just as i feared....he threw me a double whamie! it started off like yesterday, but today he was wearing a sarong and it turns out the 14 year old is 15 and is his son, also an excellent musician. and apparently all of the women and children....are his family living in a big empty house with room after room, totally empty ...the house is a work in progress and probably like with the arabs, just putting down mattresses at night for everyone... how do i know ...because we were playing on the back porch and it suddenly started raining on us, so we carried the instruments through the house to the front porch and again set up the red carpet there, and continued.
what was the double whamie....he began by asking me to play the melody from yesterday. when i listen to indonesian it sounds as if there are a total of some 7 letters: nang, b, d, and they speak at top speed: dang dedundang dnam gdang gdung ge dong nageda ng... i had already kind of forgotten yesterdays tune, but succeeded after one or two attempts...when we finished that i saw he was just kind of fiddling around, humming some melodies, as if trying to remember what to teach next...again i thought, oh gee...maybe he only knew this one first song, now what...maybe this was a mistake coming again...and again he is half singing, half tapping his drum, and not saying anything. and then....he comes over to my gamelon and bangs out a rhythm at top speed that doesn't resemble anything i can even begin to comprehend...what the...
i couldn't believe this is lesson two?! he handed me the little hammer...my turn....i tried my best, but of course it wasn't right. and he just sat opposite with me with the biggest bright white toothed smile and kept repeating it for me at top speed from the beginning...again and again. that is how they teach. you don't do it slower so the person can figure it out, or work on sections, or explain with words, it is all by sight and listening. where do i begin?! from the beginning...ahh,,,it is so difficult to be in beginners mind...i want to succeed the first time and not have to learn...and how to even learn?! and i knew i just have to keep trying with all the mistakes, try and keep myself open, no mind, just let the body learn and release it out again...
after a few trials i had gotten the tune down, but the grabbing of the chimes each time in order to stop the echo was impossible to figure out. so i kept grabbing it just as i hit it so the tone was stopped instead of being able to ring first....he continued to smile and demonstrate and i had my eyes glued to his thumb trying to figure out when and how to do it...and then when that was impossible, i decided to listen to what he was singing, and he was singing the sound of the stopping of the chime too! i suddenly realized that it really is as if 2 hands are playing the piano or something, because as the hand stops the echo it also makes a different sound. this is what is so amazing about playing with them...there are layers and layers that slowly reveal themselves all by themselves...
all i wanted to do was to try over and over again the parts that i was having difficulty with, but there is no such thing, everytime he took a cigarette break i thought "good, now i will try and figure this out a minute" so i would quietly try to tap it out and use my mind to give the command when to grab the chime. but he saw i was trying, so he again just started from the beginning the entire song. that is when i realized there is no such thing as just working on a part that is difficult. with infinite patience he continued to demonstrate everytime with a huge smile, while i consoled myself with the fact that the moment will come when it will come out naturally, and not because i have figured it out with my mind, but just "because" . patience...
he again complimented me on how quick i pick it up and how good i am, and all i knew was that i was making mistakes when i wanted to be a pro already. mithas father translated: "since i am able to receive what the teacher is giving i can come again tomorrow. may i introduce you to each other now?" "yes!" we shook hands and i said "eileen" and he said "kedek" ( of the 8 balinese people i am in close contact with daily, this is the third one called Kedek, along with 3 called madie,. ) so on the one hand i would like to now take pen to paper and try and figure out the tempo etc. so that tomorrow i can come feeling confident that i know it, and on the other hand i know from when i learned tai chi, and hoola hooping, and the gamelon the last time, and indonesian now, that, no mind is the best mind. just let go, trust, be present, stay open, and let go of results...ugh! and smile!
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