Advice To Adult Learners Of Music
November 26, 2007
0 CommentsMusic is like a language. And we all know that learning languages comes easier when you’re a child. And in some ways, it’s much easier for a child to learn music, especially to learn how to play by ear. Putting two and two together, you might ask yourself what is the difference between an adult and a child that makes it easier for the child to learn languages?
The answer comes in dynamic skill theory. I bring this up again and again because I get a lot of emails from students who are learning how to train their ears and they all have similar challenges. They are not willing to silence their critical “adult” voice and just play with music.
Students will tell me they need a more grounded approach (more mature). Or they will tell me it must be step-by-step (completely abstract). Sometimes they tell me that they won’t gain anything from an exercise after only reading about the exercise (how would they know?).
Just play!
You can’t skip stages of development. You have to begin at the sensorimotor stage, progress through the representational stage, and then you can arrive at the abstract level. It can’t work backwards.
If you’re asking an abstract question when you need to begin from the beginning, I might refer you to this post. Don’t make the mistake of working backwards when learning new skills. It just makes your journey longer and more difficult.
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(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Graham English Talks Episode 7
August 29, 2007
0 CommentsIn this episode I talk about how I got my ass handed to me by the 300 workout and my long search for a previous love, the Words of the Month.
Music:
Feels Good Being Somebody by Dias Malos
Sexy Lectric Car by Moonchild Louis
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...NLP Pattern: Aligning Neurological Levels
April 1, 2007
0 CommentsThis exercise builds your resources and congruence. Start by standing in a place where you can take 5 steps backwards.
- Think of a situation in which your behavior is not representative of who you really are, or who you would like to be, and you would like to have more choices.
- Standing in position one, a place we’ll call the environment level, describe your surroundings in this imagined situation. Where are you? Who is around you? What do you notice particularly about this environment? Take one step back and:
- Stand in the behavior level. Focus on your behavior and compare/contrast how it fits/doesn’t fit the environment and you. Notice what you are doing in this imagined situation. Think about your actions, movements, and thoughts. Step back and:
- Stand in the level of capability. Think about your skills and strategies. In this situation you are only expressing a fraction of them. What skills and mental strategies do you have in your life? How is the quality of your thinking? What interpersonal skills do you have? What qualities do you have that serve you well? Compare as above. Step back and:
- Stand in the belief level. What is important to you? What beliefs apply to this situation? How do they support or limit you? What principles do you strive to act on? What empowering beliefs do you have about yourself and others? Step back and:
- Stand in the level of identity. How will you express who you are in this situation? What is your mission in life? What metaphor comes to mind that seems to express your identity as a person? Take a last step back and:
- Stand in the level of spiritual development (also known as the Ecology level). Access a deep state of connectedness with the Universe, with other beings, with the Divine. Leave this and all other situations aside for a little while. Take a few moments to settle into a place of quiet; maybe just noticing your breath and a sense of connection with all that is…
- From this place, look forward and down all the other levels, coloring them or filling them with this state.
- Sculpt the you in the identity level with your hands while standing in spirit. Step into this you, who also contains so much more than just you. And then step down each level, aligning it with the higher ones. Take a moment in each level to notice how your experience has been transformed.
- Finally, when in the environment level, notice how it is different when you bring these other levels of yourself to it. Notice how you feel with this greater depth and clarity. As you do so check for alignment and ecology. What are the wider consequences? Who else will be affected and how will they feel? Future pace. Know that if you were to bring all of this to the situation, it would change.
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...There’s a perpetually propagated myth that if you have absolute pitch, then if you listen to music that is out of tune, you have a bad experience. If there is any truth to this myth, it’s definitely not an absolute. Some people may be disturbed by music that is out of tune. I believe this has more to do with personality type than anything else. But we have to deal with the definition of “out of tune.”
Most musicians with good relative pitch will notice immediately if a note is out of tune relative to its surroundings. If it bugs you, then there’s a lot of music you probably can’t listen to. If it doesn’t bother you, then you know how someone with absolute pitch is affected by sound. Sounds sound good or bad or somewhere in between based on your personal preference, whether you have absolute pitch or not.
Part of the problem with this myth comes from the sloppy use of language to describe an experience. A single note can be out of tune relative to the surrounding tones. That’s one example of being out of tune. A single instrument can be out of tune relative to the other instruments in an ensemble. That’s another example. But if all the tones or instruments are tuned differently than A440 kHz, it’s not out of tune. It’s just a different tuning.
History tells us that we haven’t always listened to music with the A440 kHz standard. In Mozart’s time, stringed-keyboard music music was meant to be played at a range of around A420 to A430. There are also different tuning systems and temperaments.
If this myth were true, then there would be quite a few people with absolute pitch who couldn’t listen to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, which on record was globally tuned a little sharp. And if you don’t like Kind of Blue, it’s got nothing to do with absolute pitch. It just means that you’re crazy! 
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading ...Filtering Experience Through Neuro-Logical Levels
March 29, 2007
2 CommentsHow to make intimate connections with yourself and others.
Neuro-Logical Levels are considered to be a Meta-Program in NLP. Specifically, these neuro-logical levels are categories of experience. In integral terms, I would consider them to be a typology that has a built-in hierarchy. They are not stages or levels that must sequentially arise. However, they do seem to be a holarchy. You could also consider the neuro-logical levels to be lines of development. NLP is a mess in its organization of principles. That’s why I just consider NLP to be a powerful set of tools for creating change.
If you’re doing change work with someone or with yourself, the neuro-logical levels are very useful. You can identify in what “level” a challenge is centered and then use the appropriate NLP intervention. They also make a good check list to go through as you’re doing any kind of life planning or if you need some motivation.
Neuro-Logical Levels
- Ecology: Who else?
My relationship to the Universe and what’s outside me. - Identity: Who?
What kind of person I am. - Beliefs: Why?
My values, criteria, generalizations about the world and other people. What’s important to me. - Capabilities: How?
My generic skills, strategies, physiological abilities. - Behavior: What?
What I do in any particular context. - Environment: Where and When?
The context in which I operate.
Neuro-logical levels in an organization:
- Ecology = Vision
Change the world. - Identity = Mission
I’m a change agent. - Beliefs = Permission, Motivation
Change is desirable. - Capabilities = Direction
Change processes. - Specific Behaviors = Action
A specific change process. - Environment = Reactions
Culture. Responses to change.
Next time you are listening to someone speak, notice what level they are coming from. A statement like, “I’m the kind of person who…” is coming from the level of Identity. If someone is telling you their opinions about a subject, they are coming from the level of Belief. You get the idea.
When you want to connect with someone, speaking their language is often a matter of speaking their level.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...