From Boom Bap to Chamber Music: How Life Opened My Ears

Standing in the Eye of the Spiral: Navigating Life's Twists with GT

From Boom Bap to Chamber Music: How Life Opened My Ears

WARM UP. Good greetings to all those joining me today! It's been a partly cloudy day most of the day which was great for pickleball drilling before visiting the sanctuary. This week has turned out to be a productive one. I am taking up the task of streamlining techniques to gather data to track my patients progress. I am using a “physical therapist” approach that allows PTs to charge insurance companies for their service. I figure what I do has already helped no less than 25 people improve their pain, posture and gait, so why not start to prove it through a PTs “lens.” Also this week I got myself into a boxing gym to drill some defensive techniques with a coach.

My first foray into a boxing gym was short-lived. Those of you who know the gym “Crown Boxing” that’s where it started. Those of you who know who “Suga” Rasad Evans from Michigan State wrestling and being a UFC hall of famer was training occasionally at that gym during my short stint. About 2-3 weeks into doing their workouts and bag drills,  I was invited to spar with a 3-4 month vet of the gym. All it took was about 3-4 clean overhand rights over two rounds to land square on my already broken nose, that I SWEAR was coming out of nowhere, to break my warrior spirit at the time. I have been a fan of the UFC since the fifth grade and over all these expanse of years, I have watched, studied, and dreamt. My dreams were always of how terrible that must feel having your body beaten by another human for your paycheck, or even worse, a hobby. Or even beating on someone doesn't feel good at all. Although I will admit to you readers, I am the type that will do what needs to be done, and genuinely cry afterwards, from my own wounds of course, not from compassion! I’m lucky to have the warrior spirit, ‘cause my spirit itself is just plain sappy. So part of my warrior studies has me following a guy @coachbarryrobinson on IG. One of his stories highlighted “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” by Vince Guaraldi. Completely separate and a few days afterwards, we hear some music from one of the shows we are watching recently, and it ended up being by the same artist! These have launched my entire week's worth of music listening and motivated me to write and share my journey into music.

I grew up in a musical household. Meaning, we listened to what seems to be a lot of music consistently. My parents were collectors of the 60s, 70s and 80s disco and pop music. Records, record players and even 8 track players were prevalent at my house. Growing up I recall the radio nearly always being on, my Pop loved listening to music while grading papers. In about the fifth grade I was out trading some of my GI Joe’s to our neighborhood “hustler” (he had a knack for getting the best deals for your best toys at the time). He broke out a case of cassettes that must have been 50+ deep. Flipped MC Hammer “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” followed bby N.W.A’s ‘Straight Outta Compton” into his BOOMBOX and I was launched into a world of music (rap music)  I hadn’t ever heard before. “U Can’t Touch This” was “pop” on the radio, except the rest of that album wasn’t that, it was “rap.” It took until Tupac’s peak mainstream popularity to have me strictly listening to Rap, Hip Hop, or R&B at the time, which was about the seventh grade. By the ninth grade I recall being in this senior classmen's backseat riding over to our golf team practice and my mind exploded when Outkast's “ATLiens” disc went into the deck. By my senior year I was thinking about music as it’s either Rap, Hip Hop, or R&B or I’m not listening to it. I wouldn't tolerate anything else. This reminded me of the time my best friend at the time was driving us around in his parents car. This friend of mine had a way of patronizing me with music for his own laughs, which led me to launching his parents' Billy Joel disc from the window of their car. 

Senior year I was signed up for a “blow off” elective class called a “music appreciation.” Listen, imagine sitting and looking at the schedule choices with your buddies and reading “music appreciation.” We signed up and planned to do absolutely nothing in the back of that class for our easy A grade. Well, the teacher let it be anything BUT that. The teacher taught it in such a way that had me immersed. One of the best things he did with his teaching structure was to tell us right at the first class that we would explore music and its evolution from the 20s- current. He also made a clutch move of providing us with a small mix of music from various early periods and genres that I could not get enough of. From big band, swing, jazz, blues, the class opened up an entirely new perspective of music for me. One of my sibs who wasn’t quite as keen of my cassette being in the deck at the time, decided since I wouldn’t let them listen to something else, they would go ahead and start attacking me while I was driving. I mean lunged across the minivan I was driving, clawing at my face while I’m going down the road, endangering both our lives. You know, I guess music can really be serious business, guess ours wouldn’t have been the first lives lost over musical differences I’m sure! Similar to meditation in my life, having this musical intervention in my life is a great gift. Imagine being so narrow minded to have never heard any of your subjectively “favorite” music or songs across genres. Classical, classic rock, jazz, reggae, and the blues are now some of my favorite genres. Honestly there are fewer genres that I dislike or avoid than ones I’m willing to listen to. Now the list of individual artists can be quite lengthy, moving on! Before the intervention there was no way you would ever convince me there was any better music than what I was listening to at the time.

COOLDOWN. This eventually led me to going to musicals and orchestra symphonies. Recently I shed a tear at the beauty of a small ensemble in a “chamber” playing chamber music for us in the church. Being moved by musical resonance is just something else to experience. You have likely seen a conductor leading a symphony at some point. I used to love public television when they showed recordings of symphony orchestras and you had the conductor sweating it out heavily conducting pieces. Those were always my favorite. Perhaps one day I will conduct an orchestra and be that guy. I don’t play or read music so I’m sure that’s requisite so I better hop to it! Speaking of “hopping to it,” I have a few things to do before this evening's gathering and the week ahead. The end of the month is nearly here and we have bounced into a new spring equinox cycle. Take time to see what cycles you got going on, which ones can use some spring tidying, which ones should be stopped, and which ones to begin to spiral into existence.

Take Care, 

G$