Modelling Project

Musical Capability A Modelling Project

NLP Master’s Programme

Dr. Martin Fry December 2002 – January 2003

my horse clip-clopping over the field – oho! i’m part of the picture Basho

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Introduction For the person who does not play any instrument or has but a fleeting or superficial knowledge of music, musical capabilities are not easy to understand or to know. While it is possible for us to detect a person’s dexterity upon an instrument visually, auditorily and sometimes even kinaesthetically, it is the hypothesis here that there are other sets of skills which are just as important and just as essential to musical capability as the manual technique applied when playing the instrument.1 Specifically this research asks: “Given a piece of sheet music, what are the capabilities a musician immediately employs in order to understand the piece?” And yes, the word “musician” is a nominalisation. The exemplars I have chosen here are not musicians in the sense of being “professionals,” that is they do not earn their living from the pursuit of music. They are musicians in the sense of being able to demonstrate (through dialogue, through performance) to other people that they understand music, that they each play at least one instrument to a standard acceptable for public performances and that they have the ability to articulate to others how they go about their music. I worked with Reinhard Schütz, in particular, for about 15 months before beginning to set down the patterning2 as part of this project; it is to Reinhard that I am especially grateful for giving me (albeit unknowingly) the idea for this modelling project. Reinhard undertook, in September 2001, to teach me the tenor saxophone and ended up teaching me much about musical capability in addition to that (mostly) patient instrument. The idea for this project came to me when we were rehearsing a duo by François René Gebauer. Try as I might I could not get the timing right with the soft intonation required by the score. “Imagine,” said Reinhard, “Those lords and daintily petite ladies dancing in a very formal way, as they did, a couple of centuries ago when the piece was written…..” Methodology An initial session was used in order to build rapport and to explain the project to the exemplars individually. Each major interview lasted between 50 minutes and an hour. Subsequent interviews lasted around 20 minutes. I videotaped the interviews - this gave me the freedom to concentrate on maintaining rapport with the exemplar. It also allowed me to maintain my own state of “not knowing.” After the interviews I went back over the videotaped material to complete the visit summary sheet and the experiential array viewing each interview multiple times. The technique employed by David Gordon was the central methodology for the interviews.With each exemplar I elicited all the components of the schema, first of all through question and answer using Milton model then representational system and meta-model techniques.3 I then gave each exemplar a piece of sheet music and asked them to read it through, in effect, to “try their own methodology on..” I captured this as a TOTE4

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Experiential Array

Reinhard

Peter

Heribert

Calibration

Right-handed orientation

Right-handed orientation

Right-handed orientation

Criterion

Character

Access

My music or not

Many-layered. Looks at piece. Looks for known phrases, playing patterns, notation, clues to how the composer meant the piece to be interpreted. Clues to remind R of images. “I taught myself to associate certain phrases with certain feelings. I access pictures rather than sounds.”

Peter looks over the music, he looks at the picture it creates: chords, polyphonies, harmonies, chords major and minor. He looks to see who composed the piece, what era it was composed. Access is the place one believes leads into the piece, technically and conceptually. From there the piece unfolds. The access point does not have to be the beginning. It depends on how it touches him, how it touches his internal world of emotional states. If the piece is too bulky (= technically or conceptually unmanageable) he puts it away for another time. “It is not just note for note, that’s just spelling and that’s wrong.” The world of emotional states is behind musical thought and opens up new worlds. It is about quality, there is a technical quality and a quality of feeling. Access can be found by finding the character of a piece, the essence of a piece which comes when Peter has understood the composer and his intention.

Feelings awoken by phrases. Are there patterns “in his head” about how to play piece. Goes through patterns. Successful comparison with known pieces. Notation alone is sufficient. Pictures “in his head,” mostly landscapes. Imagines a picture the composer must have imagined as he composed the piece. Example of going to second position on sad piece “The Fallen Comrade” and associating to feel how

Peter has to find the entrance, feel his way forward. Key is that the beginning comes back to the end. The circle must close. Example: it is like meeting someone at a certain point in your life – not at the beginning – you get to know the person – find the beginning – even though the end is open – but enter into their essence: that is also the case in music. You feel it, you know it is so (how?) it feels true – it applies to the music, not to the

Heribert flies over the piece (and as he says it his eyebrows raise and his eyes go to the top right) to get an overview and to estimate the degree of difficulty of the piece with regard to how well he will be able hold up through the piece and what degree of effort will be required to address the trumpet correctly. Then he rummages around in the archive in his head to find out whether he has anything to compare the piece with, whether he has ever played anything similar. If he finds a comparison he says “Aha, that’s how I’ll play it. If there’s something stored in the archive (extreme look up, eyes up too, right hand above head) powerful stuff (gesture with right fist, knuckles up, out from chest) I’ll ask myself if it suits me then I search through it asking myself in what direction it is actually going” Does it fit me, does it please me, can I have fun with it? Is it music that comes from inside, that gives me goose pimples when I play it? Or is it music which does not come from inside, which I can play but it does not come from within. By Associations, childhood experiences, comparison with memory, second position on people who,

