2. In our "One" for the Pocket; the Tumbao movie below, I will count time, using my foot and tapping my heel on every first and third beat. Notice how the tabletop that I'm playing will rise on every first and third beat. In the Tumbao rhythm that we will be playing, the first and third beats are played with the heel; and spoken as "ge" (Speak the rhythm: ge re Pa te ge re Du Du). If I'm playing this rhythm live and I happen to lose my place, as long as I'm tapping my foot to the first and third beat, I know I can find my place again by putting a heel stroke at either one of these markers. If I pick it up on the third beat, here's how I will speak it: ge re Du Du, ge re Pa te ge re Du Du.
G6 Bullet 2 – Timekeeping devices; the metronome. A metronome is an invaluable tool for practicing music, especially rhythm patterns. It is a mechanical or electronic device used to measure beats per minutes. A metronome marking (m.m.), is notated by using a note value (usually that which is represented in the denominator of the time signature). The speed of the pulse, the 1, 2, 3, 4 you tap your foot to (assuming your song is in 4/4 time) is called the tempo. Tempi (plural for tempo) are measured in beats per minute (b.p.m. or bpm).
3. I use a Seiko Quartz metronome. It uses two modes: audible and silent. During the movie Lessons, I use the audible mode. Do you hear the clicks? That's the metronome. Both modes utilize a red flashing light. The light flashes with each click. Each click represents one pulse beat.
4. Even better metronomes will distinguish the "one" of each measure with a distinctive sound different from the rest of the pulse beats. These make great tools for learning to find the "one."
5. Nearly all the patterns that I demonstrate in the movies are all played at 116 bpm. If I was to run a stopwatch and then turn on my Seiko with the dial set to 116 bpm, at the end of one minute I would've counted 116 clicks, or played 116 quarter notes, or tapped my foot to the pulse beat 116 times.
6. In 4/4 time, after I count or tap four clicks with my foot that's the end of one measure.
7. Now you can answer the following question: how many measures can I fit in one minute?
8. Simple math, 116 divided by 4 gives us 29 measures.
9. These days, one can even find free metronome applications on the Internet or smart phone. I just downloaded a cool, free metronome application called "Pro Metronome" for my iPad mini. Maybe I will feature it on a future lesson!
3. I use a Seiko Quartz metronome. It uses two modes: audible and silent. During the movie Lessons, I use the audible mode. Do you hear the clicks? That's the metronome. Both modes utilize a red flashing light. The light flashes with each click. Each click represents one pulse beat.
4. Even better metronomes will distinguish the "one" of each measure with a distinctive sound different from the rest of the pulse beats. These make great tools for learning to find the "one."
5. Nearly all the patterns that I demonstrate in the movies are all played at 116 bpm. If I was to run a stopwatch and then turn on my Seiko with the dial set to 116 bpm, at the end of one minute I would've counted 116 clicks, or played 116 quarter notes, or tapped my foot to the pulse beat 116 times.
6. In 4/4 time, after I count or tap four clicks with my foot that's the end of one measure.
7. Now you can answer the following question: how many measures can I fit in one minute?
8. Simple math, 116 divided by 4 gives us 29 measures.
9. These days, one can even find free metronome applications on the Internet or smart phone. I just downloaded a cool, free metronome application called "Pro Metronome" for my iPad mini. Maybe I will feature it on a future lesson!
G6 Bullet 3 – Four beats and four pillars. It's structure that gives music it's drive and popularity; the invisible force behind the visible energy that moves people to dance, to memorize the words, to identify a memorable classic.
10. For most of my own life the music that I've been involved with is good old, four over four, rock 'n roll. That's four quarter note beats to a measure. Yes, even the pop music and country pieces I've played along with follow this tried-and-true time signature.
11. It's only after being introduced to Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythm patterns that I expanded into new time signatures. The 4/4 has been a pillar to the songwriting success of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many others - drawing together millions of fans across the globe.
12. It's structure that makes our Lord's invisible reality into visible manifestations.
For 33 years He was fully present in history, fully visible with hundreds of eyewitnesses, fully human - only his divinity was in question, even to many whom had witnessed miraculous healings and demonic exorcisms.
13. Our Lord, in his infinite genius, left us the visible Church. A Church clearly marked with four pillars of visible strength and stature yet remarkably, quite invisible to anyone choosing to remain in a state of ignorance to supernatural realities. God simply won't impose himself on anyone - he certainly did not with me.
