Giving Thanks

Another Time I Neglected To Say Thank You

I’ve been thinking about going back to my roots. I mean really going back to my roots.

Roots as in ancient plants and other life forms that lived in the ooze millions of years ago. Those viruses, fungi, and bacteria are thought to be the building blocks of just about every living thing on this planet. The DNA of those original microbes is part of our DNA.

With that in mind, let me share a personal experience that I had when contacting my inner roots:

In 1975 I tried an experiment with music. I had been taught that music was a universal language and learned that that was very true during my travels as a performer.

I wondered if it was possible to musically speak to my origins. In other words to talk to nature herself and be answered?

I sat on a stump in the backyard of an East Palo Alto home rented by a good friend of mine. While sitting there with my guitar I experimented with different chord patterns and strums.

We had a dog and cat, chickens and a lot of plants, flowers and other growing things.

I found a set of chords that was mesmerizing in a soothing way and strummed them in a repetitive sequence for a while. At some point I looked up from my reverie and saw the cat, (Pepper), the dog, (Dreamer) and the chickens had all gathered around my feet to be close to the sounds the guitar.

I tried different chords, different rhythms, different patterns and discovered that some were understood and some were not. It was then that reality struck me. I was speaking to another species. That old trope about music being the universal language was proving to be true, at least to me.

One of the more interesting effects of the music was when a swarm of bees were lazily buzzing round and round in a 4 foot diameter ring just inches above me.

This happened as I was playing a certain set of chords and rhythms that apparently spoke to the bees. Don’t know what I was saying with the music, but they seem to like it. When I stopped they flew off and went on about their bee business.

I have read that plants can speak to each other and that experiments show that certain plants respond well to certain kinds of music. That 1975 experiment was my first live experience of continuing projects demonstrating that music is connected to all of our known universe.

Of course it is. It is vibrations it is the movement of molecules, atoms, electrons. The very essence of this universe, of the cosmos, of life itself! Music is a reflection of and addition to perceived reality.

I am thankful to be a composer, performer, scientist, naturist, sometime scallywag and part of a family at a time and geographical location that has allowed me to flourish.

Today’s Video;

This young lady was already tuned in at age 2. I am humbled.

 

Be Kind