TALKING HANDS is about the liberation of our sense of sound.

It does this by awakening a new awareness of sound as a movement of relationship, together with a new awareness of your inner voice and the instrument of your whole mind-heart-body. 

TALKING HANDS is a form of musical YOGA; it’s a life-long, one or two hour daily practice in which: 

(1) YOUR FIRST INSTRUMENT, is always your speaking-singing voice.

(2) YOUR SECOND INSTRUMENT, is the drum of your tongue-feet-hands.

(3) YOUR THIRD INSTRUMENT, is the synergistic orchestra that brings them all together, the chorus of your speaking-singing voice, and the dancing drum of your tongue-feet-and-hands.

The TRI-CIRCLE PYRAMID: These three form the grounding triangle nested in the circle of philosophy. From this foundation rises the pyramid of your own professional practice, be Music, Poetry, or Dance.
THIS IS A collection of talks and demonstrations of a central yoga-like technique or practice in my NEW MUSIC, POETRY & DANCE performance project, THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE. It's called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.

In TLKING HANDS, we are all poets,
composers, dancers, singers,
conductors, teachers, and
especially, philosophers.

TALKING HANDS/TALKING FEET, a musical YOGA practice working to liberate our sense of sound

This is a set of aphorisms and sayings that goes with my calendar for teachers and students (like myself) of Yoga & the Alexander Technique. My idea is that both are necessary for education. In my view, this is most especially true in the performing Arts.

The Alexander Technique is a subtle method of integrating mind and body in such a way that each functions with maximum efficiency and ease and minimum stress and tension. The Technique is an educational process which provides an individual with the means to identify and change habits and attitudes interfering with "the proper use of oneself."

Download the ebook version of the 2018 AT CALENDAR at: pdf [7.5Mb] http://bit.ly/2nbJrTu  

OR BUY PRINT version at : http://bit.ly/1uhzpKV

TWIN GUIDEPOSTS TO LEARNING, Yoga & The Alexander Technique / 12 aphorisms

CONCLUSIONS fight;
QUESTIONS ask.

This is a rambling (too long) two part overview of 14 Chapter INTRO to the new Talking Hands / Talking Feet FLORILEGIUM: 100 texts, poems, aphorisms & rhythms to learn by heart.

CHAPTERS (1) breathing (2) pattern (3) measure (4) time space (5) listening

(6) metronome (7) tanbura (8) ears-not-eyes (9) feet-not-hands

(10) complementarity (11) homunculus  (12) becoming native to place (13) journal keeping (14) composing

IMAGE: Bighead Clover (Trifolium macrocephalum), unique leaf geometry, CAMAS OVERLOOK, OREGON

TALKING HANDS 2.0:—An overview of the 14 chapters of the new FLORILEGIUM INTRO [part I & II]

IMAGE: Doing TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET atop Krag Peak, the South WALLOWAS, OREGON

This is the first in a series of talks about a new technique central to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, the Circle in the Square. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.

It is a daily practice, in some ways similar to meditation and yoga, in other ways similar to Alexander technique, and yet other ways similar to a more progressive form of solfeggio. 

The basic idea is that best and most natural way to learn complex patterns of movement and meaning—whether they be a single poem we wish to learn by heart, rhythmic patterns we’re learning to conduct, long lists of Latin plant names we need to memorize, a melody we’re working, a new language we’re learning, or even mathematical pattern—is to bring them fully into the mindbody by chanting, drumming, and dancing them. Always all three together as one: chanting, drumming, and dancing. And always by ear, without the use of the eyes or notation.

At the center of TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET is a new spirit of learning to listen by becoming aware of listening itself as it is taking place, as well as learning to learn—and teach—in the same way.

With this talk, I introduce the idea of Step Time. (We use the word ‘step’ instead of ‘syllable’ simply because it simpler, easier to teach to children, and, of course, self-referential. The word “step” is a single step.)

i show how, by doing the same pattern of movement in a poem, with the tongue in speak, with the hands, and with the feet, a natural synergistic energy is generated that makes learning anything much more fun and organic.

TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET no. 1, “Step Time”

IMAGE: Where this TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET was made...
HERE is the piece I refer to, EPIGRAM, part 3, the MONEY movement https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/epigram-money-3-wav

This is the second in a series of talks about a new technique central to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, the Circle in the Square. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.

It is a daily practice, in some ways similar to meditation and yoga, in other ways similar to Alexander technique, and yet other ways similar to a more progressive form of solfeggio.

The basic idea is that best and most natural way to learn complex patterns of movement and meaning—whether they be a single poem we wish to learn by heart, rhythmic patterns we’re learning to conduct, long lists of Latin plant names we need to memorize, a melody we’re working, a new language we’re learning, or even mathematical pattern—is to bring them fully into the mindbody by chanting, drumming, and dancing them. Always all three together as one: chanting, drumming, and dancing. And always by ear, without the use of the eyes or notation.

