One of the first songs I learned on guitar was Blowin in the Wind by Bob Dylan. At ten years old in 1974, there was no way to comprehend the song itself. Three chords, thats all. Fast forward to 2008, playing the same song with a lot of lifes ups and downs mixed in. The same three chords have so many notes between the notes. Close my eyes and let my soul shine. We are all of the same light, each of us together making a bigger more powerfull one. I only thought I had been playing for an hour, yet the clock says four have passed. Music can heal,make you cry, laugh or think. Thanks to Carlos, and Guitar Player mag, it shows the responses all have the same thread. We are all connected and when we touch on the intangibles, thats when we are playing our own SOUL MUSIC! Music truly transends religion, race, politics and is a gift to us all. Make it your own.

Don't think too much and play with your ears not your fingers. Harnessing the intangibles is not about grabbing onto something - it's about letting go of everything. Great songs have been written with three chords and thirty chords; greatness is not about complexity. Greatness is about connecting to people, events and needs at the right time. To connect in a song - where skill and technique merge so tightly with creativity and improvisation requires the songwriter to reach into the same old tired keys and progressions and come out with something that people connect with - the wire between the two is found by eschewing technique and theory in favor of what sounds good. I don't mean to imply practice should be abandoned, but practice is not playing. When it is time to play great songwriters set practice aside. Each of us must follow what we think sounds good and that leads some to a lifetime of achievements and others nowhere, but you are being honest with yourself and as a result leveraging the intangibles. So remember, when you want to write and leverage the intangibles around you - just listen everywhere and react to what you hear.

I believe the essence that leads to instant inspiration is this : draw from all facets of life, then invest yourself and play what you feel, giving all you have . The reward comes when you see the satisfaction of your listeners. This realization came for me in a locked alzheimers unit when a non responsive resident became totally connected to the song and began to clap, smile, laugh, and dance. the other part of this is very simple : Have Fun!!!!!!!!!!

I have actually thought of the intagibles of playing music. For me, I think of it in a philosophical way. Does music exist because we play it, or is all MUSIC existing independently of listeners and players? I believe it does. To play from the heart is to become a vessel from the music to flow from the entire collective that is MUSIC through your mind, into your body, and through the output of your instrument.
Great players like Carlos Santana, Jimmy Hendrix, Omar Rodriguez, and Adam Jones have trained themselves to let go and humbly become a vessel for beautiful music.

Well for myself as a new guitar player, i view intangibles in this light: i got my first guitar intending to learn how to play. then the overwhelming wealth of information, (chord playing, chord building, string bending,harmonics, ect.) arise and you are faced with the decision of rising to the challenge, or letting it go. for those who chose to rise, it seems as if there is a spirit that sets them apart from the rest which choose
to persue another hobby/career. i think that spirit is the intangible, in as much as it is the thing that allows you to have a personal relationship with your guitar.

you train to learn skills, you use the skills to entertain. but to be entertaning you cant "practise on stage" you have to trust the skillsets you have developed to let you "play" the song.

it is a lot like driving. when you first learn to drive, you spend all your time thinking about what you are doing. (where is the brake, where is the clutch, how do i shift,ect). but with more experience you dont "think" about having to drive, and you enjoy the process of actually driving.

learning to trust yourself to do what you've trained for and share that with your audience is the intangible because you have to let go of all the things you've held on to.

Well, it's in fact not too complicated in my opinion.
Playing (and listening) music can have multiple effects on you. Some can make you happy, some sad, some can rise those tiny hairs on your back with one note. So I believe the main thing about music, and then I mean playing music, is to transfer emotions. When we're talking about emotions, we talk about the things we call "coming from the heart". It is true you can express yourself a million ways with one note or one way with a million notes (GP August 2008 I think :)). Say you've had a very stressful day. You come home and you need something to relax. If you love playing the guitar, there is a big chance you might take your guitar and play until you're satisfied.

At the moment I am in a busy exam period. So, in between studying, I like to take my guitar, sit or lie on my bed and play with my eyes shut, with a headphone plugged onto my amp. It helps me a lot when I try to relax and let the stressful thoughts flow away.

Living in a modern world, you should have the opportunity to let go the rational thinking from time to time and to express your emotions, whether if you're a painter, a writer or something else.

