The Inner Game of Music
WHAT IS THE INNER GAME?
The Inner Game, in terms of music, has to do with avoiding those voices of doubt, judgment, and confusion, so that we can listen to and feel the music as we play.BARRY GREEN: DOUBLE BASSIST.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Green is active teaching double bassist's for the San Francisco Symphony Education Department, University of California, Santa Cruz. He also tours the world as a concert bassist and Inner Game of Music Clinician
In precise, easy to understand language, Green and Gallwey explain how natural skills can be nurtured and enhanced, and through a series of special exercises they demonstrate the ways in which musicians can achieve exact intonation, artistic phrasing, and improved technique.
There are also chapters on ensemble playing, improvisation, composition and creativity, and listening skills - an essential part of the Inner Game - are discussed throughout.
A methodology with a proven track record, The Inner Game of Music will be invaluable to anyone seriously interested in music, whether professional or amateur, composer,performer, or simply an appreciative listener.
It seems to me that the very essence of music is the expression of the self It needs a milieu that is conducive to reaching into one's source of creative, and that allows for freedom of expression. Just as the end product of the study of music is enjoyment, virtuosity, and inspiration the actual process of learning and teaching can yield the same quality of experience. it is my hope that readers of THE INNER GAME OF MUSIC will use this wealth of material to help them experience the joy of music to the fullest.
Tennis professional Timothy Gallwey developed a method of mental exercises, known as the inner game, as a result of his observing how the best coaches worked, how his coaching style sometimes helped or hindered those he taught, and how his thought processes affected his tennis play. Awareness of this mental interference led Gallwey to question his teaching, and he discovered strategies that the best coaches and tournament players used. The method of the inner game is based on teaching a student to do what comes naturally, and how to avoid references to specific pitfalls and habits acquired from primary school and beyond. In this sense the method is not a new technique, but follows naturally from what is the best, most natural, easiest, and most graceful way to play. Tim Gallwey wrote The Inner Game of Tennis to express insights, and the success of this first book led to books on skiing and golf. While the method is not a technique, it is a natural approach codified that consists of a number of mental exercises and techniques of control that can improve playing music, golf, or whatever. As principal bassist of the Cincinnati Symphony for the past 24 years, university professor, and parent of young musicians, I developed this method as the most natural and effective way for teacher and student, conductor and ensemble to work together. It suggests a style of rehearsal and performance that involves everyone in the ensemble and allows the conductor and musicians to recreate a composer's score efficiently and effectively. This way no one will be I plagued by boredom, pressure to achieve results, intimidation, confusion, or the mechanical reading of rhythms and notes the emphasis is entirely on the music. I have played under conductors who run rehearsals that are consistent with the approach, but who have never heard of the method. These conductors are among the best in the business, and we should follow their example because they have discovered what is most natural and works best. With out formulating their discoveries in this particular way, they too have been using the method. We can all take greater advantage of these natural and inherently successful styles of rehearsal. Using a structured and codified approach to fine tune a rehearsal, as if the rehearsal itself were an instrument, is the secret of playing with ensembles.
WHAT IS THE INNER GAME?
The Inner Game, in terms of music, has to do with avoiding those voices of doubt, judgment, and confusion, so that we can listen to and feel the music as we play.BARRY GREEN: DOUBLE BASSIST.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Green is active teaching double bassist's for the San Francisco Symphony Education Department, University of California, Santa Cruz. He also tours the world as a concert bassist and Inner Game of Music Clinician
In precise, easy to understand language, Green and Gallwey explain how natural skills can be nurtured and enhanced, and through a series of special exercises they demonstrate the ways in which musicians can achieve exact intonation, artistic phrasing, and improved technique.
There are also chapters on ensemble playing, improvisation, composition and creativity, and listening skills - an essential part of the Inner Game - are discussed throughout.
A methodology with a proven track record, The Inner Game of Music will be invaluable to anyone seriously interested in music, whether professional or amateur, composer,performer, or simply an appreciative listener.
It seems to me that the very essence of music is the expression of the self It needs a milieu that is conducive to reaching into one's source of creative, and that allows for freedom of expression. Just as the end product of the study of music is enjoyment, virtuosity, and inspiration the actual process of learning and teaching can yield the same quality of experience. it is my hope that readers of THE INNER GAME OF MUSIC will use this wealth of material to help them experience the joy of music to the fullest.
Tennis professional Timothy Gallwey developed a method of mental exercises, known as the inner game, as a result of his observing how the best coaches worked, how his coaching style sometimes helped or hindered those he taught, and how his thought processes affected his tennis play. Awareness of this mental interference led Gallwey to question his teaching, and he discovered strategies that the best coaches and tournament players used. The method of the inner game is based on teaching a student to do what comes naturally, and how to avoid references to specific pitfalls and habits acquired from primary school and beyond. In this sense the method is not a new technique, but follows naturally from what is the best, most natural, easiest, and most graceful way to play. Tim Gallwey wrote The Inner Game of Tennis to express insights, and the success of this first book led to books on skiing and golf. While the method is not a technique, it is a natural approach codified that consists of a number of mental exercises and techniques of control that can improve playing music, golf, or whatever. As principal bassist of the Cincinnati Symphony for the past 24 years, university professor, and parent of young musicians, I developed this method as the most natural and effective way for teacher and student, conductor and ensemble to work together. It suggests a style of rehearsal and performance that involves everyone in the ensemble and allows the conductor and musicians to recreate a composer's score efficiently and effectively. This way no one will be I plagued by boredom, pressure to achieve results, intimidation, confusion, or the mechanical reading of rhythms and notes the emphasis is entirely on the music. I have played under conductors who run rehearsals that are consistent with the approach, but who have never heard of the method. These conductors are among the best in the business, and we should follow their example because they have discovered what is most natural and works best. With out formulating their discoveries in this particular way, they too have been using the method. We can all take greater advantage of these natural and inherently successful styles of rehearsal. Using a structured and codified approach to fine tune a rehearsal, as if the rehearsal itself were an instrument, is the secret of playing with ensembles.