Generation 06: From Grind to Glide

SPEED READ. Five Generations ran on one seed pulled from the canon, two bars of Paganini chosen because it will not age out. Generation 06 flips both axes at once: singular to plural, canon to lineage. Nine new seeds, none of them intellectual or curriculum-driven picks. Each is a lick inherited live from a player who taught me directly, chosen by scar and spark, not shelf value. The gate is a single binary: name the player, name the moment, feel it still fire in the hands.

From One to Many

The previous 5 Generations surfaced a movement that began taking direction as a direct consequence of my lived guitar experience (not intellectual rumination). At its core, that movement is a "one to many" wave. When taken literally, the cellular automaton framework instantiated in Generation 01_Cellular Automata Practice Frame places a bold emphasis on taking one small musical chunk (in my case, 2 bars of a Paganini Caprice No. 2 arrangement) and churning it from boulder to powder. Relentlessly. This churning left me with an identity as a "grinder" instead of a "glider." The latter invites a more metaphorical interpretation of the cellular automaton approach. Specifically, instead of grinding one discrete unit, I was compelled to glide across many. The danger (for me) of the "many" is that it becomes too diffuse; my energy, focus, dedication fracture as a result. From boulder to powder in one direction. From boulder to ether in the other. The third way rests in calibrating the "many."

The shift: not a bigger curriculum, just a wider mouth to the same engine.

The blueprint this further visualized and simplified below, iterating from that which I documented in Generation 05_The Loop Tightens.

What this revised blueprint / schematic motivates:

1. The mouth has two openings: licks and riffs. To me, they are operationally distinct. Single notes that are more malleable and can be refactored at will (licks) on the one hand. Chords and rhythmic divisions with less note diversity that are more gridded (riffs) on the other.

2. The learning phases that I go through give rise to the method of practice or mode I must operate in. Memorization requires different subjective approach and implementation kit than Exploration and Application. In the schematic, phases 1-3 are highly legible and measurable, amenable to routines and subroutines, while phases 4 and 5 are more ambiguous.

3. Historically, I have (massively) footnoted phases 4 and 5. I realize that I ran away from the ambiguity, retreating to the comfort of the legible. Now, it is time to run toward the unknown; this time, with confidence.

4. To start the sustained journey along the phases, I need some licks and I need some riffs. Simple. And by the way, they are not strictly linear; there are nested loops within, which I will tease out as I experience them; after all, I'm not interested in knowledge disconnected from application; and, I am interested in application that gives rise to knowledge).

Canon to Whimsy

The initial Paganini atom (refresh: Generation 02_Generation Zero) was chosen because has Lindy properties: durable, will not age out. I am quarantining (for now) those 2 bars in a strictly technical box, which is the 8 Min. Grid in the above schematic. To glide from phase 2 (Execute) to phase 3 (Geometrize), I am in need of some fresh seeds. The first draft of this paragraph laid out an unnecessarily complicated set of filters to surface these fresh seeds. I could feel the mental churn, and this time, it was a cue to let go of premature optimization. Instead, I picked a day, set the timer for 20 mins, and instructed my intellect to recall 9 licks on the spot. And more: pick up the guitar and immediate get to the Memorization stage. It took me 2 sessions, not 1. I'm now on the map.

Show, Don't Tell

Let's get clear and clinical.

One and only one constraint here, absolutely plain: set the clock to 20 mins, and fill up on an initial seed lick list of 9, finding source material wherever my gut points. That's it.

The Nine Licks

The Nine Riffs

On the Path, Made by Walking

Traveler, your footprints
Are the path and nothing more;
Traveler, there is no path,
The path is made by walking.
— Antonio Machado

>> BTW an interdisciplinary breadcrumb: On "Cybernetics, Bateson + Beer"

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