As a musician, you should do the same thing. Music is, as I've said, all about emotions, nothing rational. So an artist, doesn't matter if he plays for his family or for a whole sports stadium of people, at first needs to write a song by expressing his emotions. Then, when he plays a song, he should again play with his heart, expressing the thoughts and make them join your fantastic world from the first note on.

This is what I believe is the true intangible, letting go all the ratio and express yourself directly with your heart.

Some of the mysteries and intangibles which influence my outlook, are life and death, the spirit world, mysticism, intuition, dreams, the untapped power of the mind, traditions of the Yoruba/Rastafari and a certain Native American tribe. I sometimes receive melodies and riffs through dreams, so far, not complete songs. I practice various forms of meditation., and believe that through practice, an enhanced level of creativity and inspiration is possible, in addition to the physical benefits.

Playing from the heart, to me, is to be comfortable enough with the guitar that your playing becomes a form of meditation, and meditation, for me, is to quiet the mind by shutting off the internal dialogue all human beings indulge in, it doesn’t involve thinking about anything but, the exact opposite. In this state we open a link and through that link we can connect to a higher consciousness and I believe, receive inspiration to produce something truly unique; guitar as the voice for our happiness, sadness and other emotions.
There was a time in history, in so called primitive cultures when dancers, singers, and players of musical instruments and practitioners of other art forms, who aspired to be the best at their craft were respected because of their ability to communicate through their art with God. Those traditions exist today in many of those same religious cultures and through blues foundation musicians.

When I think of great musicians like John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, or Wes Montgomery I know that each sought, through music, to make the world we live in heavenly, that a series of notes, chords etc. could transform the world. I believe that world already exists in some dimension and it is up to those with the same vision to transform the world we presently live in.

Intangibles

I like a lot of different players and styles, but the common thread is that each one has a unique voice.

Many musicians act like parrots; they hear something and musically regurgitate it. Imagine attempting to have a real conversation or debate with a parrot. Good luck.

Other musicians get so deep into technique they lose most of us. Kind of like having a beer with a quantum physics major. “What was that he said? Is that a real word? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t English.” They use verbosity for its own sake.

Then there are those that want to tell you a story, maybe they are a little angry (Black Flag) introspective (James Taylor) or “out there” (Zappa) but they have something to tell you and they speak their own language and it is obvious they are not retelling someone else’s story or borrowing their syntax. These musicians are real. It doesn’t matter if they pack out stadiums three nights a week, or barely can find someone to give them a nickel on a street corner. They are using music to communicate.

I myself sometimes fall into focusing too much on the technical aspects of making music. Then I listen to a five minute Neil Young guitar solo that I have loved since I was a kid and start to technically dissect it. “Was that really only 4 notes in the entire five minutes?” Could I replicate it? Well yes I could PLAY it but I don’t think I could ever truly replicate it. I could also READ Martin Luther King Jr’s I Had A Dream speech, but that doesn’t make me King’s equal. To truly communicate I have to give my own speech, in my own language and style. I believe this is what Santana was getting at in this month’s article.

If you really want to know what the intangibles are about imagine the following
picture.
There's a dark room, no light what'so ever, in this dark room there's a 16
year old boy who has just lost his father, who has just lost his mother, who
has just lost everyone he loved so deeply and he feels there are only two roads
to walk from now , one is leading towards selfpity,victimism,hate,guilt and
anger and the other leads you towards light. I've chosen the later and that's
thanks to Carlos Santana.
I've been playing my guitar for 30 years now.
Thanks for the interview man.
From the heart to the heart

The intangibles of music to me is something that cannot be taught in a studio or a classroom. The ability to convey your emotions through a musical instrument is a God given talent that not all people have. It is one thing to learn the technical side of playing a musical intrument, and another to be able to express this from your heart and soul. It can be hard for people who do not play an instrument to understand the feeling of taking a song from your soul, letting it flow through your fingertips unto the fretboard of your guitar, and out into the air. It is a true expression of the passion that lies within your soul. People with little or no imagination or passion for life would have a very difficult time understanding this. Carlos Santana is one of these people who possess this passion and talent!

By definition, intangibles are things that we cannot touch. Intangibles touch us, however. We can feel them, but we cannot hold them.

It is like rain or snow. Rain can touch us, but if we try to touch the rain, it is no longer rain: it is only so much moisture in our hands.

