Kabbala Music

KABBALAH MUSIC The power of three! What is Kabbalah? Kabblah is a Hebrew word that means “receiving.” It is said to be the oral laws of God that were handed down at the time of Moses. Because many Hebrew letters have different representatives in English, it is sometimes spelled Qabalah or Cabbalah. Red strings worn around the wrist have been the most outward symbol of the growing movement, but there is much to study and understand.

You whistle along with music that is being played, or sing along with various artists within your limitations, or possibly more sophisticatedly. You sing with the church choir because the words are there. Hopefully the message here is that there is music within us, begging to perform in support to performing artists. We are naturally a society of Jammers, and most Jammers are potential joiners, rather than prima donna soloists. Can a Jammer be a soloist? Look at Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, and Pavarotti. They all cannot read a note of written music. Although Barbara Streisand can follow written notes, she never sings the same song the same way twice in a row, to a controlling conductor’s irritation. Kabbalah music is closer to dance, with rhythm and timing being paramount. Your fingers dance on the strings in a limited structure of the musical scale (typically in the key of C or G) being the ballroom. As an accompanist, note accuracy is not as important as note harmony so as to blend in with the music played. You become individualistic to let your mind do the compositions of phonics that sound lovely to you, while your fingers dance on the strings to the rhythm of your emotions. Gypsy music is free spirited and follows the rules of harmony while overruling the rules of structure. Yes, the rules of discipline exist, however they integrate the concept of chords and inversions. Example: EGBD is the base for an E minor chord; and a baritone Ukulele is tuned with the D an octave low, and the E an octave high. [This is another justification for reentry tuning by the scholarly] Academic and more musicians, on the other hand, avoid this open string state and prefer to use a more structured E chord. Nylon strings have superior damping, so the open string situation becomes as workable for us gypsies playing a baritone Ukulele as an E in the 3d position, thus simplifying our gypsy musician’s task. The Balalaika’s open string tuning is G B E making the E note of the E triad also an inversion because it is in the next octave up. With this situation, triads may sound different when played solo, but they won’t sound wrong! This works great for jamming because the triads will nest happily amongst other contributors tones, be they educated musicians or other Jammers. Professional music is very demanding requiring dedication and patience so most folk just slip a CD in and go for the audio stimulation instead. To jam with a group (or a recording) is more like Sandlot Baseball without umpires and coaches; but with the danger of foul ball happenings. To join the jam paradigm, one should open a New Folder in one’s mind consisting of pentatonic scales, blues scales and rifts, neutral tones, three phonic prime notes, with bass runs to index harmony notes too. Once having mastered this small amount of structure, one can jam comfortably with the professionals (providing

they don’t believe your skill in presentation surpasses their beloved artist they are attempting to accurately mimic). Since I concentrate on the tenor Guitar as my instrument of choice (because of aging), let me explain the philosophy of my point of view. One has to realize the difference between professional musicians and gypsies. Academic training, and the titles that go with it, fulfill a requirement of a society that is financially oriented. Money truly is the biblical root of all evil, and in the past gypsy music was a diversionary tactic to hypnotize the audience to have their pockets picked. Academia on the other hand has brainwashed the public that artists meeting academic approval should have wealth donated to them - as if they were a religious shrine In modern times gypsy music has been made an undercover entertainment recovery to have the audience happily donate fractals of money, so the gypsies can survive. The classic example is www.playingforchang.org, and the friendly, social, street musicians of New Orleans, where ‘soul’ players and educated musicians mix, and attempt to gather funds to train more gypsies. I am different because I was educated by the Chicago School of Folk music, and would attend gatherings of students to play at various nightclubs, and churches; just for the fun of it. At the time I was the chief engineer of Tone Rite manufacturing, and would permit other students to use my guitar and bass amplifiers for inexpensive field-testing of the designs, without the demanding prejudice of professional musicians. The basis for my numerology argument is that the natural simple, but comprehensive European Balalaika with its 3 strings of neutral tones (in the keys of C and G) is the best fundamental tool for teaching students to play a stringed instrument. Three is a magic number for music to be accomplished in its basic form. [Academia’s approach to music, with advanced architecture and frequency shift precision, tends to inflate an unnecessary mysticism, which is humorous since my Kabbalah style of playing, via the Jewish system of ancient mysticism truly is the inspiration for my ‘gypsy’ music. Which I believe is far more grounded in reality then the immature desires of electronic macerations the professionals sometimes utilize to enhance uniqueness, to what they believe is otherwise boring.] I now teach Balalaika as the prime entry for more sophisticated instruments. The concentration on the high 3 strings of the guitar by highly skilled guitarists seems to support my philosophy, and it is a shame that this state of affairs is currently dedicated to advanced artists. I simply believe it should be the starting technique for newcomers! My asperger’s syndrome visualizations may be damaging to experts, but I try to cling to honesty rather than aspirations of wealth. G B E is the basis for the initial E triad, and is equivalent of Do Me La vocally. Raising the instrument 3 frets through the use of the grand bar fingering of 3 strings (that is a lot easier to handle then 6) and we have a G triad, and is an expression of a “third” in harmony. In Kabbalah, a third is equal to a computer “start over” meaning all music can be reduced to just 3 tone steps! Do Ra Me vocally, with Fa So La the harmony thirds for continuations to help create a scale of 8 tones (before the first limit of an octave). Octaves

