The Book of Plies

Foreword by Neil Peart

September 6, 2017, transcribed by pwrwindows

Book of Plies
by John Good
Foreword written by Neil Peart

Published September 6, 2017 by DW Drums, 40 pages

Humans have our growth rings, too, and often we measure those years, those triumphs and ordeals, in music. The songs of our youth, of our courtships, of our good and bad times, remain alive to us for life. Music interweaves tightly into our memories, its rhythms and harmonies conveying so much that we lack words for - a kind of spiritual energy, dreamlike, emotional, and so ingrained that hearing a fugitive melody Can instantly transport us back to another tine and place.

Throughout human history, music has been at the heart of religious worship and celebration, From caves to cathedrals, sacred groves to revival tents. communal music has the power to bring people together - to inspire and reinforce their shored beliefs, Music is in our DNA; music is in our veins; music is in our growth rings.

First there was a drum, maybe just a hollow fog. A stick of wood banging on it carried messages a long way - that was the original "talking drum." In earliest times before there was metal all instruments would have been wooden, with enhancements of animal skin, bone, and intestine.

In our modern world of synthetic materials and robotics the time-honored marriage of art and nature lives on in the crafting of fine musical instruments. Choice woods and other elements are selected and artfully formed, with techniques both ancient and modern, into what will become human voices - deceptively simple chambers of tonality and resonance that will carry ideas and emotions into the deepest spirit-worlds of song and story.

A fallen tree rises again - lives again. Where once it gave shade, now it gives light. Artists work with their instruments to create a story that will mark their own place in the world, and maybe, if they are excellent and fortunate, they will leave a mark on that world of their own. To be measured and counted among our growth rings.