The guitar we can touch, but we cannot touch the music it makes: when we touch it, it is no longer music—it is only so many notes, techniques, physical properties, etc. like the moisture in our hands when trying to touch rain.

I remember my first experience with the music of a guitar. I was just four years old, and listening to an uncle play and sing around a kitchen table. It was magic to me then, and it still is magic to me now. That day something in the Universe broke open and touched me. And I’ve been living for that intangible thing ever since (over forty years, if you are counting.)

At times, I have been confused about the guitar itself—thinking wrongly that it (alone) was the thing for which to live. And even to this day, I love that six-string goddess more than any tangible thing. For example, when Guitar Player arrives in my mailbox, the first thing I read is the ads. They seductively hint at the intangible possibilities better than most things can do, and thus, I let them draw me in.

But, the real touch of the intangibles is something I cannot buy or own. Further, I cannot learn it from all the excellent articles and lessons that I’ll read after I am done dreaming over the ads in the magazine.

The intangible magic that keeps me here ironically comes when I most forget about notes, lessons, gear, strings, etc. It happens when I open myself to this force and let the music come out. I am nothing, my guitar is nothing, my gear is nothing. The most difficult/wonderful thing is to step aside and let it happen. And when it happens, I know it—and so does the audience. This is what I live for.

Ultimately, it is a humbling experience to get there. There is no ego in it; there is no glory in it; there is no money it in. It can come to a complete beginner—as it did to me when I was much younger, and it can come to a pro player. It really does not matter how good your gear is or your technique: what matters is that you lose yourself and become an instrument through which music is allowed to flow.

And you must be strong enough to handle it. Many people cannot deal with this immense power and responsibility. Its power to create is equal to its power to destroy. Trust me, in my forty plus years of slinging a guitar, I have seen too many great players destroyed by it.

If I can offer any advice, it is this: respect music. If it touches you and selects you to be its instrument, and it speaks to you through that six-string, holy-grail-quest item known as the guitar—and you decide to follow this calling—go with it. Never try to own it. If you avoid it, you may be better off over all, but you will never cry as deeply or laugh as loudly.

Santana is really onto something with the intangibles that elevate mere tools and technique into music that can touch the heart and inspire the soul.

Over many years of reading the articles in Guitar Player magazine, I have often read 'the magic is in the fingers'. It does not matter what gear a given artist plays through you can recognize that artist. To me it is the intangible link from the artist's heart and soul, transmitted via their guitar to the listener's heart and soul.

Knowing your tools and techniques prepares your body to transmit what your heart wants to express.

As in writing, painting, sports, cooking, martial arts, whatever - when you are truly in the moment you can let go of the rules and conventions then act to serve that moment.

After a performance, the best feedback I get are comments that share how the listener felt and the emotional connection made. How well I played is not the measure of success. The audience does not really care how many notes, which scales or how much gear I used, they only care if they have been touched. As an artist, you cannot decide how the listener is touched; only they can determine that. All you can do is channel what is in your heart and play with sincerity. The real magic comes when the listener receives the unique message that they needed.

Let go of ego, forget yesterday, ignore tomorrow, just be in the moment, listen to your heart, your band mates and the audience, let the music flow and connect with the cosmos.

---

Thanks to GP and Santana

Thank you for the interview with Carlos Santana. I was fascinated by it.
One of the most breathtaking intangibles of music, to me, are the moments of deep communication, when I am playing or singing my heart. I feel the Spirit singing or playing through me. It is intangible. Yet it is real.
Another such moment is when I am playing music with a group, and we are suddenly in such close communion that we lift each other up, so to speak, to a rarified spiritual level. Santana describes moments like these as the mighty "intangibles" of music.
All I can add to the forum are some thoughts on the question: Is there a method or technique to get a musician to this place? Some try drugs or drink to get in touch with that spirit. But what spirit is it? Not all are the Good Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. For me, there are helps, such as deep breathing, focus on the moment, but they only help. The only true method is humble hopefulness. You hope it will happen. But you cannot make it happen. It is a gift from God, to be humbly received but not demanded or possessed or even expected. And you don't have to be at the level of Carlos Santana: the humble beginner reverently striking a guitar string could suddenly be brought to that place of deep communion with God, with others.
May all of us be granted this gift at least once in our musical journey.
Sr. Kay

Here's an experience to share from what Carlos Santana mentioned on your Dec '08 Guitar Player magazine.

