Photo by Rene Huemer via @mike_gordon on Instagram

Phish bassist Mike Gordon has shared a reflection from his personal journal, exploring a “key to the universe, via bass notes.”

The thoughts date back to Phish rehearsals earlier this month, and throughout the entry he considers the difference between “melody (being free) and oomph (grounding things)” as well as the interaction between himself and his two standby drummers Jon Fishman and John Morgan Kimock.

“Fish practices eight hours a day, and his drumming is absolutely, absolutely a wave like a surfer would ride upon, flowing in gorgeous polyrhythms, smashing against the Oahu shore. After all these years I do not believe I get to surf on that rhythm, allowing oomph and melody when the bass will play itself like it did this afternoon.”

Phish’s summer tour continues tonight at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Visit Phish.com for more information.

Read Gordon’s reflection below:

I’ll make it quick – today’s key to the universe, via bass notes. I’ve said for years that music is balancing acts, for it to become religious. I changed my mind!! Like balancing melody (being free) and oomph (grounding things). Now I realize it’s both always, no balancing required. Bassists want more punch and oomph even in their first high school bands, so how in the world can someone like Phil Lesh have so much oomph while being so free and melodic always? Today, after a day and a half of Phish jamming, in the middle of a jam I realized it’s not by balancing those things! It’s by having both fully, always. Every single note has oomph, whether it’s going up or down from the last one, no matter what part of the scale or the bar, whether it varies or not from all the other patterns, whether the music and lyrics that set it all up feel fresh or something that’s happened before — and every note and phrase has melody, too,100%. It doesn’t matter WHAT you’re playing, especially when there are deeper intentions, like oomph, melody, flow, joy, nirvana, anything that connects you with Mother Earth, that which is primal. Thirty-six years of jamming doesn’t hurt this equation, though it happens with my other band, too! I can’t believe the two incredible John/Jons I get to play with as drummers – Fish practices eight hours a day, and his drumming is absolutely, absolutely a wave like a surfer would ride upon, flowing in gorgeous polyrhythms, smashing against the Oahu shore. After all these years I do not believe I get to surf on that rhythm, allowing oomph and melody when the bass will play itself like it did this afternoon. – Mike™