At the center of TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET is a new spirit of learning to listen by becoming aware of listening itself as it is taking place, as well as learning to learn—and teach—in the same way.

With this talk, I introduce the idea of Step Time. (We use the word ‘step’ instead of ‘syllable’ simply because it simpler, easier to teach to children, and, of course, self-referential. The word “step” is a single step.)

i show how, by doing the same pattern of movement in a poem, with the tongue in speak, with the hands, and with the feet, a natural synergistic energy is generated that makes learning anything much more fun and organic.

TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET no. 2, “Step Time, part II”

IMAGE: Detail of the geometric rhythms of a CORN LILY, the Veratrum viridis I keep coming back to in the talk. Second most poisonous plant in the Pacific Northwest, it is a native invasive.

This is the third in a series of talks about a new technique central to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, the Circle in the Square. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.

It is a daily practice, in some ways similar to meditation and yoga, in other ways similar to Alexander technique, and yet other ways similar to a more progressive form of solfeggio. 

The basic idea is that best and most natural way to learn complex patterns of movement and meaning—whether they be a single poem we wish to learn by heart, rhythmic patterns we’re learning to conduct, long lists of Latin plant names we need to memorize, a melody we’re working, a new language we’re learning, or even mathematical pattern—is to bring them fully into the mindbody by chanting, drumming, and dancing them. Always all three together as one: chanting, drumming, and dancing. And always by ear, without the use of the eyes or notation.

At the center of TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET is a new spirit of learning to listen by becoming aware of listening itself as it is taking place, as well as learning to learn—and teach—in the same way.

With this talk, I introduce the idea of Step Time. (We use the word ‘step’ instead of ‘syllable’ simply because it simpler, easier to teach to children, and, of course, self-referential. The word “step” is a single step.)

i show how, by doing the same pattern of movement in a poem, with the tongue in speak, with the hands, and with the feet, a natural synergistic energy is generated that makes learning anything much more fun and organic.

TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 3, “Step Time, part III”

THIS IS THE fourth recording in a set of dialogue tapes, recorded while out doing wilderness Climate Crisis photography fieldwork. THE THEME HERE is what I call "relational resonance." I start with the widest circle: "Life is movement. Life is a movement of relationship." And then take the listener on a journey--slowly, on foot--into ever smaller, nested circle of relationship. Until we hit Sound. Poetry. Music. And dance. 

Then we observe that relationship can be both QUALITATIVE. And QUANTITATIVE. We ask the question of "Which is more general?"

We also note that mathematics can be thought of as, "The relationship of relationship."

So we lightly, easily have already covered a lot of important ground.

Then we come to this thing, another circle, I call RELATIONAL RESONANCE.

Quantitatively, this is, in any setspace or collection of relationships R, there are n x n implicate resonances, where "n" is the number of 'things' in the setspace. So, if the setspace is, say, a string quartet, there are 4 x 4 or 16 relational resonances. The same holds for a chord, say, of 4 notes. The point is that there is an implicate complexity under the surface, whether we are aware of it or not. My contention is that awareness of it is crucial. Why? Because it is a key feature of the 'what is' of the world that affects everything in the Universe, not just Art. And as we attune to the nature of RELATIONAL RESONANCE SPACE, how we listen, how we make poems and sounds, begins to attune itself in an ever-more profound water to the wider circles of Nature and Truth.

Think of that!

TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 4, “On relational resonance, part I”

Composer. Writer. Photographer. Former conductor & founder of the ASKO ensemble.

On a bike/ski/hike trek of the Pacific Northwest studying native plants & climate breakdown 🌲 from sagebrush sea to whitebark pine. Composing off-grid the whole way.

#Sun2Sound 🌕 on Bluesky

THINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a soundpoem manifesto https://vimeo.com/844665859

“LOVE & WATER, three thought poems w/ coda, PHAROS for small orchestra, “Nightwind”” https://vimeo.com/847079690 

CURRENTLY on mt bike/ski/climbing trek through Pacific Northwest, working on a photobook about WHITEBARK PINE COLLAPSE and CLIMATE CRISIS. BASES in the WALLOWAS | AMSTERDAM | ALPS. 

WEEKLY photo/poetry updates at www.picture-poems.com & THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE new music, poetry & dance performance project at www.cs-music.com

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for progressive, tech-savy, instrumental virtuosi interested in dialogue & collaborative undertakings.

CONTACT cliff@picture-opoems.com
Or on SKYPE or FACETIME @cliffcrego

MUSIC? The one thing humans do,
that makes the rest of nature jealous.

TALKING HANDS 2.0:—An overview of the 14 chapters of the new FLORILEGIUM INTRO [part I & II]

Cliff Crego