Arguing on the internet does not make the list

However shit things get -and they will likely get shitter before they get better, which may not be in your lifetime- do not cut yourself off from the experience of joy. Just look at the top regrets of the dying. They regret not spending enough time at family gatherings or hiking in nature. Arguing on the internet doesn't make the list. Gordon White

Another thing that will not make the list is spending more time in the office, however when I drive to work in the morning and am frequently overtaken by daredevil drivers who are desperate to get to work, they drive as if going to see their lover in some illicit rendezvous instead of going to a stupid job that probably has no importance in some office staffed by people that they do not get on with.

How do we arrive at some pathetic attitude to life where 40% of the working population of the UK believe that their job has no importance? Not only that, but the job may not last in the technology consuming period that we are now entering.

When do we actually realise what is important surely it should be something that we teach our children? Children need skills such as carpentry, cookery, fixing things, building things, playing musical instruments, dancing, swimming etc. many of these skills contain some form risk like bush craft skills such as fire lighting and using tools and knives. The emphasis on life should be the pursuit of joy and happiness but the system is created in such a way that the focus is on doing what you are pressured to do and I think that for many it is an iron cage.

The ways this is done is through being told to do things that seem completely laudable but the setting that these things are set is the trick. Much is contextual, the devil is in the detail and the hypnosis is in the context, always be careful how things are said to you and how information is phrased, not the detail, more the context.

Things are set to get rather rocky, many things that we think have gone away like the banking crisis have not, there are serious problems with many currencies and political systems and this will become more evident as time goes on. Technology is exacerbating this not helping it; governments will not be able to keep the lid on it. For us as musicians and artists we need to use these skills to open up new possibilities in the way that we work and use our art, to make us happier and for the joy of people that we interact with whether as pupils or audience members.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk  Three days of playing in a band. Learn the tricks of the trade

Universal Basic Income

This will result in a proliferation of cheap, accessible goods, but it could also have psychological consequences. "I think universal basic income will be necessary, but the much harder challenge is: How will people then have meaning?" he says. "A lot of people derive meaning from their employment. If you're not needed, what is the meaning? Do you feel useless? That is a much harder problem to deal with. How do we ensure the future is a future that we want, that we still like?"

And here we are my friends to the purpose of music and the teaching of the arts, to give meaning to life and it will become more important. The above quote really puts into focus the inability of the education system to adapt to what is coming, not because of the teachers but because of government still trading in ideas that are to do with factory style thinking.

The idea of universal basic income (UBI) sounds a great idea; the problem I see is that the system that got us into this mess is now going to get us out of it?

The problem is about attitudes to wealth and ownership that goes back centuries and the theft of land from people and the environment and giving it to the favoured few. This keeps being revisited, whether it is the enclosures act, the taking of land from native peoples or the standing rock type theft of land use.

I am not sure whether the restrictions on what people can spend their money with UBI on is worth pondering here as it will probably be government designated things which will be cheaper and therefore things like learning a musical instrument independently may be problematic. Anyway it is a way off but not that far off as the effects are already being felt in the banking world of technology takeover. Some thinkers believe that this will be much bigger than the industrial revolution, think about that for a moment, BIGGER than the industrial revolution.

In principle UBI seems a good idea and to start with it might be if people can use the upside to create the time to learn something that adds something to their lives but the fall out of people having to reorient their assessment of meaning and their work will be difficult because that is how we have been programmed through education and social comment for decades if not centuries.

Even the way that we ‘work‘ using music will need to change. I have already made a percentage of my lessons being ‘time swaps’ where no money changes hands just skills. This includes computer and software repair and back up, yoga sessions and roadie-ing. Many art skills and therapy skills work well for this as it really adds value to people if you are swapping your teaching for their skill. Think of what you need doing; gardening, handyman, babysitting, and bookkeeping many aesthetic things that you would like that you might not have the money for; clothing, artwork for the house, interior design, photography, web design and hosting.

The solution for many of the problems that we are faced with is local, small governance, food supply etc. basically unplugging from the globalised grid of commerce as much as possible. This theory is the one driving local currencies and transition towns, use this idea for your teaching and work and give people meaning as well as yourself.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk three days of playing in a band learn the tricks from the ones who know.

Discomfort is the doorway that we have to pass through to enter a new mindscape.

Sometimes I find it very difficult to focus on a series of tasks that need to be taken to achieve a target. For instance I am currently working on an album which is taken a whole year to get the rhythm sections down and the basic structure of the songs to be organised. I am also attempting to update aspects of my website to include a membership section and on top of that I have a couple of very important gigs to organise which are rather different from the normal concerts that I do.

