And hopefully, if you’ve been following this series, you can imagine phrases that aren’t confined to the tonic key.

That was the purpose of this series on playing outside. To stretch your ear and technique beyond conventional tonality. I hope you’ve enjoyed the exercise.

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 15

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 14

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 13

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 12

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 11

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 10

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 9

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 8

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 7

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 6

So think of these patterns as tools to increase your musical vocabulary, improve and challenge your ear, and to practice technical peak performance.

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 5

The rewarding function of this pattern is that you can use it as a preparation to go deeper into the transposed key. While the pattern drops back down to the original key at the beginning of each bar, in a practical application, you can remain in the transposed key. So it can be used as a fresh twist in your solos because you’re beginning to play outside the original key on beat 4, which will provide tension not only tonally, but with the meter as well.



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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 4

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 3

Last time, we simply took a four-note pattern and transposed it up a half step for the second half of the bar. This time, we’re using a full eight-note pattern and transposing only the fifth and sixth notes up a half-step.



The purpose of this pattern is to make you comfortable switching between modes for just one beat. Some of the sequences will be easier for you than others. Just practice slowly until you can play it in all keys at a fast speed and wrap your head around what you’re playing in real time.

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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 2

This series of patterns is designed to make you comfortable switching between two modes a half-step apart. We’ll start simple and get more complex as we go.

This particular four-note pattern changes modes every two beats. Obviously, you would want to practice this in all keys.



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Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 1

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Ear training has often been half-jokingly, half-seriously referred to as “ear straining.” And I can understand why if it’s something that you feel forced to do, like doing sit ups. Why can’t washboard abs just come with the package?

But a listening practice isn’t something you have to motivate yourself to do every morning. It’s something you get to do all the time. It’s the equivalent of eating whatever you want, whenever you want… without gaining weight!

Your ears are always on. All you have to do is start paying attention. The world is filled with sounds for you to soak up. Your musical ears are hungry for stimulation. It’s time to give them what they want.

Here’s just a few things you can do to begin your listening practice.

First, just start listening unconditionally. We all daydream, so make these times of subconscious wandering into conscious sound expeditions. You’ll be amazed at all the different rhythms, counterpoints, and natural symphonies you will hear. If you can, close your eyes and just listen to the world around you and inside of you.

Second, think on media. Keep a few things with you at all times: music manuscript and a pen, a recording device, and a tuning fork of some kind. When you hear a note, figure out what it is. Teach yourself. Write a scale or a pattern and imagine what they sound like as you write them. Record rhythms and intervals and whatever else inspires you in the moment. Take a recess into the playground of sound. It will be fun and you’ll learn new things and reinforce what you already know.

Start a sound catalog. In a sound journal, begin to catalog all the different sounds and textures you hear. This will increase your “aural intelligence.” People who live bland lives have about a dozen different words that they use to describe their daily emotions. If you only have a dozen different words to describe what you hear, then it’s no wonder your musicianship is straining. But if you have a rich database of descriptive words in your musical vocabulary, then your experience of sound will be rich and abundant. Grab a thesaurus and your favorite album and have some fun.

Stop for a moment and think about these two musicians. One musician trains their ear for 15 minutes every day or so. The other musician actively listens all the time. Which is a better musician?

Answer: The musician with more aural experience. Go get some!

Start with a single note or single word

Play a single random note and just listen to your imagination. Does a second note enter the picture? Does a chord or harmony enter the picture? If so, then add what you hear to the mix and keep listening like that. Don’t think about it or edit what you hear in your mind, just dictate.

If you don’t hear anything in your imagination, then force it. Play a single interval up or down. Does that spark another idea? If so, then dictate. If not, play a different interval. If after a number of tries your imagination doesn’t take over, then force it even more. Play a pattern or a sequence that you are familiar with and build a melody around that.

The important thing to remember here is that your melody is not going to be perfect. It’s just a first pass. You can edit after you have 32 bars or so of material to work with. The point is you can’t have a melody to edit if you don’t start writing one.

You can apply the same technique to lyric writing. Write a single word. Use a random word generator or just pick a word from a book. What does your imagination tell you to write next? If nothing comes to you (which would mean that you really just aren’t paying attention) force it by just making stuff up. Rhyme comes later. Prosody comes later. Form comes later. Same as with music, you can’t edit a lyric until you have a lot of lyrics to edit.

An exercise like this should open your mind to the constant stream of ideas that is always occurring beneath the surface of your conscious mind. Just practice opening the aperture until you always have music and lyrics to write.

What’s interesting, is that everybody codes time differently. Even though there may be similarities between two individual’s time lines, the experience is still highly subjective. That being said, there seem to be structural components that are universal. After all, a time line is not only something that occurs in time, but occurs in space. And we all occupy space and time. Therefore, we can say that time is experienced as distance.

