The following blog expresses merely my own ideas and how I see things. This is a personal perspective and how I see things. I do not deem this perspective to be objective nor universal. It is simply my personal examination of art and the relationship it shares with music..
Dear readers. Hello. Thank you for reading this. My purpose for making this blog is to share with you and others my thought process and what really drives me internally when creating music. I want to give the readers and followers a deeper peer into my philosophical and personal interjections when I proceed into my craft in hopes that it may help the reader with their own journey of ultimate self expression.
To give the reader historical context, I’ve been playing music now for close to 20 years.. it’s hard to imagine, but time really flies. I knew when I started I had ideas but I wasn’t really sure how to express those ideas. I think that’s a pretty relatable issue for many folks where they know they have something to say but can’t find the right ways to say it or express it. Some people express it in negative ways and some express it in positive ways. That to me is what’s great about art. It’s a unique avenue from the human experience which can translate consciousness to a physical or sensible presence being in the sense of music, sculpture, designs, performance, even film.
These artistic sensibilities for me started when I was about 16. I had just achieved my black belt in martial arts. I had purchased several books by Bruce Lee and I was a absolute Bruce Lee fanatic. He made his own style, Jeet Kune Do, the way of the intercepting fist. His philosophy was that traditions in the school of martial arts would hold us back and in some ways threaten us should a opponent exploit that weakness. He sought to take the components of fighting from different styles and combine them to what he saw would make the ultimate Arsenal for self defense. One such style he incorporated that to me was the most fascinating was Fencing except he didn’t use a sword. He felt that fencers had the best approach to and technique in all ranges of combat. Medium, long, and short. He saw the footwork as being the main mechanism and he incorporated that into his teachings. In his school, he encouraged his students to do what works and said that it was more about what works for you than style.
As I got into music I didn’t have much of a artistic drive at first as I wasn’t really tapping into my potential but as I got more into music and I learned more I eventually stumbled across Shawn Lane who lead me to listen to jazz, and then I found Miles Davis… What I saw in these musicians was something I never experienced before and that was the experience of improvisation and I decided that my new path in music was to express myself in the best possible way I could. I didn’t care about genres and I didn’t limit myself to some idea. I wanted to do something unique for myself and push myself as hard as I could. So I committed to the mental journey I made.
I practiced every day close to 8 hours non stop. I was obsessed even to the point of it causing issues in relationships.. I would not recommend the level of commitment I made to anyone but for me this was my new life. I refused to learn from guitarists and instead wanted to learn more ideas and perspectives from different instrumentalists. I met two people in college that I spent a lot of time with whom shared their knowledge with me which I used and applied. In those boring lectures I’m college I’d take my pen and draw out the fretboard and all the notes seeking scales, voicings, patterns etc. anything I could use to take home later and to practice with.
As I got older I decided to form projects where I could perform songs I wrote and share my craft. I formed a band and gigged as much as we could. During this time, I was told my music was too different and that being instrumental was not wise in Oklahoma as I wouldn’t be given opportunities the same way as a cover band would. I didn’t realize that it would be true later on.
As I played and performed with various groups besides my own, I realized that I had deviated from my goal and stopped or completely reformed my artistic visions. Everything sounded cliche and I wasn’t really expressing myself fully. I decided to start over. Play music the way I wanted to and not how others wanted. In 2018 I started recording new tunes I wrote that to me were special and truly representative of what I was as a musician. Since then I have remained on this path and have learned a lot.
To me the human consciousness is a amazing, beautiful and scary place. It is dark but extremely huge. A room of unknowns in shrouds of darkness. Art is a candle to this darkness of the human consciousness.. It shines light on things we often bury and it only reveals a small part. When we express that which is revealed some of us choose to continue to light the darkness in our minds to the point where it may be too disturbing or intimidating to continue the expression. I was scared to express myself at first due to knowing how hard it might be to get gigs with music so different than what is booked commonly. I knew that pursuing this meant I would face more rejection than ever but I did it anyway because I knew in the long run, I’d be miserable if I continued to suppress my ideas..
Music often is a product more so than a art. It’s a commodity for those that want to party and socialize at events and gatherings for example. Something to dance to. Many dont regard music in the same way as a painting. Art is not a commodity meant to be consumed. It is a piece of human expression. In its conception came thought, execution, and presentation of the expressions by that individual who created it. By this I mean that art has more expressive weight to it than a product which sole purpose is to make and maximize profit.
I use to resent how much my music was rejected. But I see now that this is just a symptom of a bigger problem I’m unable to fix due to a unwillingness to do so. That’s the paradox
So in the end, maybe I’d be better off in a gallery than a stage..
Jared Lowery 