Definition

Evidence & Test

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Experiential Array

Reinhard

Peter

Heribert

someone having this experience would play the piece. Can get feeling by humming, too.

technique – at the same time he would not be completely certain on the quality if he did not have the opportunity to play it there and then. Without the opportunity he would base his decision on previous knowledge of the composer, of a CD recording. Sheet music is the best and most interesting – it does not include anyone else’s interpretation. The music takes me along. Time gets switched off. Get to a place where there is no time. That means to submit to, to become one with the piece of music To have quality, the music has to be true. The truth is intangible, without substance. It is an aesthetic which goes back to comparisons. The comparison must go to extremes. To highly complex music on the one hand and to extremely simple music on the other. Sameness or difference here are hard to explain. It is about innovation. Innovation is important. A phrase may be better in a particular form – the access and the way the circle closes. Quality comes through practice and comparison. Innovation is a thought and only then comparison. What is behind thought, the inner world of emotional states. The whole philosophy of music.

marched through dust and dirt playing marches (MF: which involve a gamut of neurological levels of identity, belief, behaviour, capability, and environment). Do I get a kick out of it, Does it uplift me? Heribert uses images as state anchors.

Musical thought can’t be learnt. Music is the logic of the irrational. In principle nongraspable, independent of thought. One is born a musician. But one can awaken dormant musical talent. It is like a seed. And everyone should have a chance.

Everyone has his own world of thought but we are all very much the same.

Evidence & Test, continued

Enabling Cause-Effect

Motivating Cause-Effect

Supporting Beliefs

Character can only be possible if the piece is aesthetically pleasing. It is aesthetically pleasing if it gives rise to associations (otherwise R feels empty inside). Associations are when you can imagine a landscape. Film music is a good example – a Western - you don’t have to be watching the film to know which bits of music are for the train, for riders on horses, for the great wide spaces.

Every musician interprets music differently, so the piece must awaken the same feelings in others. Character is important because it reflects feelings.

“Music is, from the beginning, the search for commonality with others.”

Man needs comparisons to find the mean.

Something really has to be happening in the music, for example it is loud, shattering. (Gestures outwards with first) I have to be able to imagine something, empathise with the reason why the composer wrote the piece, for example, because of an experience, for money, and how the composer felt.

I feel better, it improves my feeling of self worth. It lifts up the inner being (lifts hands , raises body). I don’t come out as the same man I went in.

Through listening to a piece of music you can be transported back to a past time to feel how people felt back then, share their sentiments with them, know how they were thinking and feeling about things.

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Experiential Array

Reinhard 1.

2.

3. 4.

Primary Operation

5. 6.

7.

1. 2. 3. 4. Secondary Operation

Peter

Be in a state of readiness, of emptiness. A moment of peace beforehand. Are there phrases which move me? (swallows hard). I move into the music (shoulders move upward). It’s a trance. It takes me to a quiet place. A rhythmic upward movement as I go into the sound with the movement of my body. Imagine picture, then play. Play by thinking oneself into the picture in order to satisfy the picture. If I know the text, I may use that to get into the piece. The score gives a lot of clues: syncopation, swing etc I’m in a light and easy mood. Sad pieces, I feel my way in. If I see pictures, colour, I see them wrap-around out of my eyes. The picture can change, disappear giving way to a feeling, perhaps a space. Sometimes I have pictures then the feeling. The optimum state is to have the feeling and forget about the pictures.

1.

Play the notes as they are written. Use a scheme and count the notes. Look at the movement in the notation, the way the notes move in waves. Then reflect: does what I am playing sound good (brilliant trumpet, but is this a flute solo?)

1.

2. 3. 4.

Look at the whole piece, form a picture, go over it until the point of access is found. Look for the character of the piece, understand the intention of the composer. Does it move me? Is it true? Does the circle close? I have to play it through.

Heribert 1.

2. 3. 4.

5.

2.

3.

Is the essence of the piece in the rhythm, in the melody or in the harmony? Each piece is individual like that. Look at the line, the up and down movement, the musical forms, the wave within the music. Try to hear the sounds, form sound-pictures for simple pieces. (Pictures, landscapes, come later). Sound-pictures are pictures of character like a person’s character – light and dark – light and dark as a visual quality not a tonal quality.

1.

2.

3. 4. 5.

Look at the piece of music; study the image of the notation. Then compare it with other pieces I know in the archive in my head. Ask myself “is it My Music?” Does it move me? Do I get goose pimples? Does it create a picture in me? Does it match my ability. If so I’ll pick up the trumpet and begin to play. I’ll identify with the composer, go back into his thought.

In a very difficult piece I’ll start to blow it. If I can’t get through it I’ll look for a place to pause where someone else can take that high note. I play it, I play the instructions on the page. I’d rather not play it. Look at the overview to see whether it might sound bright. Look at who composed it. Wait until I was in a good state, trained up,

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Experiential Array

Reinhard

There can be light or dark character pictures Scherzo is an example – or other pictures.

