Lesson 1: One Note

Welcome to Thirteen Weeks

0:00:08 Tonight, welcome. It's 13 weeks. So exciting. Like I said, you belong here. This is a group, a friend group. We share. You don't have to be a musician. All skills are welcome. Each lesson is 20 minutes long. It has a welcome, just like this. A spiritual talk. It's short. A short music lesson. And then Eternal Crane. We always close on improvisation. And then I'll keep the room open if there's anybody that wants to talk or ask questions or hang out. And it looks like I have a quote here.

People Before the Fruit

0:00:56 So the first spiritual talk for tonight, I learned this one in my mid-30s. I learned it through my time in corporate America. I got the sense that the way that we were treating each other is we were looking at each other as obstacles. And we saw that people had fruit, but the fruit was being guarded by others. And I felt that our objective was to treat people as barriers and eliminate them so that we could get the fruit, the thing that they're guarding.

0:01:55 So I took this idea and I worked on it in my spiritual life. And I came to the conclusion that people should come first, not the fruit. That the proper order is people and then the fruits of the relationship. So don't treat people like objects. Don't go to people and look at them as something they have that you want. I recommend you treat people as people, whether they are powerful or wealthy or they're hiring you for a job or they run a studio and you want to be a singer or you want to kick off your career.

0:02:41 Especially when somebody has something that you desire. Those are better opportunities where the test raises. It gets higher. It gets harder. When you desire something from somebody, when you desire their fruit, the temptation is to choose the fruit more than the person. So those are even stronger opportunities for us to choose people first. So great ways to choose people first is always give them your name first. And always remember their name.

0:03:22 Some other ways to treat people first. Always take a moment to just stop and be present with them. If there's a big, important meeting, it can wait 30 seconds. It can wait a minute. Sometimes it doesn't even have to come up at all. Just being present with people is much more important than all of the activities around life. Especially if the activities are getting critical or they're important or something is melting down.

0:03:53 That's the exact time to choose to be present with somebody else. Only by being present with somebody can you actually move through these issues. Can you produce together? Can you work together? So always make time and make space. Look at them in the eyes. Smile at them. Say, it's good to see you. How are you doing? How are you feeling right now? And sometimes if they want to run right past it, just actually stop and say, I know you want to get to this issue.

0:04:24 I do too. But I'm really just checking in with you first. And nod. Give them time. Give them space. Just show them that you care. Show them that you care that they are here. And a quote from the philosopher Martin Buber. He says, all real living is meeting. And John 15, 5, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

0:05:02 I and thou. So talking more about Martin Buber, I discovered Buber only a few years ago. He introduced the I and thou concept. This really helped me a lot. I was trying to understand other people. I was trying to understand their freedom, their ability to make choices.

0:05:29 And a lot of times those choices weren't the ones that I preferred or wanted. And so I leaned on Martin Buber for the I-thou relationship that everybody that I come across is a spiritual being from God, just like myself. And then when I look into another person's eyes, I see God. And that's my primary orientation to others. That helps me focus on the person rather than the fruit. So who have you been meeting as an it?

0:06:05 Are you meeting people as an I-it? Or are you meeting people as an I-thou? And which opportunities do you have to improve?

One Note Around the Circle of Fifths

0:06:22 So one note at a time. C. I'm just going to let C vibrate. I'm playing C in the octaves. We don't show our hands here at Eternal Crane. The purpose is not to use your eyes. It's to use your ears. And to let your body vibrate with the music. Every note. Letting it open our hearts. So at Eternal Crane. It's not as important to impress somebody at the upcoming beach party. It's not important to get A++++ every single year for your professor.

0:07:21 It's not important to play perfectly so you can get a record label contract. This stuff is over here. And that's valuable in some way. But when we are with Eternal Crane, we put that aside. And our primary focus is how does it feel when the notes vibrate? Primarily listening. Well, this is about listening and feeling. And this is what's going to take you through your entire musical career.