I keep finding myself delaying and obscuring tasks that I should be accomplishing by doing less important things, and although I am a really good list writer and target maker sometimes my mind takes me somewhere else.

I am sure this is something that all of us will find familiar, I see it as a rut that I am in. My particular rut could be considered as my comfort zone, the things that I am familiar are the things that get done first. I have noticed over the years that when I procrastinate it is always on the things I find uncomfortable and doing something can lead me into uncomfortable feelings about change. In NLP terms we need to make the stasis more uncomfortable than change so that we can move toward change. That however is easier said than done as the mind tends to trip you up finding things to do instead of the important things required.

So let me know of how you deal with making change and what works for you and maybe we can share notes.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk three days of playing in a band with the tricks of the trade

'That thing which your knowledge cannot eat’

‘Malidoma Patrice Somé the Dagara writer and teacher has written that in his language there is a word yielbougura that is quickly and inaccurately translated into English as mystery. He says that this word more accurately should be translated as ‘that thing which your knowledge cannot eat’. Here is an indigenous understanding of understanding and one our culture must learn mystery must have a proper place in learning.’ – Stephen Jenkinson.

Following on from the theme of a previous blog about mystery in knowing here is an example that other languages have a capacity for this.

The English language although rich in words has problems which manifest in unusual ways like expressing things like death. The verb ‘to die’ is an active verb which when expressed in the past tense becomes passive i.e. ‘they died’ whereas in the present ‘they are dying’. We think of time as a line hurtling into the future with no way of getting it back along with the dead, our dreams and memories. Stephen Jenkinson says that this may be why we say we have’ lost someone’ whereas in other cultures their dead are present and active in their life and in their language.

Sting says in a lyric

‘When words are hard to find,

The only cheques I’ve left unsigned,

From the banks of chaos in my mind,

And when their eloquence escapes me,

Their logic ties me up and rapes me.’

Language has a power that structures what we think, how we think and how we frame the world that we experience. What happens with music is that we can experience the world in a way that lies outside of our language. Ask an artist to explain their work and how they created it, it will not be long before they are struggling with language and grasping for metaphors, or they might say ‘I do not know’.

The title quotation is interesting in the concept that knowledge needs to be fed, I like that, especially that in the west we want information and knowledge and are hungry for it, to consume it, for the consumer society, in fact now we are in an information age are we not, or so we are told.

So what about music as a language, can it say something different that cannot be easily expressed in English? What type of connecting can we do with music that seems to transcend what we can do with logic? I draw a definition with poetry here because that can reach parts that literal language often cannot. This is worth considering as a musician and a teacher because we can make changes to ourselves and others and it can open a field of music therapy; for want of a better term.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk three days of playing in a rock band. Special rates this month for keyboard players and singers

Can you teach me to swim? Because, I am drowning……….

I am interested in the subtext of news stories and even the choice of which news story finds its way onto the TV, radio and now social media there are distinct patterns of what is acceptable, what is to be ridiculed and what is to be ignored. There is a strict code to what is deemed acceptable and not accept regarding other regimes and other forms of thinking. At the moment science is the new religion and seems not to be able to do any wrong even though many of the statements made by the media scientists are more a form of scientism than science.

One of the things I find interesting as I get older is that over time you notice a pattern of things that are so-called disproved or unscientific but seem to be very relevant as time goes on in some cases they even get approved what seems to go missing is the acceptance that the conventional rational aspect and it’s black swan event goes unchallenged.

As an example of this and I can quote many, is that of the health benefits of butter and margarine. For years we have been told margarine was better than butter we were barraged through the media about various margarine products that had health giving benefits by scientific research, all of this of course has been proven not to be true and the research was skewed somehow. People however have known for years that there was nothing wrong with butter or fats because if there was then the Inuit who eat large quantities of fish fat and whale blubber would not be as fit as were are the same goes for the French who cooked everything in butter and lard.

Now I see the same pompous attitude permeating other aspects of media reporting into the abstract and grey areas of the mind. Sometimes they can be health benefits from something that on the surface does not seem to work or certainly not in the lab but in the real world creates real change, one of those things may be homeopathy I have certainly seen some beneficial effects of homeopathy including the treatment of horses which were very successful.

I like to use the NLP phrase epithet ‘it’s not a case of whether it is true but more a case of if it works’ sometimes simply changing a link in the chain can make real progress and again we see this very clearly in the world of music that changing a few words can transform a lyric, just changing a few notes can transform melody even changing the way we look can transform somebody’s ability onstage to make an impact. When we deal with the arts ambiguity and abstractness can transform an idea into something very powerful.

