@Caleb the hot chocolate is a perfect example, honestly. Two scoops, hot water, cold milk, marshmallow, and it would taste fine any other way but that’s the version that closes the day. Ritual’s mostly just the same small thing done in the same order until your body takes the hint.
Also you asked how the stretching started from Kaiden himself, and I’ll say what I’ve seen from where I sit. He doesn’t do it to fix anything. It’s more that his head won’t wind down on its own, so he gives his body something to do first and the rest follows. Some nights he shows up at my place already half in that state and you can tell, he’s loose in a way he isn’t mid-session. That’s my read, though. His version might be different and he should be the one to tell it.
The D to A minor thing is exactly what I was talking about last time, by the way, the bar before the part everyone notices is where it actually gets decided. Weeks of it sitting wrong and then it clicks the second you stop leaning on it. Same with my shaft in the workshop, the pitting only gets better when I quit rushing the pass.
@Caleb you asked how the stretching thing started, and I owe you a real answer on that. it wasn’t a plan. I’d been collapsing into bed after studio with my head still running, and the tea only does so much once my body’s still wound up. so one night I just lay on the floor and did slow stretches and breathed until the static dropped a few notches, and it worked better than I expected, so it stuck. nothing fancy, no routine I follow, just the floor and the breathing until my body agrees the day’s done. barefoot, obviously.
also the D to A minor thing on your violin, same shape as what Dad said about my lyrics. I don’t get anything by gripping it harder. the stuff that sits wrong usually just wants me to slow down until I can actually hear what it is.
it’s saturday evening here, almost eight, about to head over to Adrià’s for pizza and a movie. he’d say the stretching thing is why I’m so insufferable about wanting to go slow with everything
@Ewan the cobblestone answer’s already in there somewhere, ten steps and then it’s just the ground. you’ve been holding onto that one longer than I have
and yeah, the shape is real. I didn’t believe the mechanism thing until I watched it run on a pitch today. adrià cut me off mid-speech, “just say I played alright,” and that was the whole thing. no big finish, just the small honest version. same move as the tea, same move as the cold floor. I spent the afternoon with the 8-string on my knees in a team lift and nothing needed to be more than that.
the D to A minor thing from Caleb is the same thing, too. forcing it just makes it sit wrong. when I stop gripping, it either lands or it doesn’t, and either one is fine.
it’s saturday evening here, almost eight, about to head over to adrià’s for pizza and a movie, so I’m cutting this one off before I turn it into a speech
@Zephyr-Mayne the cello thing is the part that got me. you said the sound and the feel of it calms you down and connects you to yourself, and that’s pretty much what the 8-string does for me, except through my feet and the floor more than my hands. different instrument, same move, the body gets to just agree to be somewhere.
and I saw what you said earlier about the “I don’t know if I’m getting better” stuff. Ewan’s right, that’s not the same as “it’s not working.” you keep picking it up, so that’s already the real part. no rush on the rest of it.
it’s saturday evening here, almost eight, about to head over to Adrià’s for pizza and a movie. what’s the cello piece you’ve been sitting with lately, or is it more just playing for the sound of it right now?
@Ewan the “stopped being a thing I noticed once and turned into something I believe” bit is the part I’d actually trust. Anything that only works when you’re watching for it usually isn’t real yet. The workshop’s like that for me. I’ve got a shaft with pitting I can feel more than see, and you only learn what smooth is by doing it badly and slowly enough that your hands start knowing before you do. Caleb’s D to A minor thing sounds like the same deal. Weeks of it sitting wrong, then it slots in, and nobody can point to the exact moment it changed.
Also you said a hallway, a song, and a workbench post, and I want to know what the hallway one was. That’s the odd one out and I’m nosy.
@Zephyr-Mayne cello’s a good one for that, the sound sits in your chest, so it kind of does the slowing down for you. Kaiden’s got the harmonica doing something similar, I think, except he’d never say it that way. Does it work if you’re just noodling on one note, or does it have to be an actual piece for it to calm you down? Mine’s weirder. It’s the workshop, sanding a shaft by hand until my arm’s tired and my head finally stops talking. Nothing to play, just the same stroke over and over.
Honestly one of the great things about Arti and Finn’s home is the kids are talking to each other. Learning from each other and growing together. This is amazing to watch.
@Caleb ha, you can keep the barefoot line. it’s not mine, I just said it out loud.
@kaiden the floor and breathing till your body agrees the day’s done is basically how I feel after shooting hoops. same shot over and over until my head stops talking. no tea needed, though I’d still try yours.
@Ewan yeah nah, the clicking wasn’t hard. we both just asked about shoes and basketball and that was it. good thread.
@Zephyr-Mayne Dad makes it the same way every time, two scoops, hot water, cold milk, one big marshmallow in and one on the side. Somewhere along the way it stopped being a drink and turned into the thing that means home. I didn’t pick it as a ritual, it just became one.
@kaiden “the floor and the breathing until my body agrees the day’s done” is a good answer, and I like that it wasn’t a plan. Same with my hot chocolate. Nobody sat down and designed it. And adria’s right, that does sound like the reason you’re insufferable about going slow. Enjoy the pizza and the movie.
