The Tuning Slide: 3.11- Inner Game- Self One and Self Two

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

First, a welcome to any new readers of this, especially those of you who were introduced to The Tuning Slide at this year’s Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop. This is the third year of this blog. The first two years are available in a book, The Tuning Slide: Reflections on Life and Music. This year I will continue to develop the ideas and reflections that formed the foundation for the first two years while going deeper and broader on the ideas.

Where did the title come from? Well, as both a musician and a counselor/therapist my interest has always been in unifying life and keeping from compartmentalizing things. As I have said a number of times- and will say many time because it is essential- how we do anything is how we do everything. Here is how I describe the tuning slide idea:

On a trumpet, the tuning slide is the curved “C”-shaped tube at the opposite end of the lead pipe from the mouthpiece. (To the right in the trumpet above.) The slide is to be used to bring the trumpet into tune with the other instruments.
When your instrument is in tune:
• The music flows much more smoothly.
• You tend to get into sync with the other musicians.
• You don’t get as tired while playing since you are not constantly trying to “lip” the notes into tune.

When your life is in tune:
• Your days flow much more smoothly.
• You tend to get into sync with others and the world around you.
• You don’t get as tired as you can go with the flow and not be constantly fighting or reacting.

In short, the tuning slide keeps us moving more smoothly in the right direction. That is what I hope comes from this website, the blog posts and my other writings- ways that even non-trumpet players and non-musicians can discover how to keep life more “in tune.”

Life is not logic. Life is not philosophy.
Life is a dance, a song, a celebration.
It is more like love and less like logic.
-Osho Rajneesh

One thing I am going to try this year is to do a month of posts on a topic, looking at different aspects of it. I will be using the ideas from Trumpet Workshop to do that. This month, then, I want to talk about one of the fundamentals of what I have been learning and experiencing over the past two years. It is “easy” to get caught in the “technical” trap of techniques, methods, and “how-to” ideas. I have spent (okay- I still spend) hours and hours surfing the Internet for the latest techniques that will improve my playing and style. A quick Google search of “How do I…..?” will yield thousands of potential web pages and You Tube videos. Each one can give you the impression that they have THE answer you have been looking for.

This is my “Self One” hard at work. Self one works hard. Sometimes too hard. Self one wants to learn the tricks that will make my playing perfect. It is terrified of failure. It has often been the inner critic of my writings, the stubborn listener to my lectures, the unsatisfied musical connoisseur of my playing. It is always sitting on the edge of its seat to jump on something wrong. It is always tense and restless.

Then there’s “Self Two” sitting on the sidelines telling Self one, “Cool your jets, man. We know what we’re doing- if only you’d shut up once in a while and let us do it!” (Self one insists that I add a disclaimer- what I have just written in these two paragraphs is a gross oversimplification and exaggeration. For more in-depth stuff, go to the right sidebar and click the “Inner Game” category to get all the posts from the past two years on the topic. There, I hope I have taken care of him for the rest of this post.)

One of the goals of learning about this is to get the two “selfs” to work together in harmony and acceptance. There are three basic Inner Game skills that must come into balance.

• Awareness- simple awareness, without judgement, that fosters natural learning.
• Will- it can be described as the direction and intensity of our intentions. It sets the goals, keeps us on course, works through trial and error to keep us on course.
• Trust- Trust allows the simple awareness to take place without self-criticism, it lets you go through trial and error without giving up, and it lets you be open to tapping your inner resources to perform your best.

These three then help us achieve what Barry Green and Timothy Gallwey call the “master skill”- relaxed concentration. (Inner Game of Music, p. 28-29)

What does this mean in practice? How can we turn this into reality? Here are some ideas related to the skill of “awareness” that can help us on a regular basis.

Awareness: In order to know what’s happening or not, we need to be able to focus. Awareness is the ability to discover those things and then plan on them. Sometimes, the Inner Game tells us, just being aware is enough. Instead of focusing, say, on the fact that “I just can’t get that right!” focus on when and how you get caught by it. Pay attention to what you are doing, non-judgmenally, and that will begin to shift your attention to solutions instead of problems. Green says that helps something different to happen. “[W]e listen more closely, and this gives our body clues which allow it to adjust at a level below our conscious awareness, without physical or mental interference.” (Green, p. 46)

The other part of this is that awareness moves us from “trying” to playing. Green notes, “When we are trying, our awareness is taken away from the music and focused on our ‘running commentary.’ It turns out that it’s very difficult to focus on both at the same time.”

I have been working on a difficult passage in one of our big band numbers. Too many accidentals, too fast a tempo, unusually difficult fingering changes. (So says Self One.) I have done all the usual tricks- metronome, slow practice, breaking it into bites. Nothing has worked over the past couple years. Self one is way too involved. So I listened to a recording of our group playing it and discovered which part seems to be the one that is throwing me off. I then played it with some attention and awareness. Much to my surprise it was not the section with the accidentals and fingering that tripped up the sound. It was what happens right after that. That has given me a different focus and direction. I’m still not Self Two comfortable with it, but I am not as bummed by it.

Non-judgmental awareness moves us into a place where we aren’t fighting what’s happening, analyzing it, trying to “fix” it. We are simply letting it be, which in the end gives us helpful and positive feedback. Acceptance is part of what awareness can lead us into. “It is what it is” can be difficult mantra or a movement into aware acceptance. After becoming aware we then just allow it to be. There are many other things that can better utilize your focus- how the music sounds, for example, or the rhythm. If the problem is the one you are trying to fix, don’t focus on it. Focus on other things to help make the music more musical.

Next week I will look at the other two basic skills of the Inner Game- will and trust. For this week be aware and accepting. Don’t try so hard- just let the music be itself. The result can be a more relaxed attitude which will then allow Self Two to do its thing.

Oh- and try this with things other than music. Be aware of what is happening around you. Notice what is working and how it helps on a daily basis. It does not mean ignore problems, but interestingly enough the more you focus on them, the bigger they become and the less likely we are to find a solution. Shift your focus, discover what is right, and chances are that somewhere in what is going right is part of the answer you have been looking for.