Your music has always had a very interesting attraction to me, but The Music Lesson is on a completely different plane. I see a lot of similarities between the book and the Bass Nature Camps. Would you like to talk about that philosophical cross-pollination between the book and the camps?
VW: Definitely. The book came from the camps because people kept asking me to write the information down that I was sharing with them in the camps and workshops. People will take it lightly. I took a lot of the information from what I talk about in camps and put it into the book, but then I was able to add onto that. For people who have been to camp, they will be very familiar with the information, but will also be able to grow with new information.
RR: Great. I wanted to give our readers a bit of a geographic feel for the camp. VW: Yeah, I agree. If I write a manual, I feel that, I think, overall, it may be taken too strictly and the method will be attributed to me. I want people to find their own way. Like the way we teach our kids to speak English, we do it by showing them a way. We show them examples and we show them many different examples, and then they develop their own voice though the freedom of choice and the freedom of opportunity.
In music, a lot of us are looking for someone to tell us how to do it. With a fictional book, I think they will do that. People take fiction lightly and people will view my information as just another way.
RR: One of the things I liked about the book is that there are many lessons outside of music that the reader can apply to life. Would you agree? VW: Absolutely. Totally because really, there is no separation. Music is like a language and if you think about speaking, what do you speak about? You talk about life. Something happens to you in life, you talk about it. In my mind, music does the same thing and I think the sooner that a musician realizes that, the faster they will grow and the faster they will understand this language and learn how to use this language that we call music.
I was able to put a fewwhat I think aregood examples that people may not have looked at in this way before where I show direct correlations of how music can teach you about life and visa versa. RR: I felt that you presented a very unique spin on the concept that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
VW: Sure, like you said, this was just one way of seeing the teacher appear of just having a guy, a quirky guy, show up and literally appear from some unknown place and start sharing this strange and different knowledge with this student.
The cool thing about this teacher is that the teacher is forcing the student to figure it out. We want to cause our students to think for themselves as quickly as possible.
We want to wean them from the need of us as a teacher as quickly as possible. RR: I also liked how you detailed the many ways how the music should play the musician instead of the other way around. VW: People that disagree would like to argue about it or, maybe, disagree very defensively. No big deal. I always have to decide what to play. VW: Most people know how to hear with their ears, but I would say that not most of us really listen with our ears. There are different ways to listen and there are some listeners that are skilled at it.
If someone can be a better listener than another, that means listening is a skill that can be practiced. We allow listening to happen organically, which is O.
To learn it quicker, you might want to learn ways of practicing. Anyone who deals in a psychic world or what might be called a spiritual world would know exactly what I am talking about.
To put into less spiritual terms and more tangible terms, you have to pay attention to how a song affects your whole body, not just your ears. A lot of the times, a person who knows nothing about music can do this better than musicians because we study our whole lives to learn how to understand a song intellectually, or academically.
RR: At the end, it is not so much about how you have accomplished this education for yourself and your listening skills but how important it is to teach others what you have learned based upon your own life experiences.
The thing is that the better you become naturally, the better everyone else is going to become. Not everybody is cut out to be a teacher in that sense but become the best you can belisten to music, allow her to speak back to you and learn how to listen as best as possible. To me, I could say that that is your obligation. VW: Yeah.
You always pay attention to what you do know and be satisfied and be happy with that, but with a drive to move forward and learn more. RR: Absolutely. It also provided additional depth, for me, to listen to Palmystery after reading the book. VW: Once you get an idea into my way of thinking about music, it is going to allow you to hear and understand my music even better.
I really like the title of your new album. What is the meaning of the word Palmystery? VW: Thank you. It is the same with people asking me about this title. Life is a mystery, but the answers are always in the palm of your hand, always closer than you think.
Of course, it is a play on the word palmystery. RR: Your last album, Soul Circus had a vast array of guest collaborators.
However, not to take anything away from that work, but Palmystery has a more focused, contained body of conceptual work with a core group of players despite having its own fair share of collaboration. Would you agree that there is a conceptual focus? VW: Well, I guess there is. I definitely had an idea of making this record a more instrumental jazzier record with not as many vocals. Whatever people want to get out of the record is cool. I made the record. However you want to see it. I could do some straight ahead easy songs with easy lyrics but I want people to question.
RR: Yes. Where the heck did you get that idea? Is that alright? Electronic Folk International. Jazz Latin New Age. Aggressive Bittersweet Druggy. Energetic Happy Hypnotic. Romantic Sad Sentimental. Sexy Trippy All Moods. Drinking Hanging Out In Love. Introspection Late Night Partying. Rainy Day Relaxation Road Trip. Romantic Evening Sex All Themes. Articles Features Interviews Lists. Streams Videos All Posts. My Profile. Advanced Search. Palmystery Review by Jeff Tamarkin.
Track Listing. Amir Ali. I Saw God. The Lesson. Miss U. The Gospel.
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