Category: Editions

“Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings. Things aren’t all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe…

You ask whether your verses are any good….

You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid…No one can advise or help you – no one. 

There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart…

This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?

And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature.

If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place.

And if out of, this turning within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not.

…for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity.

That is the only way one can judge it. 

So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to, the question of whether you must create. 

Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside.”

– Rilke: ‘Letters to a Young Poet’

Imitation is Not Art.

– JC Heisler

A discerning “teacher” must be a Musician who understands to act simply as a Humble Guide in function, form, and performance.

A Sensitive Guide is attentive and submissive to how Music is continually compelling the student to Hear the Actual, of the Present Moment, together. 

In the final observation, Music does not need teachers; it needs participants in it’s fundamental precepts; Folk Practitioners of the Aesthetic Movements within the Art Form.

My desire is to offer an Independent Phrontistery, manifesting an experience of The Art Form as the fundamental teacher.

After all, the experience of tonic and dominant are innate to our existence; it is our primal human hearing essence. 

First

Define the Absolute Present Moment as Song. Sing.

Songs

A musician encounters the Beauty and Aesthetic of their Individual Original Voice within a Community of Sounds and a Heritage of Repertoire.  This freedom is The Miraculous Experience from the Very Beginning.

There is no place for egocentric “clever” curricula. There is only wisdom, truth, love, and meekness within the historic traditions and pedagogies of our multifarious cultural precedences; the physical laws that resonate acoustic order do not favor a single time, place, or people.

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein 

– JC Heisler

The Metric by which you are critiqued:

All students should desire feedback and critique. Your teacher is not an audience member.

1. I could not hear you, hearing your own music, in your own imagination.

2. This musical encounter has highlighted your own unique technical difficulties and challenges, that you have not yet solved.

3. You lack clarity and literacy in your own understanding of this musical situation.

4. Your presumptuous ego is preventing you from being honest with yourself.

5. You fear not being able to do, that which you have not been able to understand.

6. You simply have not spent enough time training consistently.

7. You are impatient, you are distrustful, and you lack conviction.

8. You are not hearing because you are not listening in order to hear. This is preventing you from meaning.

9. So, there are more opportunities to develop and explore your own artistic curiosities.

10. Go define your own work. Commit. Perform something you believe in.

– JC Heisler

Editions

Where is the artist to go?

Deeper into Self, the Art Form, Nature, and the Mysterious Trials of Wonder.

– JC Heisler

Perhaps, every inception of the Creative Act, by its very nature, Is Original.  Perhaps, there is never a performance where one might re-create anything.

The Performance Act is Pure Creation of the Moment, within the Moment; no matter Ability, Intention, Execution or Cognition.

Performance is the ability to Live with Absolute Attention in the Present Moment; to Be Made, By an Act of the Creative Will, Unconditionally.

The Communication of Feeling in Sound through written music is merely a catalogue, a documentation of a particular moment of creation that has already been emoted. The truest ambition of the Performance Artist is to have Their Own Aesthetic be Entirely Open to the Present Moment of Performance through Study, Preparation, and Practice so as to Become an Audience to the previously emoted written music.

The intention to be original is a distraction of the Genuine Trueness of the Absolute Present Moment.  It is a selfish and commercial redundancy.

Originality is Inevitable; Genuine and Honest Expression of Intelligible Aesthetic is the  challenging process and never guaranteed. 

The essence of every picture is its frame; the essence of every performance is the Absolute Present.

You Are the Present Moment. You are Enough.

– JC Heisler

We learn how to speak before we can read or write. 

The skill of speech develops through our first 18 months of life by hearing and imitating. We learn how to listen and what to listen for.

We begin to learn the process of writing one letter at a time between the ages of 3 and 6.  This begins the very sophisticated and abstract processes of translation and phonation of written letter symbols. 

As we begin the processes of reading and writing sentences between the ages of 5 and 8 we may learn to write a word, then two words, then three, and so on.

It takes a definitive 7 years for these skills of literacy to develop as the coordination of independent competency develops; where we are able to participate freely and confidently, of our own volition, with great pride in our ability to perform the basic skills of reading, writing, and speaking.

This is a seven year process that coordinates the necessary skills of literacy, serving our independent day to day creation, expression, and experience.

Beginner 4th and 5th grade instrumentalists are in their infancy of literacy; a sacred and magical time that should be cultivated, nurtured, and cherished for at least 2 years through positive and creative development in service of their individuality and the discovery of their own unique voice through creation, imitation, experience, coordination, and competency of musical literacy skills. “Formal”concerts can wait; performance should reflect a folk community “show and tell” celebration.

“Students” need to know from the very beginning, they are talented musicians and artists, their sound is valuable, unique, and cherished right away. Their sound is the music from the very beginning.

speak, write, read, write, speak

– JC Heisler

98% of teaching is waiting…patiently…

…to observe when, how, and why the student becomes socially, emotionally, and psychologically self aware within “This Present Moment of the Art Form”.

You will know what to say when you decided to Be Quiet.

A “teacher” must be Humble and Articulate enough to be re-made in the Present Moment of the Art Form.

– JC Heisler

An essential aim of Education is to provide the pupil with the freedom and safety to process mistakes and misunderstandings without shame.  

The teacher’s role (in so much as teaching can be practiced) is to share a wholehearted “living experience” (as opposed to inert information) with the pupil so as to guide, encourage, and clarify the processes of self education, without fear.  

The pupil’s fundamental experience must be rooted in a pure discipline that fosters and emphasizes a robust autonomy exercised through the instinctual skills of observation, organization, and inference; in acceptance and awareness of their own developing thoughts, curiosities, feelings, skills, and manifestations in the making of artifacts; in cooperation to the Good Service of their many Life Relationships.

– JC Heisler

I am interested in aromas and tastes; the harmony of nature and change; old stories and poetry; mobiles and paintings; melodic dance and cadence rhythms.

I vow to be completely arrested by the shared present moment so as to be led by intuition, together.

– JC Heisler

Your:

Presence of Attention – Objectifies Coordination

Patience –Sustains Focus

Impartial Scrutiny –is Creative Liberation

Vivid Aural-Imagination – Defines the Absolute Present

– JC Heisler

As light waves travel, absorbed and reflected in constant motion, illuminating our perceptions all around us; so too are sound waves moving among us and through us, engaging and affecting our lives in sympathetic resonance. 

If we learn to listen, we may be open to hearing with deeper humility, dignity, integrity, clarity, and elegance.

– JC Heisler