Joy in Motion

Grounded Spirituality Through Upper and Lower Body: Musicality Book Club, Week 1

Welcome to the official start of our Musicality Book Club using Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World! I know a couple of people are still waiting for their book, but they plan to follow along until it arrives. I hope everyone else is ready to go with their copy or at least excited about exploring the concepts I write about here (I will always quote the appropriate section so we’re on the same page). If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, you can order on Amazon here.

We started the introduction last week as a kind of teaser (click here to get caught up), and now to wrap up the introduction here is the quote for this week from Bridge of Waves and some thoughts I have been wanting to write about for a while relating to grounded and spiritual energy in the dance. Enjoy!

Read more »

Wonder vs. Why: The Bridge of Waves Book Club for Musically Curious Dancers

I’ve contemplated starting a book club for quite some time, but I never had a book scream to be shared with others chapter-by-chapter right from the beginning until now. By the end of the introduction to W.A. Mathieu’s Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World, I knew I wanted to take the time to reflect deeply and share openly. Musicality is one of my absolute favorite topics of discussion, and Mathieu’s book promises to provide great fuel for this fire.

So in two weeks, starting Tuesday, March 1, I will be “hosting” a Bridge of Waves book club on Joy in Motion every Tuesday. Feel free to post responses or your own thoughts in the Comments of each post so we can have an engaging discussion. If you are a blogger, you are welcome to post a link to your own blog post related to the chapter for that week, and everyone can respond to all posts through the comments on the respective sites. And of course anyone can read the book and follow along with the weekly posts without any obligation to participate unless they feel drawn to.

Since we have two weeks until the official start of the book club, you have time to order the book through Amazon or Barnes & Noble and start reading. The first post on March 1 will explore some of the concepts found in the book’s introduction (and keep reading below for a sneak peek!). From there we will read a chapter a week (for a total of ten weeks/chapters) and post every Tuesday. To get you excited about what’s to come, here are the chapter titles:

1. Music as Body
2. Music as Mind
3. Music as Heart
4. Feeling Mind, Thinking Heart
5. Music as Life
6. Music as Story
7. Music as Mirror
8. Music on the Zen Elevator
9. The Enlightened Listener
10. Living the Waves

You wouldn’t believe the self control required to have this book sitting on my nightstand and not read ahead! But I am so excited about exploring this book with friends old and new. I hope you will join me, or at least follow along. If now is not a good time, I encourage you to put this book on your reading list for sometime in the future.

Finally, to give you a taste of what to expect in the coming weeks, below is my first reflection on this book based on part of the introduction. On March 1, I will explore another concept from the introduction that I have been wanting to write about for a while. And not only does Mathieu articulate this idea quite beautifully, he also reveals the meaning behind the title of the book! So stay tuned and get ready for our official start on March 1, but until then here’s where we begin. Enjoy!

Read more »

Born to Improvise: The Natural Magic of the Human Brain

I recently came across a great talk on TED by Charles Limb, M.D., a surgeon who has conducted some fascinating studies to find out what happens in the brain when we play music that is spontaneously generated (i.e. improvised) compared to when we play music that is over-learned (i.e., memorized).

The studies include jazz pianists improvising on a scale, jazz pianists improvising with each other (also known as “trading fours"), and rappers free-styling. The resulting brain scans that analyze blood flow as an indicator of brain activity revealed three things that happen during improvisation vs. recited music:

1. During improvisation, the self-monitoring parts of the brain deactivate while the self-expressive parts activate.

2. The parts of the brain that deal with expressive communication (you may have heard of Broca’s area before) are activated during improvisational interplay between musicians, supporting the language analogy often used in discussions about music (and dance) acquisition.

3. The brain experiences an overall increase in brain activity - including in visual and motor areas - during improvisation compared to the playing of over-learned music.

Here is the full video of Limb’s talk on TED, which I highly recommend you watch before delving further into his study…

I was very excited about Limb’s findings, so I read the full study on jazz improvisation and found it pretty accessible and easy to read. There are a few gems in there that won’t be found on the video…

Read more »