About Music Interpretation, Danger of the "D" word (Depression); Psychological Change
By Reza Ganjavi
Certain drum parts are melodies, like the guitar and bass which at times play melodies; these are melodies people know and are essential. Playing a cover song well does not depend on the resemblance of looks or even playing the same notes; it's in the spirit; but so much of pop music is garbage anyway that it lacks any spirit to begin with -- so a Bon Jovi tribute band tells more about the tributors than the tribute.
When you play Bach, you play the F# he wrote not the F – you play the exact notes but still the interpreter’s flavor is there. With pop music there’s more freedom in the interpretation – the important thing is for it to come from the heart – and for certain essential elements of the song to be present. The drum fill-in With A Little Help for example is as important as the vocal melody – people know it – and delivering it to them gives the interpreter much credibility.
Met a good friend in Zurich today.
Having a notebook, a good friend, or in some rare cases if one is lucky to have an unconfused therapist, a therapist, can help a person empty their mind. I think a good friend and a notebook can help even more because most of these bloody therapists give people medications to solve problems which have other roots than pathological problems. For example, a teacher may have too high of standards and get upset at non-performing pupils and get angry and is about to lose one’s job; the therapist gives him an anti-depressant to control his mood – maybe in the short term this is a good solution but it’s a superficial solution because the medication doesn’t help with the understanding the root of the problem which is essential for change.
The root of freedom is understanding, seeing what-is, without trying to change it. This includes seeing what one is internally – how one’s thought creates sorrow, gives continuity to problems, creates confusion, and why this is so. The reason for it is that thought’s activity is limited and what is limited is bound to create division. Thought is limited because it’s based on the past experience which is limited, and because thought is material – and matter is limited.
So a state of happiness and clarity come with quietness of thought.
This country has an extreme reliance on sustaining Big Pharma – they throw a chemical pill at problems which can be solved if understood. Without that understanding a chemical change is only a temporary dampening of sensitivity.
The child keeps crying but the mother hasn’t understood the root cause, so the crying continues – it’s like knifing our hearts but the mother remains helpless because she’s insensitive to what’s wrong with the kid. It’s often something as basic as physical discomfort. The passengers are getting restless from the sound of torture and some change their seats.
Being alone is not a problem to be solved. Especially in this society where one can quickly be in a crowd. Loneliness is a disease. Alone is all-one. To be truly alone, not fragmented into broken desires, broken consciousness, is very powerful.
To fall into a state of sorrow is easy for the brain because it’s conditioned by the accumulated experience of centuries of human existence. So one has to be a light onto oneself, and not fall into sorrow, depression, when it is so easy to do. Luckily he didn’t think depression is handed down from his mother but the fact is ideas such that depression is hereditary, that it runs in the family, all shape one’s outlook on the problem. It seems that it makes more sense to not call it depression; Never use the “d” word as that word has an effect on the body/brain/nerves and it is a favorite trap of Big Pharma.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional and the above are just my subjective opinions and should not be considered as advice.
PS –
As long as one is in the trap of therapists one cannot move away from the past because part of therapists' bread and butter is being stuck in the past.
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In some other societies there are a lot fewer people on psychiatric drugs -- is it because they don't treat so many or because so many cases don't exist? The industry makes the customers -- that's an old trick every good marketer knows -- you help create the need. I asked for some examples of what the so-called experts consider to be problems. Every example sounded like "normal" challenges of living many go through. I am not saying there is not the right place for a good therapist and medications. There is. But I bet the majority of people are wrongly taking drugs instead of finding the root of the problem.
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The crooked thing about this subject is the society is very high pressure (not as much as in Japan). The proof is high suicide rates. And sensitive people get hurt by this. Many people think: am I good enough? And Big Pharma is ready to "help" them. Instead of turning that flame of discontent and understanding and transforming it, instead of finding the answer and breaking free, society prescribes drugs and therapy. The drugs are a form of mind control. Your sense and mind are now controlled, like a music compressor: high and low ends are cut: extreme emotions are removed. You become a good sheep and you stop asking such questions. It's one ugly yet highly profitable game played in societies which are so utopic, have the outside world so figured out that there is no place for inner disorder and exploration of that which is the key to order and happiness.
And the more drugs the less the sensitivity. Of course, an intelligent sensitive person wants to find out what are the real causes of his or her unhappiness, insufficiencies, discomfort, insecurity, etc., and finds a natural way to feel good without dependence on drugs or therapists, by removing those things that make him feel bad, and adding those natural things that make him feel good, like walking, stretching, healthy food, avoidance of added sugar, etc., and learns to be light to oneself, rescue oneself from the depths of self-imposed pities. Of course, the root of much of this misery is dominance of thought in our lives. Thought has become over-dominant, and that makes people unhappy and confused
Again, a key to freedom is exploring the right place of thought, understanding its limitations, and learning where thought belongs and does not. I proposed a great book on this subject but it was returned.