Let’s take a look at a calendar. It codes time from left to right and top to bottom. We move through the hours of the day and days of the week and month just like we read a book… if we’re Westerners. What if there was another way to represent time in a calendar? What if you literally had to turn around to see your past and look down to see your present and look forward to see your future? Many people code time in their minds this way.

Let’s take a look at two major structures of time lines.

Through Time: Left to right. A through time line is outside of your body and usually in front of you. It often has the past on one side of your body and the future on the other side. This time line has many pros. You can see at a glance where you’ve been, where you’re going, and where you are right now. One major con of this time line is that sometimes it gives you more information than you need, information overload. Calendars use this time line. A though time line can also be experienced from right to left.

In Time: Back to front. In time lines pass through your body. Often, the past will be behind you and the future will be in front of you. People with an in time line are associated to the “now.” The major pro of this time line is that you tend to be focused in the present moment. You’re not paying much attention to the future or the past. This time line is perfect for peak performance states. The cons of this time line is that you can easily lose track of the big picture, where you’re going and where you’ve been.

It’s important to understand that time lines are choices, although many people tend to use one predominantly. If you haven’t discovered your own time line, then it has been an unconscious choice. The point of the following exercise is to uncover your time line and give you a conscious choice of which time line to use and when.

For example, when you’re planning or doing vision work, it may be useful to spend a couple of minutes “in time” to relax and get into a confident state of being present. Then, as you plan, move your time line to a more accessible “through time line.” Of course, your software may do this for you. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that your personal time line is flexible enough to follow the lay out. I believe this is why some people have such “a hard time” warming up to the idea of setting goals or making plans. Their habitual time line is extremely static and strongly reacts against the flexibility of using a different time line.

Eliciting Your Time Line

1. Choose Examples of Past/Present/Future
   Pick some trivial, everyday behavior that you have done in the past, you do now, and you’ll continue to do in the future. Examples: brushing teeth, eating breakfast, taking a shower. Think about doing this behavior five years ago, one year ago, one week ago, right now, one week in the future, one year in the future, five years in the future. Imagine all of this simultaneously.
2. Notice the Location
   Where in your personal space do you imagine each of these events? Next, get a sense of where the remainder of your time line is. Let the rest of your past, present, and future fill in where it belongs, making a continuous (but not usually straight) line from birth to the present.
3. Notice Your Other Submodality Codings for Time
   Notice the differences between past and future. Notice the submodality differences between recent past and long ago past (color, size, etc.). Do the same for your future. Check the “kinks” in your time line, or changes that gives one portion of your time line more or less visibility and impact.
4. Trade Time Lines
   First carefully notice your own time line arrangement so you can go back to it when you are done. Now “step in” to a different way of coding time, perhaps someone else’s. Notice how your state is different. Take this with you through several major contexts in your life, noticing what it is like. What does this time line arrangement make difficult for you? Are any of your beliefs automatically different with this new time line? “Try on” other people’s time lines to notice state, beliefs, advantages and disadvantages.

There is no ideal time line. Each way of coding time will have advantages and disadvantages. With a little experience you can predict them in the moment. Find your own best arrangement, and shift how you arrange time in different contexts.

Remember, when you do timeline work, it is important to make any changes with respect to your outcomes. Ask yourself what you want to achieve by changing your timeline. Having different ways of coding time in different contexts gives you more flexibility.

Recognizing that C and F is a perfect fourth is a cognitive exercise. You have to think about it. Maybe only for a split-second, but you still have to translate your physical experience, a verb, into a mental object, a noun.

The experience of C and F is a physical experience. It is a physical vibration traveling through the air and affecting your physical ear. You, who knows the sound of a perfect fourth, and a non-musician, who doesn’t know the name of what they are hearing, still hears the exact same physical vibration coming through the air. That means that the cognitive part of your ear training obviously separates you from the non-musician.

Many musicians only take it that far. They get stuck in their heads. I’m sure you know musicians who seem to know a lot but still don’t have “that feel.”

So naming intervals and understanding music theory is done with the mind while experiencing sound is accomplished by the body. Both are very important.

Take a look at the word emotion. It means, with motion. When we talk about our emotions, we say “I feel…” You feel things in your body. When you sing a tone, you feel the experience in your body. It’s real on the gross level. Whereas the mind experiences things on a more subtle level. If I punch you in the gut, you really feel it. If I insult you, you experience it in a different way. Sometimes that experience will have correlates in the body. So they’re intertwined. But if I punch you, your mind has no choice but to follow your body’s commands. You keel over. If I insult you, you have the choice of ignoring me and directing your mind elsewhere.

