Gravitas, and Your Time

I just got a first-rate full-body workout. And I was playing the violin the whole time. What I was doing to get that workout was pretty profound.

I was exploring the relationship of Gravity to time. It was so powerful I’d like to explain some of the connections I made.

The word ‘gravitas’ has to do with weighted-ness; or mass, to be more blunt. The more weighted a feeling or thing is, the more energy it takes to move it into another state, or place.

Some of us have a natural tendency toward gravitas. Some have the opposite tendency – if ‘space-cadets’ has a familiar ring to it this may be you.

Not to worry, I’m somewhat challenged in that way myself.

Think about this. Imagine a feeling or a thing of un-imaginable gravitas. Let’s even say it’s weighted-ness matches the entire contents of the universe. Well guess what, time ceases to flow. If the mass of the Universe is totally focused on being ‘mass’ there is no energy to create movement. And without movement there is no flow of anything.

Now think of the other extreme; no mass, only energy. In this case there is no partner to energy. Without gravity the ‘flow’ of everything, including time, races to infinity. And beyond the reach of meaning, I might add.

OK, my point here is not to engage in existential Clayton-babble. So let me get to what I did to get such a workout today.

I moved my center of gravity.

Not only did I move it to coincide with beats of music, I also found I could increase my own ‘gravitas’ by propelling my body vertically and adding some kinetic energy into the mix.

I spent most of the morning on Ravel’s ‘Tzigane’. Sometimes I was moving my weight to eighth notes; other times in quarters. Sometimes the transfer was horizontal and fluid; at other times decisive and dramatic.

The really important element I should mention, however, was that this was done consciously. I didn’t just get into an automatic mode. Rather, I verified that each weight shift, bow stroke, and finger placement was authentically MINE, and not simply an artifact of ‘muscle memory’ or the autonomic nervous system in action.

Now if you want to experience this kind of experiential joy try this. Play something you think you know Well while you count the beats and shift you weight from side to side.

You will know you’re on the right track when the control of your body and the music is such that you can Arbitrarily fermata on a beat and a note without ‘falling off’ the beat. In other words, the control of your weight and commitment to the note are such you can hold indefinitely.

Now, after you’ve done this, even if only playing whole notes on an open string, you won’t ever be able to say to yourself again that you don’t know how to ‘feel the beat’.

And one more point, anybody that has learned to stand up and walk is a master of time. Walking represents the balance of physical gravitas with movement. If you can walk, you CAN play in time.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

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