The Link Between Music, Improvisation and Language by Polyglot Stuart Jay Raj
I will show you how to me, language and music are one in the same – that is, creating meanings with sounds. When learning languages, it’s similar to developing a repertoire of ‘riffs’ when learning a language. The riffs get built into your muscle memory and then once they are part of you, you have freedom to then augment them, change them and alter them to your liking at a subconscious level, leaving your mind to just concentrate on painting meanings and your body following suit.
The song I play in the beginning is a song I wrote for my daughter ‘Star’ (Her real name ‘Janista’, but as with all Thais, we use the one syllable nickname as her normal name). I wrote it while she was still in the womb – the song paints an image of what I imagined it was like in there, ready to come out into the the big wide world.
The ‘blues’ song I play during the clip is called ‘Stu’s Funk’ and was a regular we used to play in my Jazz Trio in Bangkok at Tokyo Joe’s and the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand with Drummer Dale Lee from Coffee Works, and Kenro Oshidari from the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
I hope you enjoy the clip. As usual, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, drop me a line via http://stujay.com/contact
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