Like a breath of fresh air this guy... ... the master leads by emptying peoples minds and filling their core, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve- Tao Te Ching
What a great topic and speech! We "should" all over ourselves, and it holds us back. I'm very guilty of this. Breaking out of that mold can show you a whole new world.
The ultimate paradox: there are things you can get better at the more you practice; then there are things that you need to just be and appreciate, live and let live. To know the difference is wisdom.
I read the book back in college and it helped a lot. But hearing this. I'm only a few minutes into the lecture portion and I'm already crying like a therapeutic release.
Man I've been wasting my life mainly because I was raised to be scared shitless at chances of failure (in the conventional meaning of not looking cool or like a winner). Having parents who didn't believe in you from the very beginning or were satisfied if they could at least laugh at your not being or looking the effing best at everything rather than staying with you facing difficulty when you're still small, things get more difficult later, and you ain't getting any help from them to go out of there. I see the prints this has left not only in myself but also my sister. But right now I'm saying no more of this crap, not anymore.
Wish I lived in Boston where he teaches in the Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee College of Music. ---- "Complete focus when practicing Total liberation in performing Full use of body, mind, and soul Reclaiming your love and inner connection to your music. Mission Statement The Effortless Mastery Institute helps Berklee students reclaim their inner voice and their connection to music by teaching them how to overcome physical and mental obstacles that keep them from performing at their highest levels."
I loved the video too. You can start to do this at home. Let go. Then use that to find people. Is true what he says. It applies to everything. Just get back in touch with what you are.
You don't 'work' music but you 'play' music. Children know how to play. So we need to go back to the child in us. I am sending my analytical/critical mind away when I play. Do think that little kids have rules. No everything is possible and nothing a mistake. Just experience. Looking forward to read this book :)
Really awesome book no doubt, though he covers most the same points in this talk (the book has the points along with journey of his musical life which is nice).
If I didn’t know it was Kenny Werner playing I’d have thought it would be Keith Jarrett :o I just bought his books. Why did I never hear about him before? (I live under a nice rock!)
I'm trying to figure out 38 mns in whether its white Yoko, or Kenny who lost the bet and had to do that. Most of the lesson was cool, but 46 mns could not come fast enough... not impressed with the screechy twaddle.
Kind of the complete opposite of what creativity is. A musician it's supposed to convey his conscious intentions through the medium of the instrument, not mindlessly meander. I think there is something to what this man is saying but I fear he doesn't even know himself what he's experiencing when he's playing. Music doesn't come from muscle memory or from 'the fingers', it comes from the soul, which is rooted in the mind; the mind being the heart of a man. The process being taught here sounds suspiciously like transcendental meditation, which is complete BS. You cannot learn or communicate anything worthwhile by disconnecting from your mind. This is almost a carbon copy of those pathetic 'how to speak in tongues' lessons by fake Christians of the hyper charismatic movement peddling their mindless drivel, that teaches one to just blurt out random syllables which results in gobbledegook. Or like the 'painter' who throws a bucket of paint at a canvas and then relies entirely on his audience to find some subjective meaning in it as they scratch their chins. There's no merit in that on behalf of the painter. Music is a language (an actual language) designed to communicate emotions and feelings. A musician is someone who communicates his thoughts and ideas and message via harmony and melody. The art is in ability to accurately and intentionally communicate those things rather than just throw out random sounds in various ways and then claim that the soul is somehow channelling. The mere fact that a musician must practice and practice is a clearly contradicts and refutes the basic claims of this talk. I am not claiming that this man is a charlatan or a fraud, merely that he is misinterpreting what is happening when he improvises. It is true that fear of failure will affect performance, but suggesting that one must disconnect oneself from one's mind is preposterous. The mind is where both the intention and the knowledge of music theory reside.
I tuned into this video because it sounded like my piano fluency teacher, Phil Best, who always says we must focus and let go. And we learn such bite-sized chunks of tonal syntax that while practising there is no cognitive effort (no working-out). But intention and meaning are there from the very beginning. Yes, we work to allow our natural rhythm to drive the story-telling metre in improvisation and do not follow judging thoughts about the Results, but the mind always knows where our fingers are and the body knows where we are in the structure of the rhythmic matrix. Maybe there's more meat in Kenny's method and this talk doesn't do it justice. But I suspect that the avant garde style he admires is a symptom of breaking the rules beyond what we think of as music (= rhythm + harmony).
"The mind is where both the intention and the knowledge of music theory reside." I don't think of any theory when I play guitar... and especially not when I play lead guitar (single note melody soloing stuff). It IS possible to make music on a stringed instrument with ZERO music theory knowledge. Many great guitar players have done it. You just have to practice obsessively for 5 or 7 years first.