If you’re only working on the cognitive, or mind, aspect of ear training and music theory, you’re missing a large chunk of the experience of sound. Singing what you hear brings what you are learning into the body so that you can embody your knowledge of music. It’s not just a theory or skill anymore. It’s part of your identity.

Therefore, you can improve your musicianship by singing, and embodying, everything you learn. Here’s a couple of practical exercises to try.

• Reach out to your instrument and play any two or more tones. Then sing them from the bottom up or top down.
• When you hear sounds that you would like to emulate, try emulating them with your voice first.

Got any exercises of your own to share?

The Building Blocks of Experience

Today we’re stepping out of our boxes. We’re going to experience some things you wouldn’t think had anything to do with your self-concept. I’m going to make it abundantly clear just how important this information is to you. So let’s begin…

As human beings we have 5 major systems that our experience is filtered through. They are the visual sense, the auditory sense, the kinesthetic sense, the olfactory sense (sense of smell), and the gustatory sense (sense of taste). In NLP, we call these the “modalities” of experience. While we’re not necessarily limited to these five senses or modalities, in the realm of NLP, we’ll stick to these five. We can make even finer distinctions in these five modalities. For example, in the visual modality you can make distinctions such as brightness, size, magnification, color or black and white, location, distance, contrast and much more. We call these finer distinctions “submodalities“.

Let’s do an exploration exercise. Think of a pleasant experience that you’ve had. Select a submodality from the list below to experiment with. Now change that submodality from one extreme to the other to find out how that impacts your experience. For example, if the submodality is brightness, try varying the image from very bright to very dim, noticing what happens to your response as you do so. Notice particularly the following as you change the submodality: do any other submodalities automatically shift with it? Does your feeling change, in either quality or intensity? Ask yourself, “In what context might this submodality be useful?” Stop reading and do this exercise for about 5 minutes. Pick at least one submodality in the visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities. Do this now.

How might we use our submodalities to enhance our self-concept? We could try the submodality of location? Let’s try this. Close your eyes and imagine something you are certain of — something that’s a fact. For example, you will brush your teeth tomorrow. Now, notice where that image of you brushing your teeth is located. Is it front of you, is it more to the left or to the right, is it high or low? Or is it panoramic. Do this now.

Next, take the uncertainty of eating your favorite meal tomorrow and put it in the same location as the fact you used earlier. Do you notice that a different level of certainty is now associated with this goal? If you’re like most people, this future event has a new level of certainty.

Now try this with your self-concept. Pick a quality you would like to embody. Fill in the blank: I am _____. As you say this to yourself, where is it coming from? Where is it’s location? Is it from the location of certainty or uncertainty? Say it to yourself again. This time, imagine it coming from the same location that you defined as having a greater sense of certainty. How has your self-concept changed? Do this again an hour from now. Imagine it coming from the location of certainty and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

When you have more time, experiment with the different submodalities and take notes on how they affect your experience. You’ve just been given a greater palette of distinctions to guide you on your journey of self mastery.

Submodality Distinctions

Visual

Brightness, size, magnification, color/black and white, saturation (vividness), hue or color balance, shape, location, distance, contrast, clarity, focus, duration, movement (slide/movie), speed, direction of movement, 3-dimensional/flat, perspective or point of view, associated or dissociated, foreground/background (self/context), frequency or number (simultaneous and/or sequential) (split screen or multiple images), frame/panorama (lens angle), aspect ration (height to width), orientation (angle, tilt, spin, etc.), density (“graininess” or “pixels”), transparent/opaque, strobe, direction of lighting, symmetry, horizontal or vertical hold, digital (words), sparkle, bulge,…

Auditory

Pitch, tempo (speed), volume, rhythm, continuous or interrupted, timbre or tonality, digital, associated/dissociated, duration, location, distance, contrast (harmony/dissonance), figure/ground, clarity, number, symmetry, resonance with context, external/internal source, monaural/stereo, flow/continuity, dynamic range,…

Kinesthetic

Pressure, location extent, texture, temperature, movement, duration, intensity, shape, frequency (tempo), number,…

One useful way to subdivide kinesthetic sensations is the following:

• Tactile: the skin senses.
• Proprioceptive: the muscle senses and other internal sensations of posture, breathing movement, muscle tension, etc.
• Evaluative meta-feelings ABOUT other perceptions or representations, also called emotions, feelings, or visceral kinesthetics because they are usually represented in the abdomen and chest or along the mid-line of the torso. These feelings are not direct sensations/perceptions, but are evaluative representations derived from other sensations/perceptions.