Back in Singapore at the age of 8, I was indirectly pushed to join the school brass band, reason being I broke to many spectacles playing rough games like any other kids. Blowing through bugle, cornet and trumpet with no idea of what music was like at this age. But I remember while going through the music lesson, my eyes and mind were always wondering and dreaming towards the outside playground and football field.

However, to show the teachers that I'm still paying attention during lesson, when It came to my turn to blow what was written on the blackboard I just dipped into this intangible world, using my heart and with a deep breath and I blew away without any fear but the willingness to go for it. Even without looking at those notes on the board but just listening to the next person before me and not any single moment of thought did I need to analyze what he was blowing, I presented my piece confidently! Yes, it may be a bit fancy at times, but I got away with it....maybe it was nicely done and the teachers just close an eye.

Till present days I still adapting this "tangible" approach towards my singing, blues harp and guitar playing. I still don't know those notes on my guitars, except that I knew the 1st and 6th string are known as "E". To me it's just a name for people who can't identify sound. However, I view all the in-between frets and strings as jigsaw puzzle. And if I can pair them up nicely, I would be able to create a beautiful picture...or melody in this case.

Here's an experience to share from what Carlos Santana mentioned on your Dec '08 Guitar Player magazine.

Back in Singapore at the age of 8, I was indirectly pushed to join the school brass band, reason being I broke to many spectacles playing rough games like any other kids. Blowing through bugle, cornet and trumpet with no idea of what music was like at this age. But I remember while going through the music lesson, my eyes and mind were always wondering and dreaming towards the outside playground and football field.

However, to show the teachers that I'm still paying attention during lesson, when It came to my turn to blow what was written on the blackboard I just dipped into this intangible world, using my heart and with a deep breath and I blew away without any fear but the willingness to go for it. Even without looking at those notes on the board but just listening to the next person before me and not any single moment of thought did I need to analyze what he was blowing, I presented my piece confidently! Yes, it may be a bit fancy at times, but I got away with it....maybe it was nicely done and the teachers just close an eye.

Till present days I still adapting this "tangible" approach towards my singing, blues harp and guitar playing. I still don't know those notes on my guitars, except that I knew the 1st and 6th string are known as "E". To me it's just a name for people who can't identify sound. However, I view all the in-between frets and strings as jigsaw puzzle. And if I can pair them up nicely, I would be able to create a beautiful picture...or melody in this case.

Thomas Edison on intangibles:
"It's 1% inspiration and 99% PERSPIRATION."
I don't know about the percentages, but I do think he has a POINT!

Unless you don't think that the Beatles and Hendrix and Bach and Beethoven and Coltrane and Django etc. etc. worked hard at their craft!

Apart from Mr. Santana, with all due respect, most of them seemed to spend most of their time on the actual PRODUCT, not on pseudo-mystical gibberish about creativity!

It might be interesting to ask Sir Paul his take on this matter, BTW! You guys have the street cred to get his ear......

Considering guitar playing, what one may refer to as "intangibles" are in reality very tangible to most listeners. Though the analogy is often overused that expressing oneself through playing guitar is like communicating emotions through one's voice, it is helpful to ponder this comparison when considering and discussing intangibles. Just as the human voice, the guitar is very expressive and can communicate in a manner that affects us emotionally and spiritually. Guitar playing can stimulate a plethora of emotions, including: joy, contemplation, happiness, sadness, anticipation, introspection, surprise, anger, peacefulness, tension, euphoria, etc... Considering this, I believe that all musical styles (languages) are valid and have the potential to communicate at some level - from the simplest silly ditty to the most complex composition. Just as a child with a simple vocabulary can connect with and deeply stir the emotions of others, a person with a limited command of the guitar can do the same. The key to connecting with the listener is context.

In regards to context, I have been most affected by guitar players that play music in a style that I have a frame of reference for, and can relate to. The same is true of speakers and singers. Further, just as I can discern when a speaker or singer is not communicating words of truth they believe in from their heart, I can perceive when a guitar player is not connected to their heart and the musicians and music around them. I can tell when an accomplished player, who intimately knows their instrument, is simultaneously listening, anticipating, processing, creating, and boldly and confidently expressing their self within the context of the music. Just as words and inflections flow effortlessly from a persons voice without thought of the physical mechanics of speech, the music of their inner being flows through them and through their instrument to the listener. Their playing transcends what may merely sound "right", to a level far beyond. When this happens, I usually get caught up and travel with them.

