Quotes about Music

Music:

"I want to sing like the birds sing. Not worry who hears or what they think." Rumi


"I began to hear music differently. I began to hear something in bare sound I had never heard befrore to experience in the very act of hearing an upward intention, as if some current were drawing us toward it." W.A. Mathieu


"In the beginning was noise. And nose begat rhythm. And rhythm begat everything else." Mickey Hart


"The drum is sacred. Its round form represent the whole universe, and its steady beat is the pulse, the heart, throbbing at the center of the universe." Nick Black Elk.


"There is nothing better than music as a means for upliftment of the soul." Hazrat Inayat Khan


"In writing songs, I've learned as much from Cézanne as I have from Woody Guthrie." Bob Dylan


"FREQUENCY + INTENTION = HEALING" Jonathan Goldman


"Music has the capacity to touch the innermost reaches of the soul and music gives flight to the imagination." Plato


"All passionate language does of itself become musical---with no finer music than the mere accent; the speech of man, even in zealous anger, becomes a chant, a song." Thomas Carlyle


"Seek out a man who is skillful in playing the harp, and when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well." 1 Samuel 16: 14-16

All original writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2010

Drumming as a Way of Life...a book by Mickey Hart

I just finished reading Mickey Hart's Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A Journey into the Spirit of Percussion. Mickey's the drummer for the Grateful Dead and has been a percussionist for mover 25 years.

The book nearly blew me away. It weaves Mickey's personal journey as a drummer (his father Lenny was also a drummer) and the history and tradition of drum. Shamans and possession trance rituals spread from the beginning of time from Asia and Africa. These traditions endured, despite modernization and invasions from self-righteous invaders. These rhythms evolved into other forms, such as jazz, heavy metal, and blues. Mickey attempts to understand this way of life, a way of consciousness that is all but extinct in North America.

I've been and still am a percussionist. When I listen to music, I'll listen for the drums and the bass, the snare and the bodhran, the kettle and the bass guitar. They hold the other instruments together, but have a melody all their own.

Eleven years ago, I enjoyed listening to a drum jam at the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA. It was just an experience- it's hard to explain just what I felt. A sense of clearing of my mind, an uplifting of my spirit. That's the closest I can get to describing it. I wished I'd stayed longer, but my husband was impatient to go.

Since then, my fascination with rhythm and how to build it has been there, but understated. I enjoyed music classes, but I felt like a thief indulging in a secret vice. But it survived, no matter all the criticism. It was a relief to read a book that addressed what the magic of drumming was, to those who open their minds and hearts to it.

All original writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2010