Right Brain & Audience

Jonathan West over at Horn Insights has been good enough to make a post that uses a comment of mine as a point of departure.

Keeping this blog is fun and helpful, but getting responses from other bloggers is even more helpful. I'd never gotten around to expressly thinking about the client's/audience's right brain before this exchange. Way back when, a post by Phil Ford (Dial M) on "authenticity" helped me figure out a way forward in making the Mantra Mountain CD. And Pliable (Overgrown Path) helped me see that CD in a new way. And on and on. Following these high level blogs has always seemed a cross between auditing graduate level courses and drifting through the faculty lounge. I can't imagine trying to develop the learning materials without this kind of milieu to trigger and test ideas.

Here's my comment on Joanthan's post:

"Very happy to have been a spark for this post! Very helpful and lots to think about. One detail I'd pull out for now is:

>>Even somebody wholly uneducated in music will sense that there is "something missing" in such a performance even though they can't express what that something is.<< 

Can't agree with you more on this. Whatever it is that connects an audience member with a performance is not just technique, and it's very difficult to talk about. As a therapist my aim is always to get some sort of musical "traction" with a client, and better technique is rarely the answer. It's usually being somehow more gestural or having a more felt rhythm that suits the client's (audience's) mood. Or as you put it, "phrasing and musicality". The audience's right brain is just as important as the performer's.

 Thanks also for the link."