When Bach climbed out of bed..

‘There is a story of a student who once asked Bach how he created so many wonderful melodies. The question seemed to fox Bach. He is supposed to have replied that he did not know. He simply stepped on them when he climbed out of bed.’

The story about JS Bach is a recurring theme which you can find whenever you speak to a great artist and musician about how they do what they do. The recurring refrain is one of, ‘I don’t know’ or ‘That’s easy I just do whatever comes into my head’. There seems to be a detachment from the intellectual process that we assume they have been using to a more instinctive process.

It was also true that JS Bach did not compose from the keyboard but from his head, the idea that a sound could be fully formed in your mind seems impossible to those who cannot do it, however the point that many of the musical greats had this ability to just know something without having to find it is also common.

I think that the map that we are using is created by the way that we learn and it is not the same as the map that people with this type of ability use. The unconscious ability to create is something rarely discussed in the education system and in many cases as in maths it is actively discouraged by saying that the correct answer is still invalid if your workings are not shown. However one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century Srinivasa Ramanujan did not know how he achieved his answers believing them to come from a goddess so the workings are more to do with the evidence of the journey than of the arrival, the arts need more of the medieval aspect of revelation where a piece of work can arrive fully formed.

There is a way to develop a skill of listening, ok it may not produce a work like the St Matthew Passion but it will bring out the creativity that one has. You can just start by listening in your mind to a tune that you already know and then have it appear with a different instrument playing that melody. For instance imagine hearing Happy Birthday, first of all being sung and then hear it again being played by trumpet. The next step is to make up a melody as a variation of something that you know, because those things are already in your head from what you have already experienced and you mind will present sounds that conform to various protocols otherwise it will not sound musical. So change Happy Birthday developing the tune in different ways in your mind.

I encourage pupils to be led by what they hear and not just by muscle memory or by what they regurgitate. I think this is very important because the unconscious responds much quicker and more efficiently to hearing and feeling than it does by seeing. So sing ideas, play with the ideas, be crazy with them, be playful and imagine yourself into the space that melodies come free and you are an open vessel to musical ideas that are already there one just needs to let them out.

Vic Hyland

www.bluescampuk.co.uk rock summer school

Lady Luck

But is he lucky?

One of the factors that seems to be overlooked in the success of musicians is that of luck.

We do not believe in luck in the way that we did, and that has changed within my life time, however in every interview that I do for the forthcoming podcast with successful musicians it comes up again and again; the chance meeting, the odd intervention, the unusual conversation etc.

Now I am sure that waiting for luck by sitting at home is not going to endear her to you but going out courting her obviously does. Lady Luck however fickle does seem to play a part in most people’s experience of the lucky break that they are looking for.

There is a quote which is, ‘The harder I work the luckier I get’, which I am sure is not quite complete because it could be a little bit saying, ‘The harder I dig the more of the world I will see’. Maybe better said that, ‘The more connections I make the more the doors I open’. So for developing the contacts and opening possibilities and then focusing on the short term (if you look at the long-term you may miss what is right in front of you) may focus you to become lucky.

The quote at the beginning from Napoleon was one I quoted before as his reply given to an officer about promoting someone to Marshall. So obviously Napoleon believed in luck or good fortune and why would he not as most soldiers and sailors certainly believe in fate in some form?

So let us do what is necessary to attract luck, we could look back to see when it happened before, and give yourself the same ideas the conditions that are favourable at the time. Maybe lady luck will shine on you again.

Remember it is not about why psychologically it works, does it? And it seems for the ones who believe in it, it does.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.ukthe rock summer school