First Things, Second Thoughts

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Notes on I Was Listening

As is usually the case, this new music has come into my life over a period of months: August & October of 2021 and February, March & October 2022. This time, however, what you hear is far more the music that's come to me than me imposing my will upon the music.

In other words, I truly let the music play me this time around. I was listening.

Nearly everything in these pieces is a first take. And while there were a couple instances where I corrected errors in execution, the initial inspiration is intact; unchanged from what was first given me to play.

In my day to day, music often pays me a visit, asking me to drop what I'm doing and head to the studio to record what it's saying to me. Though I can only play one part at a time, the music reveals itself to me as a complete idea and sends me off to bring it into a form that listeners can hear. In reality, I see myself as more of a translator than composer. This has been the case for the better part of the last 30 odd years of my life as a musician.

Strangely, right around the time I started to look at my musical life in that way, people began coming to me and telling me how moved they were by what I was playing, rather than telling me what a great player they thought I was. This was a paradigm shift: as soon as I let the music fully control what I was doing, people began feeling the emotion of the music in a more visceral way. The music was truly speaking through me to reach them in a way it hadn't been able to before when I was trying to control the music coming out of me.

Now, some of you may dismiss what I'm saying as fantasy. But there are those who will understand this concept immediately and choose to take the time to see what music has to say to them. You see, while music uses me to impart its messages, those messages are different for each person who hears them. And that's what makes the same piece of music fill a unique space in each person who hears it. If you listen.

I hope you take the time to listen to what the music is saying.

Cheers,

Timm Biery