Go Play in the Corner(s)

I should go see a doctor: I think I'm starting to actually reflect on my life.

This mandocentric blog just might actually, as I hoped, lead me into some obscure-yet-useful revelations about myself.  The one that I'm thinking about in particular is my tendency to want to storm through any project just to get to the end as quickly as possible.  That might not be the best way to describe it, as I do actually enjoy the process of learning, but my point is that I'm prone to fall into a pattern of action that I trust to be an effective and efficient paradigm for achieving a finished product.

No aspect of my life is immune to this particular defect, but it's my tendency to approach the mandolin in this way that has me thinking about my habit.  For now I'll refer to this habit/tendency as "pattern playing."

Right now I'm working on a little tune called "Beech Spring," which I've picked up from the fine folks at Mandolincafe.  The whole point is to learn the tune in a week, before moving on to a new one.  My tendency as a mandolin player is to pick up the general gist of a tune, and then resort to my standard picking/playing/position patterns on the mandolin.  I tend to settle myself into a familiar chord position and work out the tune as quickly as I can within that picking "paradigm."  For me, this usually manifests itself in a closed position, as I can easily switch keys (or more applicably, pick up a lead on the fly).  The upshot of this is that a lot of my breaks end up sounding familiar - not in a personal style way, but in a way that suggests a lack of innovation or intentional investigation of the tune itself.

My attempt to learn a tune a week has brought this tendency to the surface, as I've forced myself to listen to every essential note in the song.  I have to ask myself, "what is it about this tune that sets it apart from others?" and then be sure to emphasize, exploit, and examine those nuances within the tune itself.  It's revolutionizing the way I approach my mandolin neck, and forcing me to hone my listening skills.

Of course, as with most things, I recognize this tendency elsewhere in my life.  I research and do essays this way, resorting to a comfortable methodology that doesn't fully examine the particular nuances of each topic or project format.  I communicate with people within a rather fixed communication framework because I want to be sure that I understand what is going on and don't have to wade through an unfamiliar relationship model.  I want Christmas lists so that I don't have to guess at what people want, or worse, actually work to understand their character/heart and demonstrate my love accordingly.  I want to get it done, not play around in the corners.

Of course, as I'm learning, it's the playing around in the corners that leads to some pretty beautiful music.