For Wim

NylonDave

Hello brothers. I have been unwell, I suffered a brain injury after some mini strokes and a seizure a couple of years ago. Following that the problem I have which is sometimes called bi-polar disease, but is really just being a man like me in this world, became more difficult to deal with. So did I.

Life has been a struggle but I have friends and family and I am learning to live well and without medication. But the work is hard and has often left me with no energy to practice guitar. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say, too much energy to focus on guitar clearly.

Though this is boxing day and I was trained to fight I do not come here to do so. Boxes are best used as gifts containing beautiful things for children to play with.

As a child I first was taught to fight as puppies do. I was taught with love by my young uncle Paul. Both my brother and I together would work against him. Paul was so strong he had no fear of me like the other boys did and I could use all of my strength and he would only laugh and encourage me to try harder. We played beautifully together, they were happy times. Times which left no wounds, no blood was spilled, no one went home crying and no one paid a penny or bought any potions or pills or bullshit.

Unfortunately though, in the places where paid to be trained to fight, it was not so good.

I was trained in dark places, as most beings are now. In these dark places men are made into robots to teach without love only a tiny fraction of what there is to learn. They often leave the children wounded. To teach such a small amount they have to deny the worth of all other things, all other styles......all of the wisdom of the past. Most cruelly they often stifle the talent of the child by denying them respect to bolster their own egos. Such places are made to confine children.

Children should instead be out playing with friends, experimenting on their own with the wood of an instrument or the living wood of a tree or anything else that takes their whimsy like a good book filled with words and not blank space and very few notes.

Children, like all women and men and all beings, become weak when confined and corralled into dark places. These are the places where they are to be fleeced.

Beings who do not go out to play to strengthen their bodies and minds and immune systems become weak and wither and have no defence when the wolves come to the door. The wolves bring potions and pills and call them medicine when all that is needed is to be outside growing strong.

We are all in a place like that now.

I made this video on a wim so please forgive me for.

I have not been playing, in it I am visibly struggling with the mania that is just leaving me. In all honesty it is a piece of performance art and clearly shabby. Maggie's camera deliberately has a brain fart every ten minutes (as a lure to buy another when the functionality is already there but denied the owner as we are denied the full strength of our bodies) . Yet I do play a little guitar amongst the shambles.

In it I first I thank a friend for his advice, improvise for him with a little theory I made up on the spot. I wanted to play for him and have fun as children should. We are all God's children. I then ease the pain of my body and my mania and try for the thousandth time to honour the memory of Bach. I fail, we are only ever equal to the music which comes straight from our hearts. Even then we must prepare carefully and listen not with all of our ears but also to ALL of our bodies.

It's called improvisation.

It's childsplay.

It takes a lifetime to learn to play well, or an instant. In this world maybe most often it takes several lifetimes for, with the right certificate or website or carefully pruned clinical trial, one may 'make it work'. Work for those who cannot even tap their feet save with impatience yet confidently place chains on children's hands and have the cheek to wonder why the little fingers won't learn to dance. Teaching is giving, those who do it badly steal. Most often they know it not for they have been at it for generations and it is the way they are taught. Children play beautifully, especially the very young for their awareness is not made sluggish with giant sofas and cushions and too much sitting looking at a screen and consuming till the hunger consumes us and our bodies ache in rebellion at our inattention and neglect.

In my experience all children play beautifully.

To play beautifully is my favourite translation of Kung Fu. Jimmy Bruno said I played beautifully, the men paid to train seldom did for, most do not. The ones who teach nicely are most often driven away by the users who will not bow but as that we bend the knee. In our primary schools there are almost no men left to teach.

There are many labels, too many labels, too many white men stealing old ideas and hacking them to pieces.

There is a spectrum from Mindfulness, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Callanetics, Yoga, Tai Chi, Wushu,War with weapons.

All bullshit,

play nicely

that is all.

We seldom do.

As I am unwell I am currently teaching only friends and for free. I decided I could no longer teach in dark places any more for, despite my many flaws I am not a user.

A few weeks ago Ruari, my friend, came to play guitar but his body is stiff and does not flow so I gave him a little Kung Fu lesson instead when he agreed to try. It went like this.

