Breathing Music

[greengryphon]

When aware of respiration and the skin breathing while playing, the music produced is noticeably better. Has anyone found the same?

[Dead-Air]

Great topic!

Kind of depends what sort of music one is producing and what instruments one plays I think. When I play in the Dead Air Fresheners, I try to get into a total trance, which is a big part of why we wear masks. So to be honest, I'm not "aware" in normal terms of breathing or even senses as conventionally perceived. I'm so lost in the music that I might be part of it's breath.

Ornette Coleman, however, has a technique of circular breathing that makes his saxophone playing literally like something from another plane of reality. He calls this music harmalodic, and I don't think anyone could deny that what he does with breath is at the very core of existence.

[greengryphon]

Trance...is this type of experience replacing the everyday psycho-social hypnotic state with another form of hypnosis?

[Dead-Air]

I suppose that could be. Too me, it is more becoming one with the music and the experience on a level that those outside forces are no longer relevant.

[greengryphon]

The relevance of outside forces...well in a way there is no getting away from them, is there? I like the idea of interaction of self and outside via musical creation.

[Dead-Air]

Oh, I do too, in a different context. And yes, if something happens in a room it will have an effect, trance or no. But the room is no longer an "outside force" as it is very much a part of the experience.

[white wolf's son]

I remember listening to Pink Floyd's wish you were here album back in 1977 and felt so attuned to the music, it was also as if I was entranced.......haven't listened to it in a looooong time though.

[greengryphon]

...And yes, if something happens in a room it will have an effect, trance or no. But the room is no longer an "outside force" as it is very much a part of the experience.

Could be part of the experience...what of losing yourself in an experience?

[thingfish]

I find this also works in another way.
For instance when playing pulsing music and the drummer is tight on the four the adrenalin surge you get can make you feel everything around you sharper and you get more focussed.
Or maybe thats just me
An interesting phenomena though