I am back in SF with my Brainport. I'm sure it will improve my health, but what about my riffage?
Monday, August 11, 2008 at 07:21AM If you've been to this blog before, you know all about the Brainport, but to briefly recap, it's a device that trains the brain to use the taste center for balance. For a detailed description on how the Brainport works, please go here.
I’ve had balance and vertigo issues ever since a 2006 fall drove a bit of bone into my cerebellum, and the Brainport is the ONLY thing I've tried that seems to help. But might it have other benefits, too? Specifically, might the Brainport aid my riff development? I think so, and here's why:
To use the Brainport, I have to stand stock still with my eyes closed for 20 minutes a session -- twice a day. Now, 20 minutes might not seem like a very long time, but trust me, it’s an eternity. What to do during this period? Meditate. Yeah, sounds easy, but it's not, especially if you're like me and blessed with a mind that is about as able to focus as a lab rat's during experiments to determine the drug interactions between LSD and speed.
Anyway, after several failed attempts at meditating while first trying a Brainport-like device in Madison, Wisconsin, I finally pleaded for help. "What should I do?" I asked Yuri dejectedly. (Yuri is the chief scientist behind further Brainport development at the University of Wisconsin.) Yuri told me to think of something I really enjoy. He also suggested that I visualize my dizziness as a giant wheel. Hmmm... after giving the matter some thought, I managed to combine these two notions into a vision of myself on-stage playing Rolling Stones songs. There I was, Strat is hand, crowd gazing up rapturously and, to my right, my friend Toby belting out slightly altered lyrics (he likes to insert thoughts on Depends™, proctology, Oakland and Republicans). And the giant wheel? It became a stage prop blowing a rock and roll breeze across the festivities. In other words, Yuri's idea worked like a charm.
But getting back to riffage...
I’m pretty sure all this intense mental focus on music will help me with my own efforts to craft a hook or two. Part of it, of course, is that I find the songwriting process itself to be somewhat meditative. In fact, I read once that one of the reasons Keith Richards, the Human Riff, was so creative from about 1967 to the early 70s was that his heroin use allowed him to go into a trance like state, during which he could happily play the same progression again and again for hours or even days, all the while making little changes until the perfect riff bloomed. One of the best examples of a song that benefited from the meditative effects of heroin is Gimme Shelter, or at least that’s what I remember reading. Anyway, I’m not exactly interested in trying heroin, but I think my new found meditative method could yield good results if I modify my visualization topic slightly. I need to go from visualizing myself stepping on stage and performing Rolling Stones songs, to simply “playing” my guitar and searching for interesting riffs. I’ve written songs this way before -- using visualization -- but never consistently. Curious to see how it works out. And since I’m going to be doing my Brainport treatment twice a day from now until I’m well, that means I'll be doing sixty songwriting sessions a month. I’d better get at least one riff a week or I suck!
Stay tuned.
Reader Comments (4)
So cool!
I think when you finally do a CD - or better still a vinyl album (they're coming back!) you should use this shot as the cover art!
I also think you need a song called Brainport Blues.
I remember seeing on the VH1 series they did on guitar players, one of the Stones, I don't remember which (They were all either on drugs or alcohol) said he was strumming along into his tape recorder one night, drinking, fell asleep, then the next day woke up and discovered the riff they used in 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'. Goes along with your problem solving blog from last week I think.
I heard the same story as above, but I heard it was Keith and the riff was "Sympathy for the Devil".
Brianport Blues... hmmm, might be a song there indeed!