it in conflict with my more sincere intentions, and would result in too much analysis about the function of the music and whether it was too insincere or poaching other cultures. The takeaway might be to have a general awareness of a range of levels and then inhabit those levels without identifying with them or feeling intimately responsible for them. 

It is important to distance oneself from art. It is all artifice after all even if there is some emotional investment in it. You can’t take it too seriously. It’s not the real “you”.

Tori Amos interesting in this respect: Her songwriting is “channeled” through characters and myths, but she is not trapped in those elements.

I feel free to borrow elements from certain ethnic musics, but I’m only using them for the musical aspects and not thinking too deeply about the metaphysics. Influence has its limits in my view and I usually focus on the music itself. But it depends on the context: in some cases a piece might need to be more reverent, in which case the meaning would be more important in order for it to have proper cultural resonance (or “vibration”).