Secondary Operation

Sustaining Emotion

Contributing Factors

Heribert practiced and on top form. Practice is the point of access. Play what you can play well.

To lay open the picture I have unintentionally and then look to see whether reactions have been provoked in others, to see whether they are quiet, reflective and whether the intention of the composer has been fulfilled in them. I am looking for emotionally-laden images which allow me to fall into the specific state of feeling, as for example, one can find comfort even in sad melodies. When I can just play without further instruction, when I feel good about my playing.

My interest in the composer and my eagerness to know more about a piece I heard on the radio, for example. Also just from a feeling I get. I will play various pieces and then just stop with one, it is a feeling of “true,” of becoming one with the music.

Something has to change, move, give me new insights. If nothing changes, you leave as you came.

A certain feeling which allows me to feel my way forward. This feeling can be caused by a scrap of a melody or a tone interval (hand gesture at side of head). The siren of the fire engine continues on in my mind to become a melody.

I like to sway to the music. I can get into the basic rhythm by just counting, by tapping my feet, which helps me move into the piece. Also it helps to observe the movements of others. Sometimes the position of my head, down when the piece is quiet or sad, up when it is brighter, more joyous. When I play drum rhythms I move my body in a rhythmic way. When I play for myself alone I might close my eyes and would have an open posture. It supports me when others are moving in the same way. I notice the commonality, the same musical wavelength, which very much helps me feel my way into the music. For quiet pieces it helps to have the right atmosphere, soft light, special spotlights, candles at Christmas.

There is no real observable behaviour. Again, the tone interval is enough. A perfect fifth for example. The perfect fifth is cosmic, spiritual and it shows the way to the future.

The world around me. It is different day to day. It could be a rainy day sets the whole thing off. You put on a piano piece in a minor key. You wouldn’t want to play that at a barbecue party in the summer. I am more active, excited about the whole thing. Others see that.

Signal Emotion

External Behaviour

Peter

Acoustics. If the room is “dry” I have to play faster. If the acoustics are good, I play slower.

Music can be used to access the past. Just as the scent of dandelions calls back a vivid picture of my rabbit hutch as a kid. If I have a new book, I’ll put on music from the period while I read. It helps me understand the material.

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Experiential Array

Reinhard 1.

Limiting Conditions 2.

Atonal (12 tone) music, awful pieces written by friends. If I can’t feel my way into it, I can’t listen to it. There is a piece written for two cellos to be played in two helicopters hovering next to each other…. Sometimes a piece is so aesthetically pleasing (e.g. Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt) there is nothing there, I do not see a picture, I don’t create a picture. I am there.

Peter 1. 2. 3.

If the piece is too “bulky” I will put it away for later Pop music has its place, it is clear about what it wants but there is no complexity If I were unable to play the piece through for myself, my feeling would be vague, not completely certain.

Heribert 1. 2. 3. 4.

If I have to do it. If it is no fun. If I don’t have any pictures. If the melody is not my music. If the music is dry, something someone composed on a Sunday afternoon because he had nothing better to do.

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Visit Summary

Reinhard

Peter

Heribert

Rapportful, easy to lead, mirrored position, open, relaxed, eager to cooperate. High, clear voice, extended neck, ectomorphic body type. Visual primary system in this context. Reinhard has distinct synesthesia. He sees the length of notes in colour and forms coloured groups. As a child he saw numbers in colour and, as he explains this, he slips from the number system into his colour system without noticing at first “ As a child nine was red and green was…” then catches himself and corrects “…six was green, seven yellow and five blue.” Hand gestures, palm in towards the chest when talking about feeling. Shrug of shoulders when talking about moving up into music.

Rapportful, open, attentive, cooperative. Also a little nervous. Endomorphic body type, thick set, short neck. Kinaesthetic primary system, in this context, deep voice, intonation often downward at the end of sentences. Keeps torso and shoulders very still in general.

Rapportful, relaxed, eager to cooperate, easy to pace and lead.. Mesomorphic body type. Even, melodic, voice in the middle register, even breathing from the mid-chest. Tempting to say that the auditory channel is the primary system in the context of the activity. This is not borne out by predicates, gestures, or eye movements which indicate a balanced use of V, A and K. Anecdotally, Heribert reports how he often uses the O channel to refresh memory images.

Hands often folded in lap. Raised facing inward to chest when talking about feeling. Fingers intertwine when “closing the circle” Fingers touch tip to tip. Passes right hand across eyes from top to bottom when he says “Look at sheet of music” When talking about an access point looks left and both hands gesture to left with rhythmic circular movement (like a rod driven wheel). When talking about the French composer who used colours instead of notes, with his left hand Peter touches below his left eye when he says ‘colour’ and then his left ear when he says ‘notes.’

Much up right (visual create) and down right (internal feeling). Secondary up left (visual recall). A check in dialogue revealed that Reinhard believes up-rightdown-right to be an eye movement he never makes, despite video evidence to the contrary.