I don’t see the contradiction. “Listening” ties only to one mental plane, but you exists on multiple mental and non mental planes simultaneously. His idea of liberation makes one more able to co-operate with all of the planes of existence, in contradiction of intention based action which ties one to the mental plane and makes them unsuccessful instead of effortless which would lead them to real mastery.
It reads as if written by someone who has not yet had the experience Kenny is describing. The Vedantist would say, “I am not the doer.” What is the doer? In the general sense, Nature. In the intimate sense, the mind is the doer. So one who identifies with that which is beyond the mind, would have the perspective, not of being disconnected from the mind, but of witnessing the action being performed by the mind, and by extension, the body. The self-identity with the silent witness is what is being described as the key to creativity. Kenny mentions meditation several times. It’s just a technique to dispose the nervous system to supporting that experience he refers to as “the space.” The Charismatics are also practicing a technique which is more dynamic than the quiet metabolic state of meditation, and the two techniques could be used as part of a practice that could stretch the capacity of the nervous system to support a dual style of functioning - with the ability to perform dynamic activity (playing an instrument or singing) while established in silence. I would point to some of the vocalizations heard in this spontaneous performance as exemplary of the mechanics of speaking in tongues, and would go so far as saying that, it was at that point that their music went beyond creativity and perhaps approached the level of cognition. These are just my observations. All I can say for certain is that it gave me the chills.
Hi, i get your point but I believe there is a misunderstanding in how you are interpreting his message. I think what Kenny is trying to convey is that, after having practiced consciously and deliberately over and over again, hence being analytical during your practice session, certain things become automatic in a sense that one does not need to think about it anymore during performance cause your mind starts to go on autopilot, since these are mechanisms that have being reinforced over and over. For example, have you ever found yourself driving and not being focused at all on the road or on actions like accelerating, steering, etc., yet somehow reach your destination without any issues? Since you also mentioned the fact that music is a language (which i totally agree): however when talking you are actually thinking about a specific concept, not on a "word for word" basis. I think is the same principle: one must practice in a conscious way so much that then the performance would come to you effortlessly, in a sort of automatic way, while you not exactly being present in each and every single note you play cause somehow your unconscious mind knows what to do. Ask jazz musicians if they think about every single thing they play or every single chord in the harmony when improvising; if you do that you lose the moment and it's already too late. Another important point and implication to his message is that this does not come without practice! You will reach that state after having worked your butt off...and he uses it also as a suggestion and advice to avoid stage freight. Cheers!
Man, anybody can do this music.Hes not an accomplished pianist.His ideas are really simple and it actually gets boring after listening for just a bit. Well, just my 2 cents.
what's wrong with his technique? he's a jazz pianist and teacher at berklee for god's sake. listen to his trio playing and tell me he is not a "proper pianist"
Your saying what you’ve said speaks like you’ve not heard him playing in different contexts. Like an expectation or hope without knowing the answer until this video.. Also he’s demonstrating freedom. It is defo worth watching more videos. Literally properly digesting his concepts and watching him play generally because no one could suggest his technique is in question after watching a few different videos in my experience
Like a breath of fresh air this guy...
... the master leads by emptying peoples minds and filling their core, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve- Tao Te Ching
Known Kenny since the 70's - Master pianist - Excellent educator - Solid human being - Always a joy
This was good! I used to play with a creative singer absolutely free, i. e. no preparations. This was a good duet with Claudia and Kenny.
What a great topic and speech! We "should" all over ourselves, and it holds us back. I'm very guilty of this. Breaking out of that mold can show you a whole new world.
The ultimate paradox: there are things you can get better at the more you practice; then there are things that you need to just be and appreciate, live and let live. To know the difference is wisdom.
Speechless , I’ve listened to this on repeat
Igniting and grounding talk. Thank you Kenny Werner for sharing your time with us. 🌺🎶
wow....someone has finally encapsulated what I've been trying to capture for years. Wonderful!
I read the book back in college and it helped a lot. But hearing this. I'm only a few minutes into the lecture portion and I'm already crying like a therapeutic release.
Stunning. Love this. Many thanks....
What a master. Guy can play, for sure! - And feel it.
Thank you so much for sharing this..
LOVE this ....!!!!!
Man I've been wasting my life mainly because I was raised to be scared shitless at chances of failure (in the conventional meaning of not looking cool or like a winner). Having parents who didn't believe in you from the very beginning or were satisfied if they could at least laugh at your not being or looking the effing best at everything rather than staying with you facing difficulty when you're still small, things get more difficult later, and you ain't getting any help from them to go out of there. I see the prints this has left not only in myself but also my sister. But right now I'm saying no more of this crap, not anymore.