Olfactory and Gustatory (Smell and Taste)

The terms used by psychophysics experimenters (sweet, sour, bitter, salt, burnt, aromatic, etc.) probably won’t do you much good. The fading in or out (changes in intensity and/or duration) of a particular taste or smell that are relevant in your experience may be quite useful, since odors and tastes are very powerful anchors for states.

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The following exercise is a Shaolin Kung Fu eye focus exercise. This exercise is designed to keep your eyes honed and sharp. I will teach it to you and then we will apply what you have learned to your ear focus. Read the instruction closely and do the exercise.

Stand fully extended and relaxed, hands at sides, facing forward.

Snap your head quickly to the right, turning a full 90 degrees, so that your chin is over your shoulder, and focus your eyes as far into the distance as possible. Snap your head back straight. Now snap it to the left, look far, and snap your head straight again. Do this one quickly. Boom–right. Bam–straight. Boom–left. Bam–straight. Don’t turn your body. Stand fully extended, with your feet planted firmly on the ground and your chest forward.

Even if you’re standing in your bedroom and can only see the wall a few feet away, project your vision farther than that. See as far as Iceland and its polar bears in one direction, and as far as Miami and its dolphins in the other. Fully extend your sight, just as you fully extend your mind, your body, and your whole life.

Do it 10 times quick.

Now imagine the first 5 notes of Bach’s Invention in F.

Imagine each of those notes are like the spots you were looking at in the eye focus exercise. Now imagine increasing your hearing speed to focus on each individual note. It’s different with the eye focus exercise because your eye muscles are at work focusing and moving. Your ears don’t have to do anything. It’s all in the mind and brain. We have to exercise our focus, giving it precision, speed, and accuracy.

Listen to a fugue and pay attention to one voice at a time. Hear each and every single note. Add voices. Hear everything. Work with sequencers, metronomes, and audio editors to slow things down and speed things up. And keep practicing the eye focusing exercises. It will help your sight reading and provide a perfect metaphor to remind you to hear with focus.

Strong senses are of utmost importance to the warrior.

Image streaming is your doorway to the subconscious mind. This stream-of-consciousness visualization technique delivers spontaneously-generated thoughts directly from the subconscious mind as an answer or solution to a problem or simply to see what comes up. The image streaming process is especially useful for composing.

Here are the steps to image streaming:

1. Breathe deeply and progressively relax your entire body from head to toe.
2. Close your eyes and describe images aloud to either a live person or to a tape recorder. This step is important because describing images aloud and having a live recipient of those images creates a feedback loop which makes the connection from the subconscious to the conscious even stronger.
3. You must use all senses in your descriptions: Sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.
4. Describe in the present tense and don’t hesitate, stop or edit.

That’s all there is to it. It’s always the simple things that make the most impact to your life.

Here’s a couple of exercises to get you going:

1. Just describe anything. Take a good look at any object close by, close your eyes and start describing it. This will get you acquainted with the image streaming process.
2. Take a problem that you need a solution to, such as a new and improved opening song for your band’s set or the form of a new song you’re writing, and allow the images to spontaneously come. Let your mind take you in whatever direction it wants. Soon, you will have an extremely creative idea fall right into your lap.

As I said earlier, there’s evidence that image streaming increases your IQ by .8 with every hour practiced! Some other benefits of image streaming includes increased memory, better brain health, enriched experience, build your power of understanding and increased self-esteem. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

1. Creating rapport
2. Babysitting
3. Hiding your true intentions
4. Taking them to dinner

B. Hypnotic language patterns include:

1. Embedded commands
2. Command verbs
3. States, Processes, or Experiences
4. All of the above

C. Anchoring involves:

1. Bringing your prospects down
2. Eliciting a specific response
3. Shock treatment
4. A foot massage

D. Trance is:

1. A naturally occurring state
2. An altered state of mind
3. Bringing the unconscious into consciousness
4. All of the above

E. Values are:

1. The key to identity and self-image
2. Core desires
3. 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

F. Time distortion is:

1. A really bad drummer
2. Manipulating time perspective
3. 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Exercises:

1. Practice mirroring people’s language and posture.
2. Write 10 hypnotic language patterns utilizing this formula.
3. Create 4 resource states that would be useful to you and anchor them.
4. Practice inducing trance through pattern interrupts.
5. Elicit your own values and those of your friends and family. This is truly valuable in your present relationships.
6. Write 2 time distortion patterns.
7. Pacing and Leading:
   • Make three pacing statements and a leading statement. Pacing statements may be about observable behavior and make the leading statement a desired behavior.
   • Pace and lead with nonverbal behavior, i.e. posture, breathing, etc.

Answers:
A. 1
B. 4
C. 2
D. 4
E. 3
F. 2