Much up right while listening, then defocused middle before replying, then down left/up right movements while speaking. Movements down right tend to be very quick and follow from down left. Clear movements to left middle when reminded of what was just said. Clear movements down left when asked to verify what happened internally.

Heribert exhibits a wide range of gestures synchronised with his words. These range from hand gestures (pointing, rotating, parallel gesturing to onside or the other, finder movements, movements to or away from the chest, to the mouth, around the ear or back of the head – where the ‘archive’ is), gestures with the body (uplifts as he says ‘uplifting’), with the neck which stretches as he talks about images. The gestures can be easily calibrated to the channels he is using when he makes them as well as to locations in his body or in space to where the image, sense, feeling etc resides. Much up right, down right, middle unfocused. When explaining about a quartet he plays in: middle right while composing sentence, middle left immediately on beginning to explain with a look over left shoulder. Heribert underlines his eye access with body movements. “Something stored in the archive:” extreme look upwards, brows up right hand up above his head.

Behavioural Patterns

Physiology

Gestures

Eye Accessing cues

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Visit Summary

Predicates

Meta Model

Reinhard

Peter

Visual predicates: ‘look,’ ‘see,’ ‘imagine,’ ‘reflect,’ ‘mirror,’ ‘observe.’ Lack of auditory predicates Kinaesthetic predicates: ‘feel,’ ‘sense,’ ‘move,’ ‘get in mood,’ ‘sway,’ ‘tap’

Visual predicates ‘look,’ ‘see’ Lack of auditory predicates Kinaesthetic predicates: ‘feel,’ ‘touch,’ ‘move’

Frequent use of deletion (“it”). Mind reading on intention of composer. Complex equivalent of ‘Character.’

Complex equivalent of ‘access.’ Mind reading on intention of composer. Nominalisations: the world of emotions behind thought. The ‘truth’ of a piece of music

Heribert Visual predicates: ‘imagine,’ ‘clear,’ ‘see,’ ‘look,’ ‘present’ Kinaesthetic predicates: ‘play’ (hand moves), ‘hold up,’ ‘hold on,’ ‘comfy,’ ‘fits,’ ‘feels,’ ‘get a kick,’ ‘touch,’ ‘rummage,’ ‘uplift’ Auditory predicates: ‘hear,’ ‘sound’ Complex equivalent: “image/good”. Frequent deletions (‘it’, ‘that’). Mind reading on thoughts of composer. Create a picture in me = move me

Cognitive Patterns Strategy

See TOTE below, Motivation C-E and Enabling C-E

See TOTE below, Motivation C-E and Enabling C-E

See TOTE below, Motivation C-E and Enabling C-E

Panorama, colour, associated images

Movement in images. The movement is directly linked to the speed of the music. Slow down the movement, the melody slows until it becomes ‘wrong.’

See experiential array

Light and dark in sound-pictures. Is the chord of A minor light or dark? Dark. What happens if you turn the brightness up? It changes to C major. My favourite keys are A flat major and E flat major because they are warm. C major is bright, but cold. See experiential array

Confronted with a foiled primary operation, in the secondary operation Reinhard chunks down to segments of the piece of music he calls phrases. A phrase is either a sequence of notes and notation familiar to him or easily accessible to him (i.e. can be broken down mechanically, using a scheme such as counting) in both cases it is distinguished by clear phrasing marks. He is orientated towards aesthetics and away from pieces he considers lacking in character. His frame of reference firstly is internal (I have to reflect and think whether what I am playing sounds good) but then external (I look to see whether the feelings I am

In the secondary operation Peter chunks down from the overall picture to mechanical, smaller pieces: harmony, rhythm and melody –because “each piece is individual like that.” The essence of the piece can thus be elicited. Peter demonstrates the double pattern of sameness with difference and exception in his enabling criterion. He makes, for example, the comparison between the Moonlight Sonata and the Ballade pour Adelaine (R. Kleidermann) emphasising that there are phrases in the latter which are simply expressed better in the Moonlight Sonata underlining that while it is about sameness and difference what he is expressing is really innovation, something new. In this context, Peter’s frame of reference is internal. His feeling tells him if

When familiarising himself with music (or with a book) Heribert chunks down on information, wants to know whether the composer wrote the piece for fun or money, in what room he wrote, out of what sentiment. He’ll go and get a book on Oregon and study the detail of the landscape in the photos. He is motivated towards feeling better, improving self worth, having fun whereby his feedback is internal. If nothing changes inside you, you leave as you came. External feedback when playing in a quartet (Barebell’s Canon) because all play well together, though each has his own images. Anecdote about the old folks’ home: you can see in their faces what images they

Critical Sub Modalities

See experiential array

Criteria and Beliefs

Meta Programmes

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Visit Summary

Reinhard

feeling have been provoked in others). Reinhard will chunk up from the phrase in the piece of music to the title of the piece to see whether the composer has left a clue there (e.g. Die Moldau – a piece about the Czech River which evokes images of Meta rolling landscapes). Reinhard Programmes is primarily interested in people as evinced from his choices of hobby (playing with others in an orchestra, his voluntary work in an old folks’ home, his voluntary work with children’s groups and his voluntary work with the church). Macro Modelling Spiritual: “Music is, from the beginning, the search for commonality with others”

Neurological Levels

Time Frames

Perceptual Positions

Associated position with sad pieces such as The Death of a Comrade. Puts himself into the position of a person with a comrade-at-arms dying at his feet. Second position on others around him, swaying or moving to the music. Strong second position (and mind read) on intention of composer.

