Contemplative fieldnotes:
My brother - a musician - asked me how he would go about using music to train attention.
Playing around, using this masterpiece from James Holden - Renata youtu.be/2FmFXQSIzCo
If anyone has played with music + meditation let me know.
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Cool.
It's a really broad topic so I suppose broad questions might give you some space to riff on whatever it is you've found helpful:
- How do you like to use it? What functions does it serve?
- Do you use specific focus strategies, or not?
- What pitfalls have you found?
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I use it as a warmup/for doing rapid alterations between broad/narrow attention.
I'll often pick a song with a strong percussive bass/drum line that occasionally disappears. While it's there, focus on the percussion. When it's gone, open up to everything.
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Pitfalls, I don't know. None in particular other than song choice.
I sometimes get absorbed and want to listen to music unreservedly. That happens.
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(By "none in particular", I mean the normal meditation pitfalls are still there. I just haven't noticed anything about music especially.)
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Yes the spatiality aspect - broad/narrow, inclusive/exclusive, etc - seems like a key strength in using music, and pretty accessible to the beginner, eg: brother immediately grokked what I meant when I said something like, 'open to the experience of silence in which sounds arise'
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Musicianship combines the flow-like ability to stay in focus with the aesthetics of meditation, IMO. A footballer or w/e can also be "in the zone"...
... but musicians share something of the meditator's relationship with silence, which is a more subtle thing.
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