Personal Intangibles that come into play when creating music...For me it begins with humility and honesty. The intangibles are truths that unite us as human beings. Things we all feel on a gut level. Musically, there is a point where one needs to let go and trust your instinct. Become vulnerable, take risks. It's like dancing with a beautiful stranger or riding a wild horse. Hold on, trust in what you know, but most importantly enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Mysteries to create music...look for the light.


Playing from the heart...is being tuned into that light.

The heart of the musician is the real instrument that creates music, the guitar and mechanics of playing are physical devices that are a conduit to deliver it to the listener. Though we make our music by being guitar players, the musician must dictate to the player, never the other way around.

Though I like Jimi, I am not sure he has stood the test of time like Beethoven or Bach.. That is ridiculous. We are talking about someone who died 38 years ago.

As for intangibles-- I suppose if I wanted to get fancy shmancy, I would say:

We are all glasses of water in the same ocean.

So please stop polluting the water.

Reading through the submissions to this forum, in which I am greatly interested, I'm struck by how many musicians get cynical about the 'intangibles' topic. I would have thought that musicians might have a greater tolerance for the notion of an unseen quality to existence.

I get this image of fish under the ocean, pointing to the solid reality of the rocks and seaweed around us, while arguing the existence and importance of this thing called 'water'.

I think there is an essential, important and intangible dimension to life and yet I think it's as natural and normal as breathing and thinking. Since it's less evident to us at times, I think it's important to point to it, and to remind ourselves it's there from time to time.

To say that it exists and is important is not to say that rocks and seaweed DON'T exist, or that practicing scales and tuning up and buying decent gear aren't deserving of attention. It's simply to say that there's an important dimension of life, a subset of which is music making, that often escapes the notice of our usual, personal, 'thinking' mind, and that this dimension is at the heart of the creative experience, the leap into the unknown that takes us OUT of scales and exercise and into MUSIC.

Just read the article by Carlos re:intangibles, 2a.m. at a cafe in downtown Sydney. A good time to read it as my more cynical side takes a break around about this time.
Here's an intangible, I think: when Carlos mentioned Sonny Sharrock I experienced, just from memory, the same shiver up the spine as I did when first I heard his playing on Herbie Mann's Memphis Underground nearly 35 years ago.
We get GP issues up to a month late here, and I was bewildered what all the 'intangibles' rumbling was about. Now that I know I feel like I've joined a cult or something! Another weird little intangible moment was that as soon as I read his comment about John Lennon, Dream#9, one of my favourite Lennon songs, started playing in the cafe.
Anyway thanks Carlos - clearly you are as much a 'fan' of all the great musicians you mentioned as we are(except that you get invited to be on stage with many of them).

--------------------------------
I guess I qualify as sounding cynical.
I would have to say that I really DON'T object to musicians being creative. I just find that, at least for me and others I talk to, the creativity comes about when you're focused on: 1) playing the music well and 2) trying new things. It's not divorced from the actual work involved.
And I don't object to musicians being spiritually minded, either. I can't really explore my take on that here because of the rules of the forum.
What I object to is when people just TALK about creativity and intangibles and don't work hard on the music itself, (which the musicians who are considered creative all seem to do!) It's all very amusing but I don't see much fruit come of it, that's all!

