Here's a high-school drawing of where I was most of the time back then---planet guitar.
I notice it comes out smushed so to really see its shape you have to click on it. ( I never thought of it as practicing, it was just what I did when I did what I most wanted to do
Since I can edit this post I'll add something about why I decided to share this piece with everyone, even though it's adolescentish (I did it 20 years ago or so)---it's meant as an illustration of a certain state of internal conciousness that one gets when doing something passionately, like music, in reference to what we were discussing earlier.
Looking back, I can see that that state of conciousness was very closed off, almost unconcious relative to the state I'm in now when I pick up a guitar, after playing/practicing for 30 years. Yet, when I'm at my best, I'll still include that intense inner world in my awareness. Transcend and include, what do ya know?
As you can see from the drawing, I'm in my own universe, and my body is very tense, meaning I'm not really aware of it. Whereas over the years, I've had to learn to be completely aware of my body, how the tensions and balances affect the music, aware of my breathing, how that effects the music, increasingly aware of all the underlying musical architecture--melody, harmony, rhythm, and how these elements come together to create the music, among other things.
One other really hard thing for me to get, and I'm still very much working on it: I had to become aware of the audience and of how I'm in communication with them, not only musically but with my body, my transmission of energy and spirit. This last element is something that is not taught much in music schools, especially in terms of transmission of spirit, big surprise. But I think it's what separates great performers from the rest, quite often---they are people who intuitively grasped that element and have developed it to a high degree.
It seems the common demoninator here is Conciousness, when you practice art, music, performance, etc, the injunction is to increase your Awareness or Consciousness constantly, because the more you are able to conciously embrace in your awareness (i.e. both the intense inner world depicted in this drawing as well as your awareness of your body, and of the aliveness of everything surrounding you, the audience included if there is one present, the more communicative and deeper the art will probably be.
Does that sound about right?
Jay
"I always try to get up every morning..." Jimi Hendrix