About Music Interpretation, Danger of the "D" word (Depression); Psychological Change
By Reza Ganjavi
26 Feb 2011
Certain
drum parts are melodies, like the guitar and bass which at times play
melodies; these are melodies people know and are essential. Playing a
cover song well does not depend on the resemblance of looks or even
playing the same notes; it's in the spirit; but so much of pop music is
garbage anyway that it lacks any spirit to begin with -- so a Bon
Jovi tribute band tells more about the tributors than the tributee.
When
you play Bach, you play the F# he wrote not the F – you play the exact
notes but still the interpreter’s flavor is there. With pop music
there’s more freedom in the interpretation – the important thing is for
it to come from the heart – and for certain essential elements of the
song to be present. The drum fill in With A Little Help for example is
as important as the vocal melody – people know it – and delivering it
to them gives the interpreter much credibility.
Met a good friend in Zurich today.
Having a
notebook, a good friend, or in some rare cases if one is lucky to have
an unconfused therapist, a therapist, can help a person empty their
minds. I think a good friend and a notebook can help even more because
most of these bloody therapists give people medications to solve
problems which have other roots than pathological problems. For
example, a teacher may have too high of standards and get upset at
non-performing pupils and get angry and is about to lose one’s job; the
therapist gives him anti-depressant to control his mood – maybe in the
short term this is a good solution but it’s a superficial solution
because the medication doesn’t help with the understanding the root of
the problem which is essential for change.
The root of freedom
is understanding, seeing what-is, without trying to change it. This
includes seeing what one is internally – how one’s thought creates
sorrow, gives continuity to problems, creates confusion, and why this
is so. The reason for it is that thought’s activity is limited and what
is limited is bound to create division. Thought is limited because it’s
based on the past experience which is limited, and because thought is
material – and matter is limited.
So a state of happiness and clarity come with quietness of thought.
This
country has an extreme reliance on sustaining Big Pharma – they throw a
chemical pill at problems which can be solved if understood. Without
that understanding a chemical change is only a temporary dampening of
sensitivity.
The child keeps crying but the mother hasn’t
understood the root cause, so the crying continues – it’s like knifing
our hearts but the mother remains helpless because she’s insensitive to
what’s wrong with the kid. It’s often something as basic as physical
discomfort. The passengers are getting restless from the sound of
torture and some changing their seat.
Being alone is not a
problem to be solved. Specially in this society where one can quickly
be in a crowd. Loneliness is a disease. Alone is all-one. To be truly
alone, not fragmented into broken desires, broken consciousness, is
very powerful.
To fall into a state of sorrow is easy for the
brain because it’s conditioned by the accumulated experience of
centuries of human existence. So one has to be a light onto oneself,
and not fall into sorrow, depression, when it is so easy to do. Luckily
he didn’t think depression is handed down from his mother but fact is
ideas such that depression is hereditary , that it runs in the family,
all shape one’s outlook on the problem. It seems that it makes more
sense to not call it depression; Never use the “d” word as that
word has an effect on the body/brain/nerves and it is a favorite trap
of Big Pharma.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional and
the above are just my subjective opinions and should not be considered
as advice.
PS -- As
long as one is in the trap of therapists one can not move away from the
past because part of therapists' bread and butter is being stuck in the
past.
In some other societies there are a lot less people on
psychiatric drugs -- is it because they don't treat so many or because
so many cases don't exist? The industry makes the customers -- that's
an old trick every good marketer knows -- you help create the need. I
asked for some examples of what the so called experts consider to be
problems. Every example sounded like "normal" challenges of living many
go through. I am not saying there is not a right place for a good
therapist and medications. There is. But I bet the majority of people
are wrongly taking drugs instead of finding the root of the problem.
The
crooked thing about this subject is the society is very high pressure
(not as much as in Japan). The proof is high suicide rates. And
sensitive people get hurt by this. Many people think: am I good enough?
And Big Pharma is ready to "help" them. Instead of turning that flame
of discontent and understanding and transforming it, instead of finding
the answer and breaking free, society prescribes drugs and therapy. The
drugs is a form of mind control. Your sense and mind are now
controlled, like a music compressor: high and low ends are cut: extreme
emotions are removed. You become a good sheep and you stop asking such
questions. It's one ugly yet highly profitable game played in societies
which are so utopic, have the outside world so figured out that there
is no place for inner disorder and exploration of that which is the key
to order and happiness.
And the more drugs the less the
sensitivity. Of course, an intelligent sensitive person wants to find
out what are the real causes of his or her unhappiness,
insufficiencies, discomfort, insecurity, etc., and finds a natural way
to feel good without dependence on drugs or therapists, by removing
those things that make him feel bad, and adding those natural things
that make him feel good, like walking, stretching, healthy food,
avoidance of added sugar, etc., and learns to be light to oneself,
rescue oneself from the depths of self-imposed pities. Of course the
root of much of this misery is dominance of thought in our lives.
Thought has become over-dominant, and that makes people unhappy and
confused. Again, a key to freedom is exploring the right place of
thought, understanding its limitations, and learning where thought
belongs and not. I proposed a great book on this subject but it was
returned.
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