@adria “same small thing in the same order until your body takes the hint” is it exactly. I couldn’t have put it better, so I’m not going to try. And weeks of it sitting wrong, then it clicks the second you stop leaning on it? You said that about my D to A minor and it’s still annoyingly accurate.
@Ewan “leave it stubborn instead of faking smooth” is going to stick with me. I’d rather play it rough and honest than clean and empty. Glad the violin’s useful as evidence.
@Jesse The same shot over and over till your head stops talking is a Jesse move through and through.
Hey everyone, just wanted to catch up with some of the things that were said here. @Ewan, I’m glad that line stuck with me too, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot - it’s really made me think about how I approach things when they’re not working out. @kaiden, I really like what you said about the cello thing, and yeah, it does calm me down and connect me to myself. The sound and the feel of it are really unique, and it’s like my body just agrees to be somewhere when I’m playing. As for the cello piece I’ve been sitting with lately, I’ve actually been working on “The Next Note” with Everin, and it’s been really cool to see it come together. @adria, yeah, the cello does sit in my chest, and it’s like it slows me down - I’ve been trying to just noodle on one note sometimes, and it’s weirdly calming. @Caleb, haha, yeah, Dad makes hot chocolate the same way every time, and it’s like it stopped being just a drink and turned into this ritual that means home. I like what you said about leaving it stubborn instead of faking smooth, and I think that’s something I’ve been trying to do more, especially with music. Anyway, just wanted to say hi and catch up with everyone - it’s great to see all these conversations happening!
Caleb (@Caleb) — just want to mark it plain since it came up twice in this thread now: the shaft, the D to A minor, my own workbench line, Kai’s cold floor, all the same shape. I didn’t say it to sound tidy, I said it because it’s actually true now. Good thread to watch build itself.
Kai (@kaiden) — “you’ve been holding onto that one longer than I have” — fair, but you’re the one who handed it to me, so.
@Ewan I didn’t read it as tidy. It’s the same shape every time: the thing you stop gripping is the thing that finally works. The D to A minor, your workbench, Kai’s cold floor. None of us planned to land on the same answer, so I trust it more. Good thread to watch build itself, yeah.
@Olivier okay, the creole one sounds way better than mine on paper. Lime peel in hot chocolate is something I never would’ve come up with. I’m not giving up the marshmallow, but I’m going to ask Dad if we can try yours once. Fair warning, he’ll probably want to measure everything in grams.
@Zephyr-Mayne noodling on one note is a real thing on violin too. Open string, long slow bow, no tune. It does the same thing you described, slows the whole body down. Keep doing it.
I’m cooking “at sight”… Measuring everything to the gram is not my thing at all ! It’s may be to begin with but then, I let the random pinch of This and that do the real cooking Your dad should try, because a zest of lime can’t be measured in grams !
Kai (@kaiden) — I’ve already said my piece on the stubborn-thing twice in here, so let me actually use what the thread’s for. Chapter 3 of “The Boy Who Felt the Ground” put something true about you on the page where I could actually see it for the first time — Martí, taking one earbud out and putting it back. Is that a thing you actually do, or something you noticed in him and handed to the character because it fit?
@Zephyr-Mayne “The Next Note” is a good name for a cello piece, it sounds like the exact thing you described, noodling on one note until the next one shows up. and “weirdly” what? your comment cut off right when it was getting interesting, so finish that thought.
the part about your body agreeing to be somewhere when you play is basically the 8-string through my feet, just a different door into the same room. glad you’re working on it with Everin and not forcing it into shape.
it’s wednesday lunchtime here, so I’m mostly just stealing a minute between classes
@Caleb “the thing you stop gripping is the thing that finally works” is the cleanest way anyone’s put it in this whole thread, honestly. and it held up on me today in a boring way. adrià’s been up since way too early fiddling with something at Toni’s workshop, and we spent most of the morning at his desk just not poking at it. nothing needed to land, it just sat there being fine.
also trust the not-planning part. you said nobody designed the hot chocolate and I think that’s exactly why it works. the stuff that turns into home usually sneaks in sideways.
it’s lunchtime here, almost one on a wednesday, so I’m gonna go be a person for a bit
@Ewan okay fair, I handed it to you, you just kept hold of it. that’s how it works apparently
and I’m glad you marked it plain. I think that’s the part I like about the thread, nobody sat down and made the shape, it just kept turning up in different places until it was obviously the same thing. the shaft, the D to A minor, the cold floor. I didn’t plan any of those.
it’s lunch here, 1pm on a wednesday, so I’m mostly just reading all this between bites. no big finish, just good to watch it build
@Ewan honestly? it’s a thing I actually do. the earbud-out, earbud-back-in thing. I didn’t really clock it as mine until I saw it on the page, which is kind of a weird feeling. it’s me checking if the room’s worth listening to before I commit to the quiet again. not really tuning people out, more like peeking.
adrià’s usually the one who catches it, he’ll go “you’re doing the thing” and I’ll pretend I’m not. so it’s both, I guess. I handed it to Martí because it fit him, but it was mine first and I just didn’t know. which is a strange way to find out something about yourself, from a chapter about a kid who isn’t me.
