2009.04.04 19:00 - Music

The Guardian for this meeting was Pila Mulligan. The comments are by Pila Mulligan.  The photos are from Wikipedia's public domain.

 Before this session began, I received a ukulele script and opened it to see what it would do -- it actually played part of a Hawaiian song named 'Maui'  -- I was so involved with it I did not see SophiaSharon and Bertrum arrive :)

SophiaSharon Larnia: HI Pila
SophiaSharon Larnia: lovely ukulele
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Pila Mulligan: HI sOPHIAsHARON
Pila Mulligan: HI bERT
SophiaSharon Larnia: HI Bertrum
Pila Mulligan: oops, pardon caps
Bertrum Quan: hi Pila, Sophia
Pila Mulligan: someone just gave me this and I was trying to figure it out
SophiaSharon Larnia: ~ floats to the music~
Pila Mulligan: sorry, I did not see you arrive :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: it seems I do not need to come here, there is so much great stuff in the chat logs :))
Pila Mulligan: how are you?
Pila Mulligan: but you could not hear the ukulele music in the chat logs :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: great :) oh yes you are right *grin*
Bertrum Quan: tell us about the music
Pila Mulligan: the ukeulele came with only one song, 'Maui'
Pila Mulligan: it is a nice one
Pila Mulligan: but it was not playing smoothly in the script
Pila Mulligan: uku = flea lele = jumping, by the way :)
Pila Mulligan: a ukulele being played looks like a jumping flea sometimes
SophiaSharon Larnia: haha
SophiaSharon Larnia: i bought a rebec and tamborine here but dont play with them much
Pila Mulligan: cool
Pila Mulligan: what is a rebec?
SophiaSharon Larnia: haha i didnt know either, a string instrument
Pila Mulligan: does it make music?
Pila Mulligan: the SL version?
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes i have to figure it out again
SophiaSharon Larnia: lol i bought whan i first got here
Pila Mulligan: :)

            SophiaSharon got out her rebec and fiddled with it

SophiaSharon Larnia: having trouble sorries

Pila Mulligan: frm wiki: 'The rebec dates back to the Middle Ages and was particularly popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. The instrument is European, but was derived from the Arabic instrument, the rebab'

Pila Mulligan: ok

SophiaSharon Larnia: thank you *smiles*
SophiaSharon Larnia: nvm will figure it out later
Pila Mulligan: any thoughts for a PaB chat topic?
Bertrum Quan: Pila, you were playing music as we arrived. Perhaps music should be a topic to begin with.
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: it would be nice to be able to have a jam session in SL
SophiaSharon Larnia: listening to music can change my mood faster than most things
Pila Mulligan: me too Soph
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes that would be awesome
SophiaSharon Larnia: i have tried to find a drum circle here, but there are none like one i am thinking, maybe i will make on ;)
Pila Mulligan: have you seen any SL drum circles?
SophiaSharon Larnia: no just the elven ones
Pila Mulligan: I saw one once where you could choos a drum and then choose a rhythm
SophiaSharon Larnia: there are 1 or 2 but havent been there with a bunch of people
SophiaSharon Larnia: oh yes
Pila Mulligan: but then the drum just played what you chose
SophiaSharon Larnia: i love rl drum cirlces
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes
Pila Mulligan: me too
Pila Mulligan: I have had a doumbec for a long time
SophiaSharon Larnia: cool
Pila Mulligan: have you seen a doumbec Bert?
Pila Mulligan: a ceramic drum, looks like a pipe :)
Bertrum Quan: I'm not sure... I don't think so,
Pila Mulligan: it has a deeper note when you strike the middle of the head, it souns like 'doum'
Pila Mulligan: and a higher tonal note when you strike near the edge, a 'bec'
Pila Mulligan: hence doum-bec
SophiaSharon Larnia: i can hear it now :)
Pila Mulligan: dooum bece doum bec doum bec bec
SophiaSharon Larnia: haha
Pila Mulligan: it is often played with bellydancing too
SophiaSharon Larnia: music i didnt know that
Pila Mulligan: do you have a drum Soph?
SophiaSharon Larnia: djembe, but not very good
SophiaSharon Larnia: just love to be in the group nice energy
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: do you play an instrument Bert?
SophiaSharon Larnia: I feel like my self dissolve in it
Pila Mulligan: yep
Bertrum Quan: dissolve in it?
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes, the thoughts that occupy my mind, recede, and all that is left is a pulse, with other pulses, joined together
Bertrum Quan: yes, music has tremendous power that expend one's experience.
Bertrum Quan: expand (not expend)
SophiaSharon Larnia: sooth the gatekeeper of the mind perhaps
Bertrum Quan: DO you both see a discussion of music as a way to be more in touch with what I might call (for lack of a better term) natural mind....
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes
SophiaSharon Larnia: i think music may have been one of the earliest social activities
Pila Mulligan: to me, playing music involves a kind of creative energy that I do not ordinarily use
Pila Mulligan: the creative energy is entriely natural, too
Pila Mulligan: since the music I play is improvised and not structured
SophiaSharon Larnia: free flowing
Pila Mulligan: yep
Pila Mulligan: like the drum circle
Pila Mulligan: patterns emerge spontaneously
Bertrum Quan: controlled by rhythms however...
Pila Mulligan: yes, and the patterns really are arriving with the rhuthm
Pila Mulligan: spontaneously :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: and individuals 'connect' with the rhythm and end up in sync...like the energy is in sync
Pila Mulligan: yep
Pila Mulligan: a gestalt :)