You know, now I only wear black pants to work. All because one time I was wearing khakis and I wasn't paying all that much attention while "peeing" and then I exited the restroom and walked through the hospital (where I work)in front of nurses and doctors no less! And lo and behold! when I returned to my work station there I discovered a trail of wetness practically all the way down my pants leg. On top of the fact that I had on a pair of shoes that regardless of how I tried, they would go untied-so there I was recollecting my whole journey through the hospital after my visit to the restroom, with pee all down my pants leg and my shoe laces all untied. It was then I realized the reason for the more than unusual glances, looks, and stares I received. I pictured myself appearing as a child,then as a retarded child ( mentally challenged)-please forgive me if I'm not politically correct-I'm trying to make a point here... then as a blind retarded child-all at once I saw myself as a blind, retarded, child! No doubt in the nominal vernacular I was humiliated! Now though, after reading what you wrote about friendship and being reminded of that experience (I know, I know, never post anything this revealing on the web) I realize that could have a very spiritually or "intangibly" edifying value. Why? Because maybe I could get some humility out of that "humiliation" and out of that humility could come some inspiration-and from that would come "imagination". Hopefully something unimaginably full of wonderment. After all, but for the grace of God I could be that way (you know even this statement seems to have some degree of condescension to it-I guess because it implies comparative values-like there's something wrong with being a blind, mentally challenged child !-who's to say what's better. It's another one of those things like Carlos says "you can't quantize it" so it dawns on me, something like Stephen Levine says "it's all braille" even if you can see, you've just got a higher sense of touch working on surfaces behind which you have no clue as to what's about to be revealed, and then you're gonna have the nerve and waste your time trying to quantize that to "see what it all means". Trust me I'm not a big bible thumper or Christian or Jesus freak, but that saying "lest ye become like little children" seems to apply here-hell more like "lest ye become like blind,little retarded children that pee'd their pants, you cannot enter the kingdom of wonderment". I mean when I'm not like that then I'm gonna look a gift horse in the mouth-I'm way to smart to receive "the gift". Well here's my heart and something vulnerable-I just hope I've grown enough to laugh at myself while others laugh at/with me too...anybody else want to share/bare their soul. I think this is what it's about maybe, huh? I think I've finally been downsized! HUMILITY !Now there's an intangible and a gift!!!

When you "cop the feel" of what you're hearing how much of that is instinct and how much is knowing what key it's in? At what point do you know when to let go? Do you find the key that your subject matter is in first or do you just start noodling around searching for the magic first?

I respect what you're saying.

In my experience, it's not an "either/or" thing. In my experience, of course there's a necessity for work in any creative endeavor. Those who talk a lot but never get down to playing or writing are kidding themselves.

On the other hand, I have known just as many musicians over the years who have taken the lessons, played the scales, done the practice, and who are either frustrated by a missing dimension in their music or who are making music that is technically accomplished but doesn't move or connect with a listener--or seem to really come from anyplace meaningful to them, either.

What I'm trying to point toward is the observable fact that there is an aspect of music making or other creative work that is, getting back to the theme here, intangible. It's not conventionally solid...you can't put it in a wheelbarrow... but we experience it all the time. We have, for instance, the observable and experience-able capability of coming up with a thought that we've never thought before; we can have an idea that no one outside of us gave to us or taught us... That seems as close to miraculous as human experience provides, to me.

Furthermore, although we can't observe it in the way that we observe a tree or a rock, we can observe how this part of our being works in us. We can notice that our "do our taxes" way of using our mind is different from our "in the zone" or "in the groove" mind... And in the same way that athletes learn to trust aspects of their own performance through coupling physical practice with a shift in level of awareness, we can learn to lean into and trust our own capacity to come forth with something unplanned and genuinely creative... To acknowledge that all this is difficult to describe is not to say that it's not worth talking about... Modern physics is difficult to describe, but it's still describing real and important things...

Speaking for myself here, as a guy who just came back in the door with the latest issues of Guitar Player and Sound On Sound tucked under my arm, I enjoy hearing about low capacitance guitar cables, and ways to retube and revoice amps, and I love hearing about new gear and about different techniques and approaches. It's a lot of fun.

However, I continue to be really glad that Carlos Santana, in that article however many months ago, decided to point his finger in a different direction and talk about the difficult-to-describe source of deeper creativity. I think it's important to talk about both the tangible and the intangible, and I think there are solid and important things to be said about the latter.

Sure, one may need a "B.S.-ometer" to get through some folks' thoughts on their own and others' creativity, but honestly, one sometimes needs a "B.S.-ometer" when reading articles about cables and tubes and amps and effects.

I'll close by saying that one can talk or write about creativity without becoming indulgent and turning out pablum or new age platitudes... It just takes a good writer with a clear head and a thoughtful perspective... I'd love to see a coupling of this kind of writing with all the other kinds of writing that already grace the pages of GP.