Bravo -- you've already succeeded! Commit to it. COMMIT TO IT. And just BE. So much better -- and easier -- than becoming.
what a journey. thanks for sharing
Just mind blowing 🤯💡😍
I have amplified this widely. I hope it hits more than a few neurons out there in the world. We need it.
What you mean when you say that you have amplified this? Thanks!
I love the talk!
Wish I lived in Boston where he teaches in the
Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee College of Music.
---- "Complete focus when practicing
Total liberation in performing
Full use of body, mind, and soul
Reclaiming your love and inner connection to your music.
Mission Statement
The Effortless Mastery Institute helps Berklee students reclaim their inner voice and their connection to music by teaching them how to overcome physical and mental obstacles that keep them from performing at their highest levels."
I loved the video too. You can start to do this at home. Let go. Then use that to find people. Is true what he says. It applies to everything. Just get back in touch with what you are.
The smaller the amount of material, the more possible to absorb it✍
Amen ! 100 percent agree :-)
16:28 NIIIICE!! I love that sound. Ben Tankard uses it in his piano intro on “Through The Storm” sung by Yolanda Adams.
Thank you for the talk and demonstration. Claudia Villela deserves a credit.
Beautiful :)
An action taken is a success....! ✍
Nice! I haven't seen anyone mute the piano strings before, pretty cool concept actually.
Then watch Nils Frahm - Toilet Brushes. :D
Cool talk. Thanks. :D
You don't 'work' music but you 'play' music.
Children know how to play. So we need to go back to the child in us. I am sending my analytical/critical mind away when I play. Do think that little kids have rules. No everything is possible and nothing a mistake. Just experience. Looking forward to read this book :)
"Effortless Mastery" - this book is highly recommended.
Really awesome book no doubt, though he covers most the same points in this talk (the book has the points along with journey of his musical life which is nice).
If I didn’t know it was Kenny Werner playing I’d have thought it would be Keith Jarrett :o
I just bought his books. Why did I never hear about him before? (I live under a nice rock!)
I had the same thought.
Hey! That’s me asking the first question!
Great question indeed
Thank you
Her Voice was getting ready to Climax!
26:19 What song is this???
All the things you are
30:12 I was hoping he'd play the !5 followed by the dominanant alteration
greeeat video
Starts at 3:21
39:49 . I dont get it
🤣
7:35 that was sweet
17:45 paging Dr. Harmon
His memory of the scene in Green Card is pretty sketchy!
😊❤️🙏 Perform with complete detachment. Space……
26:15 All The Things You Are ?
Yep
So people are skipping the playing? Just wow.
I'm trying to figure out 38 mns in whether its white Yoko, or Kenny who lost the bet and had to do that. Most of the lesson was cool, but 46 mns could not come fast enough... not impressed with the screechy twaddle.
Modern Opera
16:55 Let's say you were in your kitchen and kick the stove and it goes
Well....you play golf too. :)
Donna Lee?
Wu Wei
Orgasmic Music
Interesting but kinda vague...
Seems like a nice guy and I love what he plays here; But he is mostly talking self-contradictory rubbish in my opinion.
Kind of the complete opposite of what creativity is. A musician it's supposed to convey his conscious intentions through the medium of the instrument, not mindlessly meander.
I think there is something to what this man is saying but I fear he doesn't even know himself what he's experiencing when he's playing.
Music doesn't come from muscle memory or from 'the fingers', it comes from the soul, which is rooted in the mind; the mind being the heart of a man.
The process being taught here sounds suspiciously like transcendental meditation, which is complete BS. You cannot learn or communicate anything worthwhile by disconnecting from your mind.
This is almost a carbon copy of those pathetic 'how to speak in tongues' lessons by fake Christians of the hyper charismatic movement peddling their mindless drivel, that teaches one to just blurt out random syllables which results in gobbledegook.
Or like the 'painter' who throws a bucket of paint at a canvas and then relies entirely on his audience to find some subjective meaning in it as they scratch their chins. There's no merit in that on behalf of the painter.
Music is a language (an actual language) designed to communicate emotions and feelings. A musician is someone who communicates his thoughts and ideas and message via harmony and melody. The art is in ability to accurately and intentionally communicate those things rather than just throw out random sounds in various ways and then claim that the soul is somehow channelling.
The mere fact that a musician must practice and practice is a clearly contradicts and refutes the basic claims of this talk.
