Kung Fu Test

[sallytuppence]

A couple of years ago, when I was starting to get serious about writing, I realized that a lot of writers have other creative outlets in their lives. They do felting, or archery, or embroidery, or cartooning, or folk dancing, or making movies, or beading, or playing the recorder. Several very good writer friends are very serious about martial

Comments

[gregvaneekhout]

I swear, the very last web page I was on before reading your entry was a Kungfu Magazine interview with a Shaolin monk. He said this: In China, they don't just call martial arts "kung fu" - anything else they can say is "kung fu." If you've been driving a car for twenty years and never had an accident, that also means kung fu. It means you drive very well. It also means your experience. If you are like...anything - anything you did for a long time and really experience; like a doctor can also say that very good kung fu. In China, that's what they call this guy. That's what kung fu means.

So, you are a student of Kung Fu piano. You are a student of Kung Fu writing, most definitely.

When we spar, my instructor says to try a technique ten times in a row, even if your sparring partner knows exactly what you're going to do and blocks or counterstrikes you every time. It's not about winning. It's about striving.

I think I've learned a lot of lessons from writing, and a lot of lessons from martial arts, but I haven't always done a good job of integrating the two. But your entry, I think, will help give me some additional perspective on that front.

(Yikes, sorry to go on so long! But this was such a great entry I couldn't resist!)

[sallytuppence]

You hit exactly the thing I'm trying to figure out: how to integrate the two. I am not a musician. I love the piano though, and the things I have learned from playing the piano have everything to do with my writing. Maybe it's just in the striving.

[gregvaneekhout]

I think it's in the striving. It's in being passionate about playing the music. I think there's a lesson about writing in almost every one of your 23 points. Numbers 9 and 12 are particularly resonant.

[sallytuppence]

For me, it's #5 and #23.

I recently played a piece for my teacher and was sorta disappointed with myself because I'd made lots of mistakes. He said, "That was good, because you didn't hold anything back. Playing it safe is boring."

Boy, was that ever a revelation for me. Being fearless instead of safe is so risky, so scary, both in piano and in writing.

[silk_noir]

Playing it safe is boring

Yes!!!!!

[sallytuppence]

Also: kung fu piano! You know I bow to my teacher before my lesson, right? 'Cos it's Suzuki method...

[gregvaneekhout]

Yes! That is so awesome!

By seeing the connections between martial arts and piano, I think you have a superior understanding of martial arts than many martial artists.

[jennreese]

For me, it's in the striving, the mindfulness, the personal nature of the art (the outside world fades away), the dedication, the welcoming of the beginner's mind, the solitude, the autonomy, the fearlessness...

...in pretty much everything you mentioned. It's not being afraid to be a doofess or a goofball in order to learn, because it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you -- this is for you, in almost the most pure way possible.

Bruce Lee would have loved this list. "A good fighter/piano player is not tense, but ready..."