My pupil, nay.... my playing partner arrived I said,

'If you come to my home to learn you must bring a gift, only one gift, the same one every time, never the same gift. Do not guess, take all the time and feel the answer when it arrives and save it for when you leave'

Over the next two hours we faced each other and I helped him slowly to the ground till we were both kneeling. I used many tricks I have learned to help him so that when we got there we both felt our bodies flexible, free to move and free of aches and pains.

I said to him as we both bowed, our heads on the floor.

'Look up Ruari,

see

see your teacher

see he bows too'

I am a passionate man so I growled the next bit, which may not have been wise but I am as God made me and I am trying my best to undo the harm of poor teaching.

'ALWAYS SEE HE BOWS TOO'

We shared our beautiful time together and when it was time to leave we were both well fed and happy.

I asked him my question.

'Ruari, what gift must you bring me ?'

The lesson must have been good for him too, he answered well.

'The honest work I have done'.

We embraced.

He danced out of the door.

---------

Afterwards I felt the need to write as you all know I too often do. I wrote this.

'Kata'

A kata is a meditative form within which a man bred for violence, though he chose it not, may stay sane once he has turned himself into a machine for war to be used by evil men.

Katas are discovered not taught, the learning takes a lifetime. All life is a kata for a master. Those who would teach us war say they are bullshit so we may hurt our bodies and go straight to the man with the machines, knives, potions and pills.

-------

I do not know if there is any of Django in the video, I do not always know where the music comes from but I do know this.

Django played beautifully.

HE WAS AN ARTIST

Artists only ever play nicely, how he shames us all.

Sorry for all the times I played clumsily.

God bless you all and keep you safe and strong.

THIS TIME WILL PASS

Davey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUqhAxromKM

Lango-Django

Happy Boxing Day, Dave.

I have no gift to bring you except to wish that you find happiness.

And perhaps if I tell you how I find happiness, maybe it could bring you happiness, too…?

When I can’t sleep in the middle of night, with all the typical reminisces incurred during a privileged white male idiot’s lifetime of thoughtless folly…

… then I get up and have a few puffs of a Louis Armstrong cigarette and go to the spare room and play my guitar very softly.…

…no pick! I must not awaken my wife.

The happiness comes from just playing whatever comes into my head… never stuff I already know!

No practising allowed. Just sheer wankery and fucking around. Think it and play it!

And no looking at your fingers, either! Lights are off.

OK, this is a very poor method for becoming a guitar virtuoso, I admit.

But at age seventy I am in no danger of dethroning any guitar gods.

However, what happens for me is that eventually I abandon conscious control and my fingers begin to play their own music and my conscious mind just listens in to occasionally chime in with advice about what arp to play next, and that is okay.

I find this kind of playing extremely relaxing and joyful, and I hope you do, too.

Good luck!

Will

BillDaCostaWilliams

Good to hear from you again, Dave.

Can't say I follow all that you write but the music speaks for itself.

billyshakes

Hey mate. Good luck with your journey. Thank you for your honesty. You are on the path!

vanmalmsteen

Good to hear from you bro!

AndyW

Sorry to hear you've been having a rough couple of years, Dave. Here's to a hopeful new year 2022.

-Andy-

crookedpinky

I don't know what to say that might bring you some comfort but my thoughts - such as they are - go out to you. I genuinely hope we meet again in happier times for us all. You too are an artist, as we all are at times. By that I mean when our ego's and expectations do not intrude into and onto our musical excursions. Take care my friend and here's to a better tomorrow for all of us.

Buco

It's good to see you back, Dave. I say this honestly, despite not always...or even rarely agreeing with your approach in the past, this forum is better with you around. Wish you well.

NylonDave

Thanks to all.

Lango, one man's meat another man's poison. I'm not as strong as Bing and Louis, smoking on my own not a good idea. It would be nice though to be a fly on the wall or to join you though. Perhaps I should play more on my own rathe than making it all hard work.

Thanks Bill, I hope it speaks nicely, I seldom do.

Thanks Billyshakes, I'm trying to find the path, wish me luck.

And you too Mr. Malmsteen.

Thanks Andy, you do play beautifully you know.

Thanks for the good advice Alan, I'll try stay more right sized.

Buco, it's nice to feel welcomed, thank you. Good luck with that pain. I am good with physical pain, I carried it for so long, but, to each his own journey.

D.