2 Day Chilla

For those of you who may not know, a chilla is a musical retreat that musicians in India go on - they play music for 40 straight days and nights. They travel to a secluded place with basic necessities and start playing. Eventually, through lack of sleep and constant focus, they start to see visions as they play and since music and spirituality are very closely tied in Indian culture, those visions are very important.

So, inspired by the Indian chilla, the funk band decided to have a mini-chilla of our own. For 2 days, 12 hours each, we came to school with the intention of only focusing on our musicianship. We had our recording studio set up in the band room and practice spaces set up in Mr. Zorn's classroom. We even had some very interesting reading about listening, practicing and a book on the environment.

We had planned to record 7 songs from our repertoire and 5 or 6 songs for the elementary school's music program. I have to admit I had my doubts that we would get everything done. Last year during our 1 day of recording in 12 hours, we only recorded 3 songs with the whole band and 1 song with a couple of people.

However, I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday night when I realized that even through all our interruption and unexpected complications, we managed to get nearly everything we wanted to record.

I was also proud of my fellow band members. Each one has improved so much and they deserve recognition. Melissa's voice was beautiful and her guitar solo in All Along the Watchtower was amazing. Tem's solos get faster and more intricate by the day and yet they always fit into our songs. Max was able to sing on pitch and with volume and emotion, even though he had a sore throat and congestion. Micah was able to record most of his parts perfectly just one time through and he was able to focus and get most of his parts done in a couple of hours. However, Kule'a was the one who made me the most proud. He has come so far since the beginning of the year and played his parts so well. It was obvious he knew the forms and he even added fills we hadn't heard before.


So while we may not have had a perfect chilla, I came home on Sunday night feeling proud and excited to be a part of this year's funk band.

Claire

Music Practice... difficult? or easy as cake?

Maybe for people like Joe Satriani and Elvis Costello, practicing music was as easy as saying "yes" to a piece of chocolate cake. Most days it's the same for me as well; however, there are those times that a little voice or feeling pops into my head that asks why should I practice bass, when I could just chill out and do something that doesn't require thought?



Those are the days I have to try so hard to push those thoughts out of my head and try to focus my thoughts into a productive practice. Which makes me think about how much harder it is to practice music and how much more skill it takes. It is not like a team practice for sports or a class where you are forced to focus because of a coach or teammate pressure. No, practicing music involves only you and your own motivation.

For very talented musicians like Costello and Satriani, their focused practices became habit. The better ingrained the practice habit is, the easier it is to practice. The easier it is to practice the more progress, the easier it is to learn new material and ultimately perform. Only good things come from this kind of music practice. (Below, Elvis Costello performs with the Liverpool Philharmonic.)



So even though it may be hard to focus yourself and find the time to practice, I think in the end it is so worth it. I know I've improved and created good habits for myself. It wasn't easy and some days are still a struggle for me, but I really think that as difficult as it may seem to motivate yourself to focus and practice efficiently, it comes with serious benefits.

These are my thoughts for now,
Claire (an eager, but sometimes struggling, good habit practitioner)