In this edition:
Some cello textures and melodies for your face. No talking today.
A bite o writing
A pod update and recommend
Another amazing short video.
[2007 was a trying year, though I tried not to show it.]
Responsibility
It's a leap to take responsibility for the sound we make in this world. Can’t hide anymore.
If we make sound just for ourselves it's ok, but the implications of making it in earshot of others can scare even the most promising musician back into silence.
Because if it affects me this much when you do it, what response in you will I have to shoulder?
Duh! "It's not music that scares me, it's people!"
This realization finally turned it around for me. And my fear of people wasn’t of getting beat up or rejected (any of the usual things) but their beauty.
Your beauty.
Witnessing music alone at night with my cassette tapes, going to shows, going to church... a fire would burn right above me. It was like the sound and my soul commingling into some third, totally unpredictable and uncontrollable entity. Telling me to stay present in life. As a teenager my musical taste developed haphazardly but I could always feel this third thing, the fire doing what it wanted and warming up the room whenever there was music playing.
I was panicky at 13, but once I sat down at the piano I became action. All questions of style ceased, all genres melted and I evaporated into a cocoon of noise. All by myself.
Everything felt safe and beautiful, all responsibility ceased.
But that's the rub: responsibility.
Because the room is rarely just ours. Other people will often be in it.
I knew from my solitary listening the beauty that descends on a space when music is playing. But other people complicated and expanded this beauty.
It's not just other players: any person within earshot is adding their own fire to the experience.
All kinds of fire.
A beautiful noise is one thing. Silence is also, as they say, golden.
We all wield our ways of witnessing, consciously or not.
And we don't get to decide what is "beautiful". We can only take responsibility for our own witnessing and tend the fire of the other people in the room with our playing.
I can’t run away and hide from my own sound. Or yours.
We're all in this. I owe you some truthful moments while we're here and capital M music is the best ticket I have for that.
Responsibility is beautiful.
Hope you liked the track.
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Podcast recommendation: CTZN
I’ve been working on a show that just launched their Season 2: it’s called CTZN.
I’m the producer, I put these things together. (How about let’s talk about making yours.)
Here’s the S2 premiere, an interview with pleasure activist Adrienne Maree Brown.
I’m working on my own pod as well… it’s just taking a while.
I had a nice lunch with my friend Sean, and he said “I thought you’d just stopped making that show of yours” and I felt it.
Just to give you all a heads up, I must say that making podcast episodes (at the quality level that I like) is time-consuming. My podcast, “Play It Like It’s Music” hasn’t gone away, I’m just working on lots of stuff at once and these things get pushed to the back because they are a pleasure project for me. Please be patient, there are some great ones coming up! In the meantime, go check out some older episodes and subscribe!
something curated:
This one is crazy. Honestly, I am so not visual. I don’t know how these people do it.
I see some “non-musical” folks sometimes, and they can’t hold back their awe for someone who can and does do music. Well I feel the same way about folks who execute on their visual ideas, because when I look inside there I don’t see much.
A vid like this just tickles my eyes and brain:
Thank you for reading and subscribing.
I appreciate you. Enjoy spring.
Love your ears,
Trevor
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If you appreciate my work, it’s in these other places too. Please share:
Listen to the “Trevor Exter Playlist” on Spotify
Hear 18 episodes of: "Play It Like It's Music"
You can hire me to produce your podcast.
Or get supportive: visit Patreon
One for Wednesday