MKMMA Week 10 — I Got Rhythm

In our MKMMA course we have been hearing lots of fascinating stuff about brain function. This gets into some of my favorite material to both study and teach about. Of the “seven intelligences”, one of my personal prime intelligences is ‘musical’, and I often hear people say that music and creativity are right brain skills. It’s my fervent belief that music is a WHOLE brain skill. When I teach people about the characteristics of right and left brain functioning, I often invite them to consider what parts of playing music depend on one brain hemisphere or the other.

As they think about it, they realize things like reading musical notation and understanding the progressions of chords in a piece are left brain skills. Adding the expressive, feeling aspect and having a sense of rhythm and the emotional tone of the piece are right brain skills. A person must be right-left brain integrated to be a fine musician. You could analyze playing hockey or baseball the same way, in terms of which brain hemisphere supports different aspects of play.

Rhythm has been in the forefront for me in the MKMMA readings I have done. In “The Greatest Salesman”, Scroll #1, there are several important phrases that scan as rhythmic verse. For example these sentences follow a rhythm that goes ‘dit dit dah’: “I will drink as instructed and spill not a drop. And the seed of success I will swallow.”

I simply couldn’t read “The Gal in the Glass” as it was given. I realize now, after careful comparison to “The Guy…” that “The Gal…” was the secondary adaptation. The Guy scans perfectly. The rhythm in “The Gal” is off. Today I finally did a bit of rewriting because . Now I can say, “For it isn’t your Parents or Partner for Life, / Who judgment upon you must pass.” It scans with a regular meter and now it’s comfy for me. Same with, “She’s the one gal to please, never mind all the rest.” Ah, that’s better!

And those repetitions of “I can be what I will to be”, and “Do it now”, well here’s how I like to do them. I added some percussion for this occasion, but I usually say them in synch with my steps on my daily dog walks.  Here’s my chant. Join me!