Another observation that I would like to make is that often these non-scientific abstract forms of thinking coming into play far too late to have a real effect and then in turn seems to prove themselves inefficient because it is too late in the day, like learning to swim while you are drowning. Such as alternative treatments being used for cancer patients when it is the last resort. Even though there are instances of cures for supposedly incurable conditions, like somebody who has serious stress condition suddenly deciding that they needed to learn how to meditate. Yes meditation will work but it is better if you learn to meditate before you have the stress condition and then of course you would never know how effective meditation is because you might never get the condition.

So much better to learn to swim before you are drowning, much better to think about your health before your unhealthy.

Explore that way of thinking with regard to music, make sure that you are using concepts that develop your ability to be a musician beyond the technicalities before you need those skills; make those skills infuse your technical abilities.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk   Special rates for saxophone players this month send us a message through the website and we will send you the special price

Its a mystery

Our willingness to wonder is where mystery goes for shelter from the steady attack on it from our demand for information, clarity and certainty……………. Resolving mystery is like dissecting someone you love to find out why they are so loved.     Stephen Jenkinson

If we go back to the period pre-enlightenment we will see that was consideration given for the idea of revelation with information can be gathered without any logical timeline that made a connection between the outcome and the thought process.

In other words there was room for mystery and that is sadly lacking amongst us with regard to education but I think is absolutely crucial when it comes to the artistic process that the answers can suddenly appear out of nowhere.

The answers come from the unconscious and they may be solutions to things that we have seen before but have forgotten as time has gone by. To encourage pupils to find the answers to musical puzzles that are presented within song writing and improvisation I try to rely on the ability to hear and feel the music and not to think about what the fingers are doing or what our intellect tells us.

The problem with this approach is it is difficult to formulate a lesson plan with such an abstract concept. It is a little bit like putting a figure for goodwill on the balance sheet it is all very much a case of guesstimate.

The other problem that we have in the English speaking areas of the world is that the language does not really accommodate the idea of mystery very well. A language such as Spanish or Arabic is much more poetic in the way that it approaches concepts such as this and this is evident by the quality of the poetry found in those languages that are deep and mystical such as the work of Rumi, Kabir, Neruda and Garcia Marquez.

So the ability to be in wonder of what happens in music allowing if you will the Muses to take control maybe an idea. Let things flow and do not micromanage the artistic process. Leave room for things to happen however chaotic that may feel to you.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk  check out the new site

Right, it is time to write, right?

When I was at school I spent a lot of time practising my handwriting, there were lots of competitions and prizes for those who had the best hand. Subsequently I have quite an artistic script and so have many other people of my age. On the other hand, literally, young people that I have been teaching over the last twenty to thirty years do not have such developed handwriting, many of them have rather small and childish looking writing in my opinion and yet they may be in their early thirties.

I became interested in graphology when I was in my teens because my art teacher at the time was really good at being able to read a person’s characteristics from their handwriting and I became interested in the skill. This was and is a rather uncannily accurate way of determining a personality type so much so that graphologists were and are often employed by the police while trying to build a profile. The question that I would like to pose here is what does this say about the psychological make up of people today with such incredibly childish handwriting?

Now before we dismiss this as a crazy idea there is another strain to this that being, how much does the educational system affect personal development of one’s character? The particular aspect that I would like to focus on is one’s ability to be independent and really think for oneself in a sort of ‘the buck stops here’ kind of way and the ability to make a decision without reference to an expert or just the strong belief that you are expert enough to decide on a course of action.

I am not suggesting that we do not refer to other people and their knowledge, what I am suggesting is that we have more knowledge and more control of our lives than society makes us believe we have. In fact the whole of the education system is based on the premise that you know nothing and someone else in this case the teacher is the expert. The fact that the child by the time of arriving at school has learnt to speak a language fluently and to recognise words and possibly write their own name, be able to control their physical actions and to be able to read social situations expertly (which is something that many parents do not believe their children can do), and yet we still consider them to be in need of an expert guidance in learning as if they know nothing.

Never again will a child be so expert at learning another language, not because of some physical change but because they will be learning a language in the classroom. If that child was to move to another country within six months or so they would be fluent in the new language. My father was a good example of this, leaving school at fifteen and then joining the army. By the end of the war he could speak fluent Arabic and Swahili and was passible in Italian and German. 

We need to engender a form of self-reliance in ourselves and in people that we teach otherwise how will they ever learn to believe in their own artistic and musical abilities? These abilities are not technical which of course are the primary and in some cases sole focus of music education, what really makes a musician stand out is their ability to communicate, which is artistic.

Children have an ability to communicate which has nothing to do with school and in my experience of teaching adults is that they seem to have lost that ability to communicate through music which is basically the same innate ability as language

So have faith you are your own star or at least star dust and you need to say what you have to say ….

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk  check out the new site ..