I am not claiming that this man is a charlatan or a fraud, merely that he is misinterpreting what is happening when he improvises. It is true that fear of failure will affect performance, but suggesting that one must disconnect oneself from one's mind is preposterous. The mind is where both the intention and the knowledge of music theory reside.
I tuned into this video because it sounded like my piano fluency teacher, Phil Best, who always says we must focus and let go. And we learn such bite-sized chunks of tonal syntax that while practising there is no cognitive effort (no working-out). But intention and meaning are there from the very beginning. Yes, we work to allow our natural rhythm to drive the story-telling metre in improvisation and do not follow judging thoughts about the Results, but the mind always knows where our fingers are and the body knows where we are in the structure of the rhythmic matrix. Maybe there's more meat in Kenny's method and this talk doesn't do it justice. But I suspect that the avant garde style he admires is a symptom of breaking the rules beyond what we think of as music (= rhythm + harmony).
"The mind is where both the intention and the knowledge of music theory reside."
I don't think of any theory when I play guitar... and especially not when I play lead guitar (single note melody soloing stuff).
It IS possible to make music on a stringed instrument with ZERO music theory knowledge. Many great guitar players have done it. You just have to practice obsessively for 5 or 7 years first.
I don’t see the contradiction. “Listening” ties only to one mental plane, but you exists on multiple mental and non mental planes simultaneously. His idea of liberation makes one more able to co-operate with all of the planes of existence, in contradiction of intention based action which ties one to the mental plane and makes them unsuccessful instead of effortless which would lead them to real mastery.
It reads as if written by someone who has not yet had the experience Kenny is describing.
The Vedantist would say, “I am not the doer.” What is the doer? In the general sense, Nature. In the intimate sense, the mind is the doer. So one who identifies with that which is beyond the mind, would have the perspective, not of being disconnected from the mind, but of witnessing the action being performed by the mind, and by extension, the body. The self-identity with the silent witness is what is being described as the key to creativity. Kenny mentions meditation several times. It’s just a technique to dispose the nervous system to supporting that experience he refers to as “the space.”
The Charismatics are also practicing a technique which is more dynamic than the quiet metabolic state of meditation, and the two techniques could be used as part of a practice that could stretch the capacity of the nervous system to support a dual style of functioning - with the ability to perform dynamic activity (playing an instrument or singing) while established in silence.
I would point to some of the vocalizations heard in this spontaneous performance as exemplary of the mechanics of speaking in tongues, and would go so far as saying that, it was at that point that their music went beyond creativity and perhaps approached the level of cognition.
These are just my observations. All I can say for certain is that it gave me the chills.
Hi, i get your point but I believe there is a misunderstanding in how you are interpreting his message. I think what Kenny is trying to convey is that, after having practiced consciously and deliberately over and over again, hence being analytical during your practice session, certain things become automatic in a sense that one does not need to think about it anymore during performance cause your mind starts to go on autopilot, since these are mechanisms that have being reinforced over and over.
For example, have you ever found yourself driving and not being focused at all on the road or on actions like accelerating, steering, etc., yet somehow reach your destination without any issues?
Since you also mentioned the fact that music is a language (which i totally agree): however when talking you are actually thinking about a specific concept, not on a "word for word" basis.
I think is the same principle: one must practice in a conscious way so much that then the performance would come to you effortlessly, in a sort of automatic way, while you not exactly being present in each and every single note you play cause somehow your unconscious mind knows what to do. Ask jazz musicians if they think about every single thing they play or every single chord in the harmony when improvising; if you do that you lose the moment and it's already too late.
Another important point and implication to his message is that this does not come without practice! You will reach that state after having worked your butt off...and he uses it also as a suggestion and advice to avoid stage freight.
Cheers!
Snake oil. Celebrating mistakes? Mastery without effort? Flapdoodle.
Man, anybody can do this music.Hes not an accomplished pianist.His ideas are really simple and it actually gets boring after listening for just a bit. Well, just my 2 cents.
Beautiful playing, but I honestly thought his technique would be better.
same im kinda disappointed
He is not really a proper pianist, he is just a jazzy pianist. But I like his mentalities on being free and improvise.
what's wrong with his technique? he's a jazz pianist and teacher at berklee for god's sake. listen to his trio playing and tell me he is not a "proper pianist"
Your saying what you’ve said speaks like you’ve not heard him playing in different contexts. Like an expectation or hope without knowing the answer until this video.. Also he’s demonstrating freedom. It is defo worth watching more videos. Literally properly digesting his concepts and watching him play generally because no one could suggest his technique is in question after watching a few different videos in my experience
@@pebblenapkins watch more videos of Kenny playing maybe