Peter

Heribert

the music is true, if the circle closes. In his sustaining emotion, Peter is orientated towards knowing more about a particular composer, towards knowing more about a particular piece; towards a feeling which he finds by trial and error. Oriented towards process, rather than option. This in itself is a TOTE: the general orientation is towards, but at each program step, if the result is “error” (no, NOT that one) the next loop commences after an away from reaction. Peter is primarily interested in people. He is a teacher. He enjoys family and having people around him.

are having, see the old lady whose son is a professional trumpeter and know she is thinking of him. Heribert is interested in people, what they think and feel, what they experienced, how they lived, in accessing those experiences. In the context of music his relationship sort is sameness with exception – everyone playing the same piece, each with his or her images or feelings; he’ll search his mental archive for a similar piece.

Belief: Music is the logic of the irrational Identity: One is born a musician. Capability: One can awaken dormant musical talent. Spiritual: Everyone should have a chance. Certain tone intervals, for example, the perfect fifth, are intensely spiritual

Spiritual: music can transport you back to the past to share the feelings and thoughts of other people, we are all the same. Identity: My feeling of self worth. Belief/values: Is it music that comes from inside? Capability: Maurice Andrea as role model “I want to be able to do that.” Environment: using the sense of smell to travel in time; allowing the weather to determine the music.

The perfect fifth shows the way into the future

“I like to go back and refresh my pictures from the past.”

First position only. Deliberate questioning and examples did not elicit other positions within the context of the capability

Runs a movie on pieces such as Oregon big pictures, landscape, dust, movement, horses, coaches off to right. Puts himself into position of people who played marches, marched through dust and dirt to sound of drums. Imagines himself in context, as if he were the musician or the composer, riding through the canyon, seeing it as the composer saw it. Strong second position on how a composer thought and lived, which room he wrote in, what his life was like. Example of Mozart after father’s death.

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Outcome Each of the three exemplars knows he has achieved his outcome when there is a specific change, when a threshold has been reached: Heribert is uplifted and receives a kick. Reinhard has a specific feeling, a space. Peter feels that the music is true, the circle closes, the beginning is the end. Additionally Heribert becomes strongly associated in a strong second position. This is expressed though movement. Heribert and Reinhard are strongly associated in a strong second position on the intention and (in addition Heribert and Peter on the) biography of the composer. For Peter time gets switched off and for Reinhard there is a quiet place as the music takes them along. All exemplars have strong feelings about what matters. Try it on After eliciting the experiential array, the three exemplars were each associated into their strategies in the present by giving them a context (a piece of sheet music) where they could demonstrate their strategies immediately: Try it on5

Reinhard

Peter

Heribert

Reinhard takes the sheet music, begins to read, moves his head and begins to sway. I asked him exactly what he was doing. He tries to form an overall picture of the piece, imagining the rhythm and the melody, but does not quite get the whole melody. He finds the movement up and down in the piece. He pays particular attention to the phrasing marks, then looks to see how fast the piece should be played. He is pleased to verify that it was “allegro.” This substantiates his own feeling. The piece is amusing. Reinhard says: “I had a feeling of amusement, no real pictures. It is a brief melody which sounds ‘fresh.’ The character I found is a happy character. In the middle it gets a bit solemn and then it livens up.” Reinhard starts with the rhythm. The rhythm causes the feeling of amusement or happiness. Then he checks back to the title (Scherzo)

Peter takes the sheet music, begins to read. He remains still. I asked him to tell me exactly what he had done. He first forms an overall picture of the piece, and then looks more closely at the movement up and down in the piece, then at the key, at the speed, and lastly at the title (Scherzo). He begins to la the leap of the music to underline deletions in his sentence while stating: “I sort of have (gestures right hand to right ear) the sound a bit, not concretely, but a bit. He also comments that I should have concealed the composer’s name (Hummel) since this gave him a clue to the character of the music score (actually, the object of the exercise, of course). “I know,” he says, pointing at his chest, “From the name of the composer. Actually, one should not do that. But a certain classification,” chops with his right hand at 90° to his chest, “Is already there.” “It was the first glance,” he says as he stabs with his right index finger on the musical score adding that it would be similar to the early