I agree!
I wish we had Jimi and Miles around to ask their thoughts on the subject. Doubtless they did to some degree in their interviews .. without it being pablum, I'm sure! At least we know they could DELIVER!
I remember how Paul McCartney once said that the Beatles made a real point of not having all their songs sound the same; and clearly they tried all kinds of things in their music - they were open to all kinds of influences, musical and otherwise. To what degree spirituality played a role, I don't recall him saying.
I'm thinking of taking a creative writing course, and I expect there would be things that would apply to making music also.

Re: "BS-ometer" - I find I need more for MYSELF than anyone else! (A little "creative editing" so to speak...)

As to the McCartney question, I stumbled upon a book called 'The Gospel According To The Beatles' in my local library a year or so back. I was a bit skeptical about where it was going to go but it ended up being a really good read about the Beatles' spiritual journey(s), leaning heavily on their own words from interviews, and noting how their thoughts about spirituality and creativity changed over the course of the band's history. I recommend it. They did actually think about these questions, even as they also thought about changing guitar and recording effects and not repeating themselves as songwriters.

If you haven't stumbled over them yet, I also recommend the books 'Writing Down The Bones' and 'Wild Mind' by Natalie Goldberg, and 'Bird By Bird', by Anne Lamott, as being great reads on creative writing that also touch on things spiritual without getting sappy...

I was GOING to get a B.S.-ometer for myself, but I've decided to wait for the neurosurgical implant...

I'll quote one of my favorite artists, Bill Mallonee of the Vigilantes of Love, and say "I have a finely tuned crap detector". When I hear people discuss the intangibles, I usally hear the alarm going off. Hardly anyone who starts in talking about that subject can claim not to be pushing their own agenda to one degeree or another. It's kind of like some folks have to get others to agree with their set of them to reinforce their own beliefs.

For me, the spiritual side of music is as real as the junk I make it on, but it's not for discussing because there are no words that can adequately describe or relate it. It is for experiencing, not describing. More importantly, it is given to motivate me to do something else besides talk about it.

I guess I see it as something like sex; folks who talk about it don't have much of it, and folks who really have much of it don't talk about it much. And from what I have seen, is that the only spiritual experiences or revelations that have any real importance or impact are the ones that change a person's behavior tangibly in areas beyond the scope of where and how they recieve it. People who spend their time sharing their spiritual experiences are like people who, though they have recieved a genuine revelation of some sort, never let it take them out from the church or synagogue or temple or mosque or pile of stones they worship at to have an effect on the world around them. They make little or no difference in the lives of the people they are put here to influence and help. In the end, it makes no difference what they have felt or heard, because it didn't change them a bit.

I agree that this is a thing that can happen, but I don't think it's necessarily how it has to go. I think the chances that any discussion of things intangible or things spiritual will end up in useless mush more or less depend on the degree to which the people talking or writing see these things as simple and real rather than mushy or magical.

For me, there's a simple way of looking at human thought that can be helpful when engaged in any creative endeavor. Understanding that there are ways of using the gift of thought that help a creative process and ways that hinder it seems to me to be an essential part of bedrock reality. Hard to put into words, and thus to some extent intangible, but still real and still worthwhile.

What is funny to me is that in recent years I've attended seminars in which this very thing is being looked at by fairly hard-nosed scientifically oriented minds in schools of psychology and medicine--and this past weekend, in a fairly rigorous business school--and the area of my life in which it is met with the most skepticism is in music.

Now, I don't have a hidden agenda, other than a lifelong interest in people being as creative as they want to be. I'm not proselytizing for TM or a church or an esoteric pathway or anything of the sort. I do think that it's worth talking about, that there are ways of thinking that help us know what we want to do and do what we want to do. I think musicians get all mixed up in this realm sometimes, and that's part of what leads them to being perhaps over-susceptible to thinking that the pathway to inspiration they're looking for is outside of them, in a girl, in a guru, in a drink or drug, in a new guitar, in something...

I'm saying that it's a solidly good thing to begin to experience that the thing you're looking for out there is within you all the time... It never left... It's part of you, and me, and everybody... When we know that, and find it to be as real as a rock or tree, then it becomes really natural for us to skip a lot of the more useless kinds of searching....

As I wrote before, that doesn't mean we don't practice chords and scales, or tune our instruments, or put work into what we do. It may, however, change the mindset with which we do those things, and for the better...