14. What are those four pillars?
16. If God isn't willing to do it, who among us would try to control the ways of another person? God himself giving each of us undeniable freedom to choose....yet many of us do exactly this, using peer pressure and other manipulative actions.... we try to impose our worldly ways on to others, to fulfill our own selfish desires.
17. Guys know what I'm talking about.
Tossed about like a ship without a rudder I had no visible structure during those days opting instead for the changing winds of fad, cultural relevance, the shifting sands of feelings, unbridled sensuality.... the lower passions, if you will. The rave is hypnotic, the steady beat lulls us into a trance, the visible, our human dignity, soon compromised by the invisible. We find ourself becoming more animal like - the lower passions aroused -especially if we are drunk or high.
18. Others are mere objects of our fancy now, there's nothing rational to this any longer. The environment: dark, dingy, pulsating with light and steady patterns of thud, thud, thud...
19. People joining together, twisting, gyrating, lusting, drooling, like fall elk in frenzy - far from theirs minds the inherent dignity in every person: the baby the mother once cuddled, the toddler the neighbors babysat, the young Girl Scout leader, mom's little helper in the kitchen, grandma's brilliant letter writer, Dad's exulted princes....soon to be violated...handled in a way frightfully disturbing.
20. Yes, the invisible is visible here too, from the dark recesses of hell itself...what seemed like fun....a harmless night out....has shown itself in all of its horrid ugliness, with breath like the broken down, overflowing bathroom stall that no longer respects male or female, it has come to rob another precious saint of her very innocence.
21. Good ole Rave Regular, there he goes again, relieving himself on the floor - this time to the total disgust of the band leader who rebukes him with a lesson on liberty and license.
22. I professed a belief in myself.
I celebrated my own freedom and liberty.
23. Christ was someone who lived a long, long time ago. I guess I hardly ever prayed all.
24. It took hitting rock bottom before I finally changed my tune.
25. What matters most to our Lord is whether you are willing to give him a chance; even a second or third chance.
26. The four pillars in the Catholic Catechism outline a structured plan, part of the mystical plan of God to help us navigate through this earthly pilgrimage. God, a Father with open arms, through a loving heart full of mercy, a human heart, the heart of Jesus Christ, takes all of his children back.
27. What's it like to have such a father so full of love?
28. Once we recognize this we want to naturally profess our faith, pillar one.
29. Was I really created for a unique, special purpose unlike any other? Our dignity revealed, we quite readily join with others to celebrate, this supernatural love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and us, the mystical body of Christ, this Christian mystery, pillar two.
30. As I was born into the world so too was the Savior - God, the Word made flesh - born into the world although, unlike me, without sin and incarnate by the Holy Spirit. Where else then would I go but to Christ? A life in Christ, pillar three.
31. Answered prayers are encouraging, inspirational, and consoling. And to keep me from slipping back, to keep me in love, to keep me growing in memory and knowledge of what I was really created to be, I practice Christian prayer, pillar four.
32. There is more freedom in a life like this, a Christian life - ever more aware that I have been chosen by God before creation, a visible action of the invisible Holy Spirit - than I could've ever imagined. Even when the "bad" days come, as they do, sooner or later for all of us living life on earth, I see even these are full of new and profound meaning, an opportunity to co-redeem with our Lord. All the "good" I use to seek in night clubs and bars I find now in God, the true source of profound joy, inner peace, and freedom.
33. "The line between being unable to believe and being unwilling to believe is not clear. The attitude that simply dismisses faith as unimportant, without having examined it more closely, is often worse than well considered atheism." (YOUCAT 357)
10. For most of my own life the music that I've been involved with is good old, four over four, rock 'n roll. That's four quarter note beats to a measure. Yes, even the pop music and country pieces I've played along with follow this tried-and-true time signature.
11. It's only after being introduced to Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythm patterns that I expanded into new time signatures. The 4/4 has been a pillar to the songwriting success of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many others - drawing together millions of fans across the globe.
12. It's structure that makes our Lord's invisible reality into visible manifestations.
For 33 years He was fully present in history, fully visible with hundreds of eyewitnesses, fully human - only his divinity was in question, even to many whom had witnessed miraculous healings and demonic exorcisms.
