Kotsu Kotsu

I picked up a copy of Salvadore Dali's "50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship" in a bookstore. That guy who painted the melted clock, as you may know, was a groundbreaking surrealist painter, photographer and filmmaker, You may also know that Dali was famously an eccentric, egoistic self-promoter, famous for quotes like: "Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali"  In the book the artist promised to provide the key that would save modern art "from chaos and laziness." I admit, I was kind of fascinated in what Dali, the self proclaimed greatest artist of all time, offered to teach. The book is full of Dali's characteristic, flamboyant language. A lot of it seems to make no sense: "Begin, then, by knowing that according to the Dalinian aesthetic the tulip is a horrid thing next to celluloid"  But then there are whole passages of things like how to grind paint. What type of brush t...

I recently decided to learn a song . It’s one that’s typical of a certain Irish style of singing which is very wordy, often humorous, with lots of alliteration and  internal rhymes , and is sung quite fast. I’ve always been crappy at memorizing pretty much anything. For all that people call me talented and artistic, poetry reading and acting were never options for me. My aikido students  know that I can’t even remember the four basic principles: I get to three and then get stuck.  Memorizing a nine-verse song with long words that have to be exactly right or the rhymes don’t work, and no room for breathe or think? Out of the question. But I wanted to. And I was armed with some new tools for mastery that I've been using really successfully in my aikido and music practice.  So here’s what I did: Start with absolute confidence that it was possible .  Practice S-L-O-W-L-Y .  I have a cool program called Amazing Slow Downer . I set it up in my car t...

Photo ©2014, Stewart Dean, imagovitae.org The other day I was talking to a friend about the incredible performances we've seen on YouTube.    "Ah," he said, "Some people just have so much talent."    "Those people work really hard at it," I said.    "Yeah," said he, "but they're just talented to begin with." To me, that kind of thinking can make you want to give up practicing or playing. If you think you can only be good if you already have "talent," why begin? It's not always obvious how much training goes into being great at something. Most artists downplay the amount of time they spend practicing: it's not interesting to hear about, and it's so much more impressive when it looks easy! Why ruin the image? When we watch YouTube videos, we only see the results, not the hard work. After years of knowing, working with and playing with many musicians and artists, I'm convinced that nobody,...

I have to work hard to carve out time for practicing, and sometimes I lose track of the fact that I play music because I love playing. I don't know how it is for other people, but, especially when I'm playing alone at home, I have to remind myself sometimes to just play . Play for fun. Play for playing's sake. Sit on the front porch with my instrument and mess around. It makes me feel guilty to have free time and not use it to practice. So I tell myself that, yes, it's fun, but it will also help me improve. That makes it OK. Maybe I should just pay more attention to my cat...

I've been thinking lately about two ways to practice. Of course there are many ways to think about practice, but looking at things this way has helped me lately. I'll stick with a music analogy but it's easy to see how this applies to aikido, or to other things. Technique The goal of technique practice is to learn to do something correctly. Often that "something" is just a small element of the whole.  In this type of practice you usually stop when you make a mistake, fix the mistake, and try again. Or you may continue to work in rhythm without stopping, but you may slow down or simplify in some way until you can "get it right." Getting it right means not just the outer form: playing the notes or doing the correct movements, but the inner as well: remaining relaxed, staying focused, keeping good posture. Playing Through By "playing through" I mean playing the entire tune (or a significant section), keeping the beat, and not stopping...

I need to work on precision in my playing. Here's what I was told: "When you arpeggiate the chord or play just some of the notes instead of playing all the notes at once, it sounds like a crappy cocktail pianist and makes it obvious that you don't actually know what the voicing is." (I'm sure the actual words were much more friendly, compassionate and gentle but I got that message.) The fact is, I'm sloppy. I'm sloppy in my playing (all instruments) I'm sloppy in my aikido technique I'm sloppy in my speech, both in my enunciation and the words I use I'm a sloppy knitter, cook and gardener, and probably a sloppy driver On the positive side, I'm reasonably accomplished in all these things. Except maybe knitting. So I'm pretty sure that once I shine the beacon of my attention on this issue, if I shine it with some consistency, I will start to see progress in all areas, not just one.  Well, maybe not the knitting.

Often when beginning students practice an aikido technique they are frustrated at their inability to do the techniques correctly. (Actually, although they may be working on a different level of refinement, advanced students often feel the same way!) I have had students ask me whether we couldn't just focus on a few techniques until they get them "right," and then progress on to the next set, etc. I have never taught that way, mostly because my instructor doesn't teach that way, and Sensei doesn't teach that way. After a number of years, I realized that I did have a grasp of a great number of techniques, although I never remember devoting particular attention to any one. It was my piano teacher, David Leonhardt , who articulated why this worked in a lesson this morning. I asked, "Are you sure I should be moving on to the next exercise? I'm still pretty sloppy on this one in a lot of ways." He said, "Your goal in playing music isn't t...