are just little universes of sounds that range with 11ea one half steps of frequency shifting. [Based upon the basic formula of reference frequency times 2 raised in power to the reciprocal of 11 to define the frequency shift of each ½ step note. Making an A 440 hz, and A again one octave higher at 880 hz.] Obviously then, our phonic octave has only 7 steps with the 8th step the 2nd harmonic of the first step starting the frequency shifting of 7 steps all over again for octave after octave. The math expressed is unimportant to the simplicity it supports. For all practical purposes, the Universal range of an instrument is 3 octaves, meaning lots of repeats in fingering that is in harmony to the prime notes, that can also be used for an individual’s personal expression without clashing with the basic theme that is being played. It is almost a fact that singing off key or clashing, requires expertise. Zero tolerance (academic) music is needed for larger orchestras, and truly interferes with the promotion of playing an instrument for the fun of it. A landmark observed in ‘ignorance that pays off’ is the skillful execution of Kabbalah music by Rodger Ridley, who mastered this art form unknowingly, and applied it to his ethnic jazz blues. And this genius is not Jewish. The three top stings can be used to make your instrument into a tunable cymbal when playing in the key of C or G (the most common keys out there). Using the grand bar for the 3 stings, [with no bar (meaning zero frets) thus equaling an E triad (i.e. open string tuning)], 3d fret barred equaling a G triad, and 5th fret barred is an A triad. So learning to follow the rhythm with the strum of 3 strings is truly the Baptism necessary to follow the pitch of the music. Following pitch is done by the movement of your grand bar finger to match that of the music you are attempting to contribute to. The first thing you will realize is that you might sound boring; but you won’t sound bad! Study group is the application to transpose guitar tablature into triads, and learning the following one-finger triads via note selection and/or grand bar “shotguns.” First triads learned are C G G7 E (open tuning). Once accomplished, and learning to mechanically move your fingers, you have enough information to play simple songs to build confidence to play anything, and you’re ready to force yourself to practice scales to limber up fingers, and increase speed with repetitive accuracy (without looking at your strings or fingers). These exercises must be performed to gain a natural feel of your instrument. Academic music training puts one at a disadvantage because the “put your fingers here and there” is designed to replicate the master performer; and that should not be attempted unless you are in his league of “education.” Kabbalah music is a free soul function as demonstrated in the movies “Harold and Maude” and “August Rush.” It is the concentration of pleasing phonics, instead of absolute precision. And because of this, it is un-gradable by academia, so it truly is an art form that is viewed as useless. [The same as using the modern standards to grade dancing with the stars from the 1950’s; Gene Kelly and Russ Tamblyn would be rejects, along with Gene Nelson and the aerobic master of dance, Bobby Breen!]

Always remember the cardinal rule of jamming - that works well in football. “Always protect your quarterback!” A performing artist is the quarterback, and clashing with him is forbidden. You should learn to perform/perfect the ‘quarterback sneak’ prior mixing with street musicians, and that is the ½ tone slide. With experience instinct will direct you into the most favorable direction (up or down) that truly is uncritical. Now a Guitar has 6 strings, so what do we do with the low strings? Because of short fingers I have discovered it is easy to cover them with a thumb bar, and pluck the notes for bass runs. Typical Guitar tuning is E A D G B E so I am dedicating the E and A strings to bass runs, the D string as a baritone interface, and G B E strings as [Balalaika] triads to replace chords. With my Quattro the D becomes my bass string and the G string my baritone interface. This system works outward from oneself, and becomes confusing if overlaid with the rules of outside academic music. In my point of view academic music is a phonic base to jam too, making it broader (fluffier?) through artistic/autistic improvisations that don’t clash. My Kabbalah Music is the kindergarten for musical aspirations. It uses fractal technology to engage a stringed instrument into simulating a human voice. Once a ‘green’ artist employs the system and gains performance confidence with the reality of the Kabbalah foundation that truly dates back before the bible existed, he can then go after superior education of modern times spurred by curiosity - be it academia, or attachments to professional musicians, and modify this working system onto the bigger picture of musical genius. Alvin Sugar 3/9/2011