13. Our Lord, in his infinite genius, left us the visible Church. A Church clearly marked with four pillars of visible strength and stature yet remarkably, quite invisible to anyone choosing to remain in a state of ignorance to supernatural realities. God simply won't impose himself on anyone - he certainly did not with me.
14. What are those four pillars?
- the profession of faith,
- the celebration of the Christian mystery,
- life in Christ and
- Christian prayer.
16. If God isn't willing to do it, who among us would try to control the ways of another person? God himself giving each of us undeniable freedom to choose....yet many of us do exactly this, using peer pressure and other manipulative actions.... we try to impose our worldly ways on to others, to fulfill our own selfish desires.
17. Guys know what I'm talking about.
Tossed about like a ship without a rudder I had no visible structure during those days opting instead for the changing winds of fad, cultural relevance, the shifting sands of feelings, unbridled sensuality.... the lower passions, if you will. The rave is hypnotic, the steady beat lulls us into a trance, the visible, our human dignity, soon compromised by the invisible. We find ourself becoming more animal like - the lower passions aroused -especially if we are drunk or high.
18. Others are mere objects of our fancy now, there's nothing rational to this any longer. The environment: dark, dingy, pulsating with light and steady patterns of thud, thud, thud...
19. People joining together, twisting, gyrating, lusting, drooling, like fall elk in frenzy - far from theirs minds the inherent dignity in every person: the baby the mother once cuddled, the toddler the neighbors babysat, the young Girl Scout leader, mom's little helper in the kitchen, grandma's brilliant letter writer, Dad's exulted princes....soon to be violated...handled in a way frightfully disturbing.
20. Yes, the invisible is visible here too, from the dark recesses of hell itself...what seemed like fun....a harmless night out....has shown itself in all of its horrid ugliness, with breath like the broken down, overflowing bathroom stall that no longer respects male or female, it has come to rob another precious saint of her very innocence.
21. Good ole Rave Regular, there he goes again, relieving himself on the floor - this time to the total disgust of the band leader who rebukes him with a lesson on liberty and license.
22. I professed a belief in myself.
I celebrated my own freedom and liberty.
23. Christ was someone who lived a long, long time ago. I guess I hardly ever prayed all.
24. It took hitting rock bottom before I finally changed my tune.
25. What matters most to our Lord is whether you are willing to give him a chance; even a second or third chance.
26. The four pillars in the Catholic Catechism outline a structured plan, part of the mystical plan of God to help us navigate through this earthly pilgrimage. God, a Father with open arms, through a loving heart full of mercy, a human heart, the heart of Jesus Christ, takes all of his children back.
27. What's it like to have such a father so full of love?
28. Once we recognize this we want to naturally profess our faith, pillar one.
29. Was I really created for a unique, special purpose unlike any other? Our dignity revealed, we quite readily join with others to celebrate, this supernatural love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and us, the mystical body of Christ, this Christian mystery, pillar two.
30. As I was born into the world so too was the Savior - God, the Word made flesh - born into the world although, unlike me, without sin and incarnate by the Holy Spirit. Where else then would I go but to Christ? A life in Christ, pillar three.
31. Answered prayers are encouraging, inspirational, and consoling. And to keep me from slipping back, to keep me in love, to keep me growing in memory and knowledge of what I was really created to be, I practice Christian prayer, pillar four.
32. There is more freedom in a life like this, a Christian life - ever more aware that I have been chosen by God before creation, a visible action of the invisible Holy Spirit - than I could've ever imagined. Even when the "bad" days come, as they do, sooner or later for all of us living life on earth, I see even these are full of new and profound meaning, an opportunity to co-redeem with our Lord. All the "good" I use to seek in night clubs and bars I find now in God, the true source of profound joy, inner peace, and freedom.
33. "The line between being unable to believe and being unwilling to believe is not clear. The attitude that simply dismisses faith as unimportant, without having examined it more closely, is often worse than well considered atheism." (YOUCAT 357)
G6 Bullets 4–6, Learn the Rhythm - More Tumbao Variations - because it's highly versatile in many settings. "One" for the Pocket; the Tumbao
SPEAK THE RHYTHM: ge re Pa te ge re Du Du...ge re Pa te ge re Du Du
G6 Bullet 7 – Topic A3, Sound Check. God Approaches Us Men: The "Big Reveal." My stepson is off to Austin, Texas this weekend to see the musical Wicked with some friends. This modern day production is somehow tied to the wicked witch best known from the movie the Wizard of Oz. Talk about a family favorite! Growing up, we would eagerly wait for it and then watch it, year after year, what a great tradition we had. How surprising to finally learn the great and all powerful wizard was really just a small man behind a very big microphone and special-effects console. We are calling this today - the "Big Reveal." (YOUCAT Study Guide, pg. 7)
36. Indeed I have had varying ideas about God throughout my own life.
Some of the wildest ideas about God came during those times when I was grossly misinformed.