Heribert’s reading of the sheet music was prefaced by an anecdote and finished with another anecdote. The first anecdote concerned the origin of the sheet music we used. It was a French piece Duo mélodique which Heribert had had in a folder for some time he had never had time to read through or play this piece, since it was one of many. It was given to him by a French colleague from the town with which Nierstein is twinned, Gevry-Chambertin. Heribert had very much enjoyed playing music with this colleague and had had lots of fun. Heribert takes the sheet music and begins to read. He swallows hard, remains still until he has read through to the end. I asked him exactly what he had done. He forms a picture. He begins to explain through the piece, underlining his words with hand gestures. “It is a quietly flowing piece,” he says, “And it goes quite

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Try it on

Reinhard

Peter

Heribert

and finds it fits. He says: “Around bar 59 I thought about pictures. (MF: At bar 59 there is a change for a couple of bars. Two of the instruments repeat single ¼ notes while the third goes and explores a brief melody in very low notes, melancholy in character) Before that I worked with the mechanical rhythm. Then I looked to see what the composer had called the piece. It’s the 1/16ths very controlled, up and down and up and down, very symmetrical, very harmonic. Otherwise I’d not have recognised the character. There is movement in the piece.”

Mozart, but of course, still different. “A merry little piece,” says Peter, “Joyful, relaxed, polyphonic lines. Then I must…” gestures with right hand as if playing a piano chord.

high, it will need a good address to the mouthpiece. The piece moves quietly. It will be fun to play. It is a demanding piece, the composer has thought about what he was doing.” When I ask him how he knows he replies: “I can see how it will sound.” He elaborates on visiting his mental archive: “It could be like that piece ‘outside’ [his head] that I played with him or him.” When he tells me about his mental archive, his right hand goes to the back right of his head. When he talks about comparisons with other pieces of music, his right hand goes to the height of his left ear above his left shoulder. He can hear the piece, hear the melody. He can strongly imagine playing the piece in church or at a wedding or where people congregate. He bounces up and down a little nodding his head slightly: “It’s the sound-picture, harmony, melody, interchange of the two voices. I could get a kick out of playing it with a friend.” Heribert closes with an anecdote concerning a concert he gave during Advent at an Old Folks’ home. He says that there were lots and lots of images, he got a kick out of it, it was uplifting. The pictures allowed him to get into the old people who were listening, allowed him to share their images, put himself into their shoes, to see they are having images they haven’t had for a long, long time. You can know that from their faces, from how they look.

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Remarks on some neurological levels For all exemplars, the first step in the process is to gain a picture or form an image of the music. Reinhard and Peter then look at the movement up and down in the piece. Both of them have some difficulty in “hearing” what they have read; both can more or less make out some phrases, enough to compare with other pieces. Heribert can “hear” the whole melody without difficulty. Heribert is closest to his stated primary operation. Heribert has prefaced and post scripted his “try it on” exercise with anecdotes. The name of the composer does not appear on the notation of Duo mélodique. He does not (yet) know this as he prefaces his read with the moving story of his French acquaintance and their musical excursions – the only language they have in common. The biographic details become drawn into his analysis of the piece, into the warp and weft. Instead of hearing about what the composer felt and in what room he was, I hear the details of the musical adventures of Heribert and his French colleague. There is a substitution, but the principle remains: there is a strong sense of “who else” which is underlined by the anecdote of the Old Folks’ Home. Reinhard similarly reaches into a spiritual neurological level which Peter attains by means of attention to tone intervals. Minimum Set of Conditions for the Strategy to be effective6 Each exemplar has a well-defined representation of the outcome and exits the TOTE with a satisfied criterion. The sequence of the steps differs somewhat from exemplar to exemplar; there are key similarities. Reinhard plays the alto saxophone (E flat) and the clarinet (B flat) (as well as many other instruments). The phrasing and the speed are important to him because they indicate the technical difficulty. Peter plays the piano. The key and the speed are important indicators of difficulty to him. Heribert plays the trumpet (B flat). The high notes - he is concerned about the high ‘A’ – are an important indicator of difficulty to him. Speed does not concern him – the faster the better7. All exemplars are using V, A, and K channels by forming pictures or images of the notation (Vd), by hearing the melody (Ait) and by feeling the movement (Kic)8 up and down in the piece. All exemplars are using comparison. Reinhard references the title; Peter references the title and the composer and his knowledge of the period; Heribert compares the piece to other pieces he knows. This is important because the comparisons serve as external checks, empirical points of verification. Loops inside the TOTE can be exited: Peter can exit as soon as he knows the composer (though this is somewhat of a mind read: occasionally composers do go outside their usual style). Heribert can exit (= it will be fun) as soon as he can “see how the music will sound.” Reinhard can exit if the rhythm leads him to the character of the piece9. Let us take a look now at the TOTE:

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TOTE Test

Reinhard Criterion Character

My Music

Form a picture of the notation (check who composed it and exit if you ‘know’ you’ll have access) Assess the movement

Form a picture of the notation (exit if you can see how it will sound and the criterion is fulfilled) Assess the movement

Read or assess the key

Assess the technical difficulty.

