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The Body MusicalFebruary 27, 2006 At guitar class tonight, we talked about pain. Is my wrist supposed to be sore after I've been practicing for a while? I noted that my calluses occasionally latched on to the strings and created an aftertone. Advil was advised: take one an hour before you practice. Steve said that whole workshops were devoted to this: pain management for guitar players. I've been thinking -- not for the first time, but from a whole new angle -- that the mind/body, spiritual/physical distinctions some humans like to make are so much bulloney. Music may be transcendent, ethereal, spiritual, whatever, but it takes a body to make it: singing, drumming, playing guitar . . . Tonight was our sixth class. I'm still occasionally frustrated that everyone else in the class seems more accomplished than I am, but wow, have I made progress or what? My left hand is stronger than it's ever been; thanks to those developing calluses I can press down on the strings harder and longer and more accurately. My body can do things it couldn't before. My short stubby fingers aren't the handicap I thought they were. They've changed. If I hold my hand correctly, I can press the strings and produce a clear, true sound. My hand protests: This is hard! I wanna slouch like I usta! I've got a whole new relationship with the ring finger of my left hand. The ring finger, the ultimate co-dependent digit: it cleaves to the middle finger or it cleaves to the pinky; it doesn't have a life of its own. Now my ring finger has its own exercise regimen. I will my ring finger to rise from the table. It doesn't move. I will it more forcefully: it rises slightly. This must be what telekinesis feels like, moving objects with your mind. At the moment my ring finger seems barely connected to my brain. Horseback riding is like this. A couple of years ago my right and left hands wanted to work in tandem; my right and left legs ditto. After months of practice, they can do four things at once: left leg at the girth, right leg behind it; left hand squeezes, right hand holds. When I write in longhand, I write more freely. The hand with a pen in it channels the muses differently from the hands on the keyboard. Wonderful as it is to go to concerts and listen to CDs, making music with your own body is more wonderful still, even if the pros do it better.
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