37. Just because I was becoming smarter in certain other areas like engineering and science, I concluded that I was also becoming smarter in the area of the supernatural. What I was really doing though is making God out to be what I wanted him to be rather than coming to know him as he is.
38. He was the all accepting supporter of what ever felt good in my life - whether or not someone else might be getting hurt in the process.
39. "Everyone will be saved and go to heaven, there is really no sin" I told myself. I thought God was far too grand and omnipotent for any one person or institution to define; agnosticism at its best.
40. "Just do good to others and God will do good to you" I believed. But something wasn't right - I kept getting hurt and it seemed that I was never satisfied or at lasting peace.
41. After reading 1 Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 31 through 32 - it makes sense why we need not oversimplify God's Will and sense of Justice. "If we were to examine ourselves, we would not be falling under judgment in this way (sickness and infirmity); but since it is the Lord who judges us, he chastens us to keep us from being condemned with the rest of the world."
42. Even after partially straightening out my life, getting an engineering degree at age 35, marrying and settling down, something was still missing. Like Dorothy and her companions I kept asking spiritual questions, except instead of a good-witch looking over me, it was God, responding to the intercession of my guardian angel and prayers of family members I'm sure, showering me with unmerited grace, grace that enabled me to slowly move forward, becoming a new creature in the process.
43. Amazingly, come to find out, God was always drawing me closer - always moving me forward - toward this invisible something I found gnawing in my heart.
Jesus Christ is the "Big Reveal."
44. Not until I learned who Jesus Christ really was and is could I then come to know who God really is and the Holy Spirit too.
45. "The supernatural is not to be understood as an entity or a place that begins where the natural ends, but as the raising of the natural to a higher plane. In this way nothing of the created or the human order is foreign to or excluded from the supernatural or theological order of faith and grace, rather it is found within it, taken on and elevated by it. "In Jesus Christ the visible world which God created for man (cf. Gen 1:26-30) - the world that, when sin entered, 'was subjected to futility' (Rom 8:20; cf. Rom 8:19-22) - recovers again it's original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love. Indeed, 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son' (Jn 3:16). As this link was broken in the man Adam, so in the man Christ it was reforged (cf. Rom 5:12-21)." (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #64, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace)
46. As bearer of the Gospel's message of Incarnation and Redemption, the Church (the invisible made visible; the "Big Reveal") can follow no other path: with her social doctrine and the effective action that springs from it, not only does she not hide her face or tone down her mission, but she is faithful to Christ and shows herself to men and women as "the universal sacrament of salvation." (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #65, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace)
47. "In each Mass Christ offers himself up completely, together with the Church, which is his Mystical Body, made up of all the baptized (the invisible made a visible, the "Big Reveal"). By reason of their union with Christ to the Church, the faithful offer the sacrifice together with him. They also offer themselves with him. They take part in the mass, therefore, as those who offer and are offered." (In Conversation with God: Daily Meditations, Volume 3 by Francis Fernandez)
G6 Bullet 8 – YOU Practice Lesson G6. If you want measurable results try to practice both your faith and drumming at least 30 minutes a day.
a.) Playing simple rhythms on a daily basis can be similar in repetition to (but never used in place of) daily reading of an uplifting spiritual book. Just read a few pages a day, not more than thirty minutes at a time. Recognize God's presence during this period of reading.
b.) "The world and the culture cannot answer our deepest questions or bring profound meaning to our lives. For answers to our deepest questions we must turn to God. Only then, through those answers and with an open heart, will our lives be flooded with meaning and purpose... One of the best things about Catholicism is that there are answers. Let's start to fill our hearts and minds with the truth and goodness of those answers. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." (The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly ")
c.) Gradually, your memory and understanding of sacred things will improve and your formation into the Christian disciple our Lord desires of you will be well on its way. What was once invisible becomes visible soon enough!