Bertrum introduces the idea of a similarity between music and meditation, just before stevenaia arrives

Bertrum Quan: perhaps the way one works into a meditation?
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Pila Mulligan: kind of
Pila Mulligan: have you had expereince with RL group meditation?
SophiaSharon Larnia: now that, is an interesting thing I have not thought of
stevenaia Michinaga: hello
Pila Mulligan: hi Steve
SophiaSharon Larnia: hi Steve
Bertrum Quan: hi Steve
SophiaSharon Larnia: but it is obvious now that i heard it
Pila Mulligan: topic: music (Steve)
SophiaSharon Larnia: Pila, im not sure if that ? was for me, but not very much
Pila Mulligan: for everyone Soph
SophiaSharon Larnia: kk
stevenaia Michinaga: hmm, I just had dinner with a singer, somgwriter and a former entertainment attorney
Pila Mulligan: cool
Bertrum Quan: I think music can preare the mind to be more aware.. either collectively or singly..
SophiaSharon Larnia: :) plz excuse me for a min
Pila Mulligan: ok
Bertrum Quan: prepare the the mind...
Pila Mulligan: have you had rl rexpeeince with group meditation Bert and Steve?
stevenaia Michinaga: no
Pila Mulligan: earlier: SophiaSharon Larnia: and individuals 'connect' with the rhythm and end up in sync...like the energy is in sync -- Bertrum Quan: perhaps the way one works into a meditation?
Bertrum Quan: I have been in a Sanga meditation... where the collective chanting is a gateway to a meditative state
Pila Mulligan: yes, that would indeed be liike music Bert
stevenaia Michinaga: well prayer is one kind of group meditation
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes it is
Pila Mulligan: yes, Steve, but a valid distincion seems to me to exist between chanting and silent prayer or meditaiton and music
Bertrum Quan: Music can be transcendent
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, would be interesting to see how each reacts with the mind
SophiaSharon Larnia: thats another thing Ive wondered, is the energy actually the same though
Pila Mulligan: I think they are similar Soph, but there also seems to be a distincition
stevenaia Michinaga: group prayer, group meditation, music
SophiaSharon Larnia: by the attachments and intentions of the energy?
Pila Mulligan: I went to a memorial service at a black church in Virginia the day after Martin Luther King's assasination
Pila Mulligan: I've never been so uplifted by singing in my life
Pila Mulligan: it was heaven
SophiaSharon Larnia: it would hurt my heart
Pila Mulligan: it was pure release
Pila Mulligan: all the hurt was washed away
SophiaSharon Larnia: :))
Pila Mulligan: but the grief remained :)
Pila Mulligan: silent prayer and meditation is more inward I'd say
Pila Mulligan: snging and chanting are a harmony among people
stevenaia Michinaga: a different kind of energy for me
Pila Mulligan: yep
Bertrum Quan: harmony with what IS
Bertrum Quan: something so intimate on the one hand and yet so all encompasing as well
Pila Mulligan: yes, Bert, and the 'what is' is probably the common ground between the inward method and the outward method, as they get to a similar result :)
stevenaia Michinaga: result?
Pila Mulligan: what style music was your dinner guest into Steve?
Pila Mulligan: result = harmony with 'what is'
stevenaia Michinaga: more a talking dinner with friends, was hping for a musical interlude but it did not happened
Pila Mulligan: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: to much fun to stop and sing