Assess and verify the speed

Chunk down to melody and harmony

Read the title

Read the title

Hear the melody

Assess the movement

Hear the melody

Compare with other pieces

Step 1

Step 3 Step 4

Operate

Step 5 Step 6

Chunk down to imagine melody and rhythm Work with the rhythm and exit if character is given Hear the melody

Read the phrasing

Form a picture of a context in which to play

Step 7 Step 8

Heribert

Access

Form a picture of the notation

Step 2

Peter

Assess and verify the speed Form a picture

Step 9 Test

Exit because criterion satisfied (character apparent)

Exit because criterion satisfied (access apparent) Enter next TOTE – play the piece

Exit because criterion satisfied (my music apparent)

The logical sequence of the activity commences in the TOTE from the initial contact with the notation. In each case, there is a TOTE within a TOTE. However, these subroutines are dependent on different criteria than the ones elicited here and may be associated with an intersecting set of skills or knowledge: in the case of Peter it may be associated with his extensive knowledge of musical history and scores. In the case of Reinhard it may be associated with his ability to move into the trance state by means of rhythm alone as evidenced by his work with African drumming. In the case of Heribert it may be associated with his ability to transport himself into other times

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and contexts by means of biographical details, picture books, music from a specific period etc10. The steps inside the TOTE do not yield a logical sequence in the sense of strict logical entailment; they yield a neurological, or wet logic continuum11. If we were to extend the strategy beyond the TOTE, it would be enriched, for example, by much of the reasoning and learning from the primary and secondary operations as well as by the limiting conditions. However such an extension would not yield the least number of steps in the same way that the TOTE efficiently executes this requirement, though the primary and secondary operations, as well as the limiting conditions, contain information which may be of use in implementing the strategy The strategy must be teachable. Proposal for Implementing the strategy State preparation Be in a state of readiness, of emptiness, of not-knowing, linking the state to an observable sense of excitement or anticipation. Recall a time in your past where you experienced such a state. Anchor it by a word or a sound, a touch or a memory, a scent or an image. Then think of something that matters to you, that moves you, that gives you goose pimples. Anchor it by a word or a sound, a touch or a memory, a scent or an image. Strategy 1. In the appropriate state, take the notation in your hand and study it. You may want to ask yourself: “What is the character of this music, how do I access it, is it my music?” 2. Form an overall picture, an image, of the notation 3. Take in all the information given you including a. Notation (all markings) b. Movement of notes up and down, waves, etc c. Length of notes and any patterns d. Composer e. Title f. Period when written g. Comparison with other pieces you may know 4. Find an access point, a point where you know, or have a sense of how a phrase or a bar might sound or feel. Chunk down to rhythm, melody or harmony, if necessary, and move to the rhythm if you can feel it. 5. Using the access point and the information derived in steps 1-4 form an image or an association which is meaningful to you – test: it feels right 6. Revisit the overall picture 7. Repeat steps 3-6 until you have the feel or the character of the music and can “hear” the melody or at least some parts of the melody. 8. Check congruence 9. Give it a name, and anchor it.

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It would be feasible to chain the anchors on the wrist, elbow and shoulder. The following table summarizes the core strategy in terms of Strategy Notation12: TOTES

VAKOG

Test

Ai or Ae

Operation 1

Vc

Operation 2

Ve and Ve / Vr

If (Aic or Ai) or Ki then exit to operation 4 Operation 3 (sub TOTE)

Else (xor) Ve (visual chunkdown on score) and if Ki(rhythm) then Ke(move your body) and exit to operation 4 Vc then Km / Ki = K+

Operation 4 (sub TOTE)

Operation 5

Operation 6

Vc, or to be more precise, Vcr, that is, visual constructed image, remembered If ((Ki and Ai ) Then exit to next operation (i.e.Test)

(sub TOTE)

Else (xor)

Test, Exit

Repeat Operation 6 If (Km / ΣKi = K+) then exit and anchor (i.e. if your feelings about the previous metastep – being the result /sum of all the previous steps – compared with the sum of your feelings is a positive feeling)

Operation Description A question, internal or external: “What is the character of this music, how do I access it, is it my music?” about which you are congruent in the appropriate state Form an overall picture, an image, of the notation Take in all the information given you including notation (all markings), movement of notes up and down (waves etc.), length of notes and any patterns, composer, title, period when written, comparison with other pieces you may know Find an access point, a point where you know, or have a sense of how a phrase or a bar might sound or feel. Chunk down to rhythm, melody or harmony, if necessary, and move to the rhythm if you can feel it. Form an image or an association which is meaningful to you using the access point and the information derived from previous operations including the test. Test: it feels right (uplifting, happy, merry, sad etc) Revisit the overall picture Repeat operation 1-5 until you have the feel or the character of the music and can “hear” the melody or at least some parts of the melody. Check state / congruence

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The strategy can stand on its own and may be tested with someone who has a degree of musical knowledge, for example, someone who is able to read musical notation and has some ability with an instrument or with the voice. The outcome will be an understanding of the “character” of the piece. The strategy can also be used to prepare oneself before sitting down to play an unfamiliar piece of music. In this case the outcome will be a better understanding of the “character” of the piece, but also an improved ability13 to express the piece as the composer meant it to be played – and more fun! A Little Bonus Gesture While it is not central to the strategy, both Heribert and Peter have a nice gesture I am going to call the “90° chop.” It is simple to learn. So, if you are right handed (reverse, if not): 1. Make a loose fist of your right hand and hold it, knuckles out, to your chest at the level of the solar plexus, 2. Turn your hand 90° (see!) so that the knuckles are facing upwards and your thumb is facing to your solar plexus. 3. Now rotate your lower arm out about 30° twice, in quick succession returning each time to your chest, saying “powerful” the first time and “stuff” the second.