d.) You will begin to recognize the fruit in inspirations and consolations that gently answer questions or concerns regarding your spiritual growth and God's will for you.
e.) Keep up your spiritual reading, every day if possible. Practice perfects the one undergoing the repetitious movement; either naturally or supernaturally.
f.) Answered prayers are reminders of God's supernatural order present in our very own lives. The Church teaches the fruitful value of a sound prayer life with Scripture reading. My family and I can give personal testimony to the effectiveness of daily prayer. Practice makes perfect!
a.) Playing simple rhythms on a daily basis can be similar in repetition to (but never used in place of) daily reading of an uplifting spiritual book. Just read a few pages a day, not more than thirty minutes at a time. Recognize God's presence during this period of reading.
b.) "The world and the culture cannot answer our deepest questions or bring profound meaning to our lives. For answers to our deepest questions we must turn to God. Only then, through those answers and with an open heart, will our lives be flooded with meaning and purpose... One of the best things about Catholicism is that there are answers. Let's start to fill our hearts and minds with the truth and goodness of those answers. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." (The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly ")
c.) Gradually, your memory and understanding of sacred things will improve and your formation into the Christian disciple our Lord desires of you will be well on its way. What was once invisible becomes visible soon enough!
d.) You will begin to recognize the fruit in inspirations and consolations that gently answer questions or concerns regarding your spiritual growth and God's will for you.
e.) Keep up your spiritual reading, every day if possible. Practice perfects the one undergoing the repetitious movement; either naturally or supernaturally.
f.) Answered prayers are reminders of God's supernatural order present in our very own lives. The Church teaches the fruitful value of a sound prayer life with Scripture reading. My family and I can give personal testimony to the effectiveness of daily prayer. Practice makes perfect!
G6 Bullet 9 – Table Task: Pray. Pray. If you don't know how to pray, read about others who are accustomed to praying. You'll soon learn that these people, like you, have a taste for the truth. Even if it's just a few pages a day, say 4 or 5 pages, reading like this over time will amount to a tremendous spiritual formation. You will indeed learn how to pray better. If reading isn't your thing, then download podcasts. Go to the iTunes store or here and find free Catholic Answers podcasts. Try to listen to at least one a day and then take a moment to reflect or pray on what you just listened to.
50. Go to a quiet place and contemplate the following reality regarding the visibility of sin in our modern world: "That Christ takes away the sins of the world is the greatest cause for jubilation, but it is a joy that can only be known by someone who has acknowledged the reality of sin. The denial of sin creates a dull and ugly world where sin reigns unacknowledged. The recognition of sin, and the reality of the Redeemer, brings joy even to those who still fight the battle against sin and the devil." (Inside the Mass: A Spiritual Reflection on the New Translation by Rev. Theodore Book, SLL)
51. God speaks to us through our reading; the coincidences of the day; very few will hear "a voice" so to speak.
52. Apparitions approved through the Church are rare but nonetheless many of these have been recognized.
53. Most of us are gently urged through our daily circumstances; I have been.
54. This makes one's whole life the subject of a fruitful re-inspection. "How has God been speaking to me all of these years?" we should all ask ourselves. "Yes, even when I was steeped in sin!" Yes! Even then. Indeed this is a loving God, the "Big Reveal!"
50. Go to a quiet place and contemplate the following reality regarding the visibility of sin in our modern world: "That Christ takes away the sins of the world is the greatest cause for jubilation, but it is a joy that can only be known by someone who has acknowledged the reality of sin. The denial of sin creates a dull and ugly world where sin reigns unacknowledged. The recognition of sin, and the reality of the Redeemer, brings joy even to those who still fight the battle against sin and the devil." (Inside the Mass: A Spiritual Reflection on the New Translation by Rev. Theodore Book, SLL)
51. God speaks to us through our reading; the coincidences of the day; very few will hear "a voice" so to speak.
52. Apparitions approved through the Church are rare but nonetheless many of these have been recognized.
53. Most of us are gently urged through our daily circumstances; I have been.
54. This makes one's whole life the subject of a fruitful re-inspection. "How has God been speaking to me all of these years?" we should all ask ourselves. "Yes, even when I was steeped in sin!" Yes! Even then. Indeed this is a loving God, the "Big Reveal!"
G6 Bullet 11 – Counting (1) handout: study it.