Pila Mulligan: I once had a dream that was filled with really beautiful music ... the environment of the dream was simply a bunch of tall columns, like on a house, but instead they were like a forest, no walls, and the the music was like a mist drfiting between them
stevenaia Michinaga: very interesting metaphors
stevenaia Michinaga: makes a lot of sence
Pila Mulligan: it seemed like an image of pure creative energy
SophiaSharon Larnia: Bertrum, you said ....music can prepare the mind to be more aware.. either collectively or singly.? this is part of the natural mind?....
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes Pila nice metaphor
stevenaia Michinaga: that dream would be an appropriate starting point for the PaB RL discussion next week
Bertrum Quan: In terms of practice... in the sense of preparation, music (of the transcendent variety) can be useful I think to help us see
Pila Mulligan: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: (seeing music holding up colums)
Bertrum Quan: I'm not sure one should start with the dream... one should start with the music.
Pila Mulligan: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: a dream of music
Pila Mulligan: reminds me of a very cool link someone recenlty sent
Pila Mulligan: just a sec ...
SophiaSharon Larnia: like music quiets the self (alters brain waves), or more than that
Pila Mulligan: you may have seen this already -- it is lovely:  http://www.playingforchange.com/pop2.html
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Pila Mulligan: a composition of music played by folks around the world, taped and merged into a single track
Bertrum Quan: I think it may be worth exploring the non verbal, non- respresentational side of music
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes
Pila Mulligan: yes, music indeed has a special uplifting effect
SophiaSharon Larnia: what is non representational
Bertrum Quan: Not representating a recognizable object, or idea/theme...

stevenaia left and the discussion shifted briefly to music and energy

stevenaia Michinaga: I must go, see you tomorrow night
Pila Mulligan: bye Steve
SophiaSharon Larnia: i understand, but in the sense of music, i think i understand
Bertrum Quan: bye Steve
SophiaSharon Larnia: bye steve
Pila Mulligan: do you mean music simply as an energy, Bert?
Bertrum Quan: It is that to be sure... but more than that (as pure energy exists all around us but we do not have easy access to it)
Bertrum Quan: Energy in the sense that does not invite "interpretation" in experiencing the music as word-based and image-based experience does...
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Pila Mulligan: like a poem sometimes seems to demand the mind to interpet it :)
Bertrum Quan: Poems are word-based and the mind struggles or delights in the interpretation of the words--
Bertrum Quan: the symbols, metaphors, etc.
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes, isee
Pila Mulligan: while music more simply helps us access a purer sense of energy
Pila Mulligan: without the elaboration :)
Bertrum Quan: That's the question... I think it can do that in some instances in very profound ways
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes...want to explore this further...

 ... and then the time came to end the music discussion

SophiaSharon Larnia: I have to go now, so nice to speak with you. :)
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: bye SophiaSharon
SophiaSharon Larnia: bye *waves*
Bertrum Quan: bye Sophia...
Bertrum Quan: Pila, I need to sign off too. Thank you for starting us off with music!
Pila Mulligan: thank you Bert
Pila Mulligan: nice chat
Bertrum Quan: Take care, Pila.
Pila Mulligan: aloha