"Apparently he's working on a technique where he just holds his hands in front of his face and visualizes run of the mill sax solos and the music just sort of appears." fjm
Apparently some of you Harplers have too much time on your hands and not enough music theory in your head and heart that you feel you must degrade Mr.Levy's contributions to the world of music.
If you feel Howard's music is inferior to other sax players, I recomend you try to play or hum or transcribe his solos and musical compositions. If you can't, show some respect and accept the fact you may not be the right judge of this person.
If you feel you are truly funny, try taking a kl-ass in humor at your local community school or get your GED finally. Your jealous attempts at humor would be better spent practicing your major scales.
I can appreciate your attempted defense of Levy's rep Harmonica5 but I wouldn't get my harp in an uproar, he doesn't need it. I think the general consensus would be that Levy is a pretty amazing Harpist.
Howard seems to have encouraged the idea of "mind over harp" with some of his statements and for a person of his accomplishments I for one would take him seriously.
There is ,I think, a large mental component in music making and vizualization is a major part of that. To have a clear vizualization of just where and what your attempting to do may be the basis for everything else.We all know of athletes and performers who hold vizualization in high regard . Apparently Howard does too. You may have heard the story of the GI who interred in a tiny cell in a concentration camp , practiced his golf swing mentally and credits this to his subsequent good shape and improved golf game after his release.
The reality of it seems to be that strong vizualization actually uses the same neural pathways , neuroreceptors ,nervous system and musculature, as the actual act .You can of course "vizualize " incorrectly and just confirm your mistakes thus the necessity for "real" practice with its concommitant feedback.
To someone like Howard who has all or most of the technical problems worked out allready I think it's very much a case of ..."he just holds his hands in front of his face and visualizes run of the mill sax solos and the music just sort of appears." Of course there was much prior preparation, years of it. Hell Mozart just drove around in his buggy and all the music just floated down to him allmost without any need of revision. We arn't Mozart or Levy but we can all profit from vizualization and intelligence ( inter + leggere = reading between the lines ). You need more , not less of that component in this medium.If you do that I think you'll see admiration not jealousy in the humor ( mabye a little envy). And of course practice , practice, practice with the right vizualization not just practising mistakes.
I'll forgo the kl-ass in humor thx, tho I appreciate your attempt, I'll save up for a Meisterclasse chrom( I'll be getting a Renny with money from my debut Doug.....drw #2 and hold ..indef :)
I hope i've made some sense.Prob not , a'int you glad you wrote?:)
Eddie
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