A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through
words.
This may sound easy. It isn't.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel—but that's
thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is
feeling—not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single
human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think
or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the
moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night
and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest
battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
As for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words, that means working
just a little harder than anybody who isn't a poet can possible
imagine. Why? Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like
somebody else. We all of us do exactly this nearly all of the
time—and whenever we do it, we are not poets.
If, at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and
working and feeling, you find you've written one line of one poem,
you'll be very lucky indeed.
And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is: do
something easy, like learning how to blow up the world—unless you're
not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die.
The wonderful master xylophonist Bernard Woma will be returning to New York City this coming February, with his Saakumu Dance Troupe from Ghana. They will be on tour from February 25-28th. I will be coordinating a BML workshop with him during that time so please check back if you are interested - we will start posting announcements around January.
I highly suggest his school, the Dagara Music Center, in Medie, Ghana; which is having its 10th anniversary this coming May 2010. It is available to students, and according to http://dagaramusic.com/school, the rates (including stay) are $40/day.
Here is a video filmed with fellow BML teachers Colin Killalea and Robby Sinclair. It was conceived and wonderfully shot and edited by my brother, Travis Brooks. The music was written by Colin Killalea and performed by Pocketknife.
The most important tool in getting better on any instrument is a good practice schedule. This multi-part article covers the 4 areas that I find to be most important when practicing saxophone:
Depending on the time I have available to practice, I split these four areas up over as little as 30 minutes or as much as 12 hours. It is important to note that these exercises can be applied to all levels of saxophone ability!
AREA 1 - SOUND PRODUCTION
Part 1a - Embouchure and Long Tones
Sound is the most important area of saxophone. If you have a good sound and can only play three notes, at least people will still want to hear those three notes. As a basic starter to making a sound on the saxophone it is important to point out that the bottom lip covers the bottom teeth and the reed sits on top of the bottom lip. The upper lip does not cover the upper teeth and the teeth directly touch the top of the mouthpiece. The top of the tongue should be touching your top teeth in the back, while the mouthpiece enters your mouth at an angle. Try to place the air into the top of the mouthpiece, do not blow directly into the mouthpiece. After you have made a few sounds it is time to get used to producing the sound.
Saxophonists often talk about "long tones". It isn't a big secret, you just play one note for an extended period of time. Place your favorite metronome at 60 BPM and start with G. (If you are advanced start with the lowest Bb and go to the high F chromatically). To practice the long tone start playing soft and crescendo (get louder) over 4 beats, for the next 4 beats decrescendo (get softer). That is a total of 8 beats. Then add a beat to each side, meaning 5 beats while you crescendo, and 5 beats while you decrescendo for a total of 10 beats. I recommend going at the very least 8 beats on both sides, 16 all together. If you feel you need and can take more go for it.
Don't worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn't matter.
We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.
The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world's harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.
So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.
This singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.
Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!
They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can't see.
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the centre of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.