0:07:58 So we're playing one note. And that's the C. And we're going to go up the circle of fifths. That's seven half steps up. And it ends up going around in a circle. And ending back where we started. And then we're going to go counterclockwise, which is a fourth up, which is five half steps. And that's going to go the opposite direction. So I'm going to play starting on C.

0:08:35 Just letting it vibrate. I'm listening to how it feels in my body. Take your time. The first time. Or the first ten or even a hundred times. They're going to be slower than I'm playing them here. That's okay because you're always listening and just enjoying letting a single note ring is perfect.

0:09:11 Even if it rings out for two minutes. That's great. So we're going through. That's one half of the first exercise if you're a beginner. Time. Even if you think you know them. There's time. So take all the time you need. Music is one activity. We never have to rush. We never have to make profit on. We never have to be popular. Music is much larger than all those things. So let your music be a clear, vibrational space for you to live.

0:10:16 There's the circle of fifths in both directions. If you're more intermediate, you can put triads. Put triads on them. Time. If you're doing a triad. In one hand. Go ahead and do it in both hands. I'm arpeggiating some of these. I'm breaking them apart. As you become comfortable, you can play them in your own way. I like to play the triads. And I like to invert some of them. I started to invert and I sort of forgot where I was.

0:11:26 It's pretty far in the circle and I got the E flat. So I think we're going counterclockwise. If you forget where you're at? Just treat it like a dream. I'll go the other way. Got a visitor. My cat likes to visit me. These are some good exercises for you for beginners and intermediates. Let the notes vibrate. Go through the circle in both directions. And a quote from yours truly, the world is not going to end if you don't finish the circle. I'm not going to get a million dollars if I do finish it. So enjoy it. Let it take time.

The Twelve Intervals Up From C

0:12:36 In the next part of this lesson, I want to talk about intervals. So I'm going to play. A minor second is one half step. It can be up or down. Imagine that we have C. One note. That's the lesson for today. One note. So one note. We're adding a minor second. And feel free to improvise. One or two notes. You still have a lot to say. Do a major second. That's what they sound like.

0:13:48 I added a minor seventh. Excuse me. Do. And you can hear it has a different sound. That's what I want you to listen. Pay attention. The sounds are different. And you can improvise through each of those. Let's go to the fourth. Fourth is a special thing.

0:15:01 And I just want to point out that these invert at the tritone. They become inverses of each other. So a fifth up is the same as a fifth down. Fifths and fourths are related. So I just want you to think about that. That as we start going up, we're actually playing the same intervals that we did play before. We're just playing them inverted. Basically upside down. This is a major third. But it's also a minor sixth.

0:15:40 There's a lot of places you can learn about all these basics. Eternal Crane is a sweet spot between our spiritual life and our musical life. And improvisation and creativity. So I recommend that you do all sorts of private research. Readings. Find other channels that have talked about these intervals. You can use that as supplementary and me as primary. Or you can use me as supplementary and them as primary.

0:16:16 So this is the minor sixth. We're going to keep going. The major six. This is a minor third inverted. Listening to every single one. Seven. Same as a major second down. This one is dark but also beautiful. The major seven, which is a half step down. Half step inverted.

0:16:55 And then the octave. So I wanted you to listen to all of those notes. And this week, this month, this year, this decade, however long you want to take. Take your time to explore how these different intervals sound.

After the Improvisation

0:18:33 That's the improvisation today. It was a little bit of the circle of fifths. The circle of fifths with triads. Some random intervals. Just listening how they sounded. The end was just a dominant chord.

0:19:05 Thank you for watching. I appreciate it. There'll be another lesson. Please follow. You're welcome to watch it live. You're welcome to write me a question on eternalcrane.com. Questions are always free. You're welcome to join the discord and share your music. Share your playing. If you want to follow more of this course, please go to the website. And if you want me to learn a piece of music, I'll do that for a small fee.

0:19:42 And then if you want coaching or you want to hire me for music or coaching, studio building, spiritual growth, shamanic reading. So I hope to hear from you. And let me know how this went for you. And tell me about your project and what you're working on. And I'll take your feedback. And I hope that this helped you. I hope it helped you with your music and your spirit. So until next time, I'll be well. Bye-bye.