Now, how do you feel?

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Footnotes: 1

Cf Joseph O’Connor: “Listening Skills in Music,” Lambent 1989, and Joseph O’Connor, Not Pulling Strings, Lambent 1987 2 Grinder claims that unconscious uptake of the patterning of the model (refusing so-called f² filters) is essential to secure deep, tacit knowledge of the patterning. Cf John Grinder & Carmen Bostic St.Clair: Whispering in the Wind, J&C Enterprises, 2001, p. 349ff 3 At the same time I was conscious that the “dosage” of the techniques is critical for the interviewer to get right. It is possible, as the interviewer collects information on the exemplar and as the interviewer paces the cognitive maps and experience of the exemplar’s world, to elicit, through the use of specific language patterns, responses in the exemplar that the interviewer desires to hear from the exemplar and the exemplar will comply with rather than break rapport because s/he is being led. Cf .Donald Moine: A psycholinguistic study of the patterns of persuasion used by successful salespeople, 1981. 4 The videotape also enabled me to capture nuances in the phase of “trying it on.” and to identify and refine what is core to the ability. The language of the interviews was German. It was particularly interesting to me to experience how the various NLP models and tools transcend the vocabulary and syntax of a specific (indo-Germanic) language. 5 Eye accessing cues are limited during this “try it on” since the score/notation is being read and left to right movements of the eyes are (also) caused by the layout of the score 6 Cf Joseph O’Connor, NLP Workbook, Thorsons, 2001, pp. 123-124 7 I am going to bracket out the technical difficulty here since it is part of a different TOTE 8 The NLP strategy notation used here comes from O’Connor, op. cit p. 122 9 It is possible that steps 2 and 3 for Reinhard are expanded parts of step 1 and that chunking down even more inside step 1 for Peter and for Heribert would reveal a similar sub-structure as a sub-TOTE. For reasons of simplicity I have not pursued the sub-routine. It would be interesting to compare the sub-routine in a wider sample. Reinhard’s step 6 is arguably part of his step 2. 10 When I asked Heribert to summarise what he would do if he were in my position and were to build a model he said: “Get informed about the piece before ever you hear it. Who wrote it and how, on what occasion, for what occasion, in what room did he write it, was it a simple room or was it a palace? Get informed about the composer, how did he interface with others? Then you’ll have more fun playing the piece. Try to see the world through the composer’s eyes.” 11 Dry logic would be the logic of circuits, mathematics and classical symbolic logic. Wet logic would be the logic of so-called neurological systems. 12 The NLP strategy notation used here comes from Joseph O’Connor, NLP Workbook, Thorsons, 2001, p. 122. I make no secret that I am sceptical of this notation – at best it is but an impoverished representation of the operation; at worst it is a mystification. Standard NLP notation is not rich enough to express the operations or the logic behind the present strategy. In the following alternative steps I am amending the notation by the sensory system “M” Many Asiatic languages, for example, posit that humans do not have five, but six senses, the sixth being mental operations, hence the “M.” Then what is written in superscript quantifies over the operation:

If (Aic or Ai) or Ki then exit to operation 4 Operation 3 (sub TOTE)

else (xor) Mchunkdown and if Ki(rhythm) then Ke(move your body) and exit to operation 4

Operation 4 (sub TOTE)

Vc then Km / Ki = K+ [Or Associationc, designated as a variable, ‘a’, such that: (∃x)((Fxa and Gxa) and x = you)) i.e. if there is something which forms a meaningful relationship (F) to ‘a’ and ‘a’ feels right (G) to x and x is identical with you]

Find an access point, a point where you know, or have a sense of how a phrase or a bar might sound or feel. Chunk down to rhythm, melody or harmony, if necessary, and move to the rhythm if you can feel it. Using the access point and the information derived from previous operations including the test, form an image or an association which is meaningful to you Test: it feels right (uplifting, happy, merry, sad etc)

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Footnnote 12 continued:

Operation 6 (sub TOTE)

If ((Ki or Mcharacter ) and Ai ) Then exit to next operation (i.e.Test) Else (xor) Repeat Operation 6

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Repeat operation 1-5 until you have the feel or the character of the music and can “hear” the melody or at least some parts of the melody.

In comparison with what the ability would have been if the exercise had not been carried out.

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