"It's the
next
best thing: to be
free
as a bird."
... The Beatles, Free As A Bird
"Behold, how good and pleasant it is for
the family
to make music together!"
... Elize Greeff adapting Psalm 133 "Behold, how good and pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"
"Fun is the understated component of
creativity."
... Laurence Platt responding to Jacques Coetzee's "Fun is
underrated in most books about
creativity."
This essay,
The
Next
Best Thing,
is the tenth in a group of twenty written in
Santa Barbara:
I am indebted to Elize Greeff and to Jacques Coetzee and to Barbara
"Bobbie" Ractliffe Fairhead Coetzee who contributed material for this
conversation.
It's all in the emphasis ie it's all in the italics. When I say
something is the
next
best thing, I'm saying it's second best, yes? For example,
if I say the
next
best thing to
being in love
is making music together, what I'm saying is making music together is
pretty darn good ... but ... it's not quite as good as
being in love.
The implication is really clear: there's one best thing and that's
being in love
... and making music together is the
next
best thing to
being in love.
But if I say making music together is the
nextbest thing (with emphasis shifted from
"next"
to "best"), I'm alluding to the possibility of there being many,
many best things - not just one. Perhaps the first
best thing was
being in love
- now the
nextbest thing is making music together. Just wait: soon we'll
experience the
nextbest thing, and then the
nextbest thing, and then the
nextbest thing etc, each
nextbest thing surpassing the previous best thing.
Making music together is the latter rather than the former: it's the
nextbest thing rather than the
next
best thing. Listen: in life there's no scarcity. There's no dearth or
shortage of best things: there's lots of
them. There's one best thing, then there's the
nextbest thing, then there's the
nextbest thing etc.
I'm coachable. There are ways to sing which
work,
then there are ways which don't
work.
I can sing in a lower key when I can't reach the key in which a
song is written. But the obvious challenge is to sing the song in
its actual key.
Alexandra's
noticing I'm straining to reach the key of this song. She coaches
me in whispering the
words
rather than singing them. Then she suggests I whisper them
louder while projecting my voice from my sinuses
rather than from my throat. It
works!
I reach the right key. With a bit of practice it
could
be perfect. But for now it's
good enough for
jazz
- literally.
We scan through the verses and choruses of the song, deciding who
should sing which verses, who should sing lead, and who should sing
harmonies. We also plan the introduction and all the
segues between the verses and voices. And then there
are some parts of the song in which, without the full orchestra of
very talented
master
musicians, we're completely out of our depth. So: never
mind!
We enjoy the song so much, we're going to give it our best shots
and simply leave out or
play
around those difficult passages. With some pencil notes, lyrics,
and chord changes clearly
written
on an A4 sized sheet of white paper positioned in
view
behind the camera, we're ready for our first rehearsal.
Singing is closely related to speaking and
conversation
but it clearly is not of the same genre.
While making music together (in its entirety) is the
nextbest thing to
being in love,
singing on the other hand is the
next
best thing to
conversation.
That said, I'm a better
conversationalist
than I am a singer, not merely because I'm practiced more in
speaking but rather because I'm enamored of the genre of
conversation.
See,
conversation
is an essential. Singing, on the other hand, is an
art form.
Conversation,
even before it's lofted high with practice (as singing is) to an
art form,
is powerful enough to shift erstwhile immovable realities and to
transform
Life itself.
My
intention
in sharing this modest attempt of ours singing and making music
together, includes
transforming Life
itself
- and I'll share that
commitment
in
another conversation on
another occasion.
But its
heart
is simpler than that. What I've got in
mind
here is the
transforming
of what's possible for family, by providing a real, living,
thrilling proof it
works.
Don't watch it like a music critic (and it's fine if you do) - it
plays
clearer if you just be with what's going on.