Hamza T.
Malcolm, when you said [that learning] tai
chi is like learning music, having gone through music school I think I can
attest to that: the process seems very similar to me in many respects, including
the fact that it takes a long time to be any good at it, and there are no shortcuts.
I've long thought that [learning
taiji] is most similar to learning to sing. My best friend with whom I studied
music at UCSC was a voice major. He's a very good singer and has given me many
pointers and lessons over the years and talked to me about the process of
learning to sing.
He sings his own songs, but
he received training as a classical singer, including opera singing. Similarly
to tai chi, there are just things that an opera singer can do with their body
that are unusual and remarkable, even just as physical feats — sheer volume,
projection, etc — but its deeper than that, since it is also expressive; an art
form.
I think part of the
similarity is that it is hard to teach singing, and there is an advantage that
a bone-head guitarist like me has, in that you can just point to the hands and
fingers and say "do this, do that" with your hands, whereas singing
has more to do with the internal musculature of the diaphragm, vocal chords,
throat, facial muscles, all sorts of other subtle aspects I'm sure.
Now, I'm being a bit
hyperbolic, because of course guitar as an art form involves those too, and you
can’t be any good just by doing the "external" craft of playing
guitar. But you can at least begin in guitar by focusing on the external.
In voice you sort of can, but
you're really forced to deal with very subtle and hard to explain [internal] things right
from the beginning. I think it's why many people feel that you have to be
"born with it" to be a good singer.
Anyways I had these thoughts
in the car ride home [after tai chi class] and practiced some singing, and then came home and played
guitar and sang, and had a distinct moment of noticing I could modulate the
timbre of my voice [just] by changing the locus of my attention: moving it further
upwards into my nasal passage, while at the same time relaxing my throat and
chest — a good example of the use of mental intention that you mentioned in class.*
By using this technique I was
able to sing notes in the higher register of my voice in a much more relaxed,
easy and better-sounding way than I probably ever have. I also noticed when I
lost it and started to strain and tighten the throat. It became really clear by
contrast.
This epiphany came after my
buddy Nick tried to explain to me how to do that FOUR YEARS AGO. And it didn't
actually click until [tai chi class] today. I think that's kinda funny.
Performing that kind of
subtle internal body manipulation is hard to do, especially while you juggle so
many other variables at the same time, like melody, pitch, intonation, words,
expressiveness, etc. It’s that very juggling of multiple streams at the same
time as you relax deeply that reminds me so much of tai chi. Also, playing and
singing require a similar form of unravelling unconscious/bad habits. I
remember that started immediately the first time my guitar teacher ever watched
me play.
So I think the analogy between tai chi and music is very strong.
Best,
Hamza
* Editorial note: Since one’s qi (chi) follows one’s mind, mental intention, or xinyi, is critical to both Taiji and Qigong. Developing and using xinyi is a major focus of the Foundation Studies Program for beginners.
