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While at camp, we did a lot of things in nature. I'm not writing much about it, though, since they tended to fall into two broad categories: 1)Things that seem strange but make sense once you've done them and 2)Things that you have to just do to really appreciate.
For example, one morning, we spent an hour or so making fire by rubbing a stick against a piece of wood using a bowed string (I'm really simplifying here). Just that description doesn't quite get across what it feels like to actually make your own fire, or the appreciation you gain for how valuable fire actually is (as well as for matches). For other parts of the nature experience, I grew up in the outdoors, so it may not have been as much of a revelation to me as it was to some of the folk who have never been in the woods before.
If you are one of those who doesn't see how learning about nature will affect music, let me point out one of the lessons that I learned. When we did the blindfold walk, I learned a lesson that very specifically applies to my playing. I was walking forwards, finding my way using only what I could feel with my feet and hear with my ears. As I was moving, I caught a decent sized branch (two inches in diameter or so) directly in my mouth. The lesson here: If I focus too much on one thing -- even one really important thing -- I'm almost certainly going to miss some other details that are going to matter to what I'm doing. The relation to my playing follows; if I'm focusing too much on one part of the music (trying to lock in with the drummer, for example), I'm going to miss something else that happening that will be important (the keyboardist modulating his chord voicing, making the sharp nine I am getting ready to play the wrong coloration for the his chord when I should be playing a flat eleven).
Suffice it to say that you will learn quite a bit about the world around you, and in ways you probably would not have thought about before. I don't mean to say that the nature part isn't important and won't impact your music, so therefore I'm not dedicating much ink (or is it pixels?) to it. Rather, I think you should experience it for yourself. What I can write about it doesn't do it justice.
In fact, if you want more information, you should check out Richard Cleveland's Earth School. Richard was one of the nature instructors at camp. He was very open and personable, as well as a good instructor. I'm actually considering taking a nature class from him at some point, especially since he's only a day's drive from DC.
Posted by Casper at September 10, 2004 10:29 AM