Inner Game of Music

Barry Green

Timothy Gallwey, author of the

best-selling books, The Inner Game of
Tennis, Inner Tennis, Inner Skiing, and
The Inner Game of Golf, is dedicated to
helping people overcome mental obs-
tacles so they can better perform,
learn, and enjoy. The Inner Game,
when applied to teaching and learn-
ing music, has the potential of break-
ing through learning barriers much
like the Suzuki violin method does in
teaching young children. Many
sports-minded musicians reading
• Galiwey's first book, The Inner Game
of Tennis, were quick to recognize the
abundance of useful suggestions for
quieting the mind, combating nerv-
ousness, improving concentration,
and increasing one's awareness
which naturally apply to all aspects of
music. Now Gallwey is applying
these techniques to stress reduction,
holistic health, selling, computer
technology, and, fortunately, to
music!
My brother, Jerry, introduced me to
Gallwey's principles through the
book, Inner Skiing. We both began to
ski two years ago and even though I
am the younger brother, I have al-
ways been stronger and more physi-
cally coordinated. I took an extensive
series of skiing lessons in order to
satisfy my desire to learn quickly. A
year later we met at a California ski
resort and I was amazed at how my
brother had learned to ski coura-
geously, faster, and with more joy in
the same amount of time. In consol-
ing my deflated ego, he told me I
looked paralyzed by too many in-
structions. In each turn my mind re- Barry Green, Musical Consultant to published many books on bass pedagogy
sonated with echoes of my teachers' the Inner Game Corporation, is pre- and recorded numerous solo albums.
commands: "Put your weight on your sently Principal Bassistof the Cincinnati Dedicated to improving the literaturefor
downhill ski." "Carve the turn with Symphony and Adjunct Professor of the double bass, he has commissioned
the front edge of your uphill ski." DoubleBass at the University of Cincin- and performed a variety of works for
"Don't lean back." "Bend your knees, nati, College-Conservatory of Music. solo bass aimed at broadening the hori-
sit up, and keep your shoulders He is also Executive Director of the In- zons and appeal of his instrument.
straight." "Keep your hands in front ternational Society of Bassists. He has
12 AMERICAN STRING TEACHER
of your body." After glvmg me
Gallwey's book he told me to forget all
of my lessons and just start by "feel-
ing the mountain and enjoying ski-
ing." I was skeptical and reluctant to
subscribe to this unfamiliar, un-
defined, and (to my thinking) 'pop
California philosophy' of just "ex-
periencing the hill, relaxing, and not
worrying about breaking my neck."
Out of my respect for Jerry, I read the
book and was amazed that Inner Ski-
ing was much more practical and in-
depth than I had anticipated: it not
only completely transformed my ski-
ing but also gave me invaluable in-
sights into my profession of teaching
and learning music-without com-
plicated instructions. The book dealt
with combating fear, learning to con-
centrate, and performing at one's full
potential.
At the time I was on a sabbatical
leave from the University of Cincin-
nati and the Cincinnati Symphony
and was teaching double bass at In-
diana University. With my bass stu-
dents, I began to experiment with ap-
plying Gallwey's techniques to
change habits through increased
awareness. Thinking I had made an
exclusive discovery, I soon learned
that the French horn teacher (Robert
Elworthy) had written an article on
Inner Horn Playing (using Inner
Game principles) and that many
musicians were applying the same
techniques to music. After reading
The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner
Game of Golf and greatly improving
my own tennis and golf games, I cal-
led Mr. Gallwey to ask how I could
further apply the Inner Game to
music. At that time Tim was involved
in the development of the "Inner
Health" clinic in Los Angeles and in-
vited me to participate in some train-
ing sessions he was conducting for
health practitioners. He was coaching
the medical professionals to play and
teach tennis in the Inner Game mode
so they could apply these skills to
learning the teaching principles of
health. My challenge was to make the
same comparisons and applications
to music.
Although I am a better than average
tennis player, I began my lesson with
a typical case of nervousness, want-
ing to make a positive impression on
Tim Gallwey, "the celebrated sports
guru." Even though I studied his
books I was a victim of the infamous
mental game Tim says we all play
WlNTER/1982
within our mind. The game is be-
tween Self I and Self II. Self I refers to
the personality that is always passing
judgment, giving instructions, inter-
fering with the present, casting
doubts, and wanting to remain in
control of the situation. Self I told me,
"You better make a good impression
or Tim will think you are a lousy ten-
nis player AND bass player." "Be
careful to hit the ball well." "Make
sure your shirt is tucked in." "Pre-
tend you know what you are doing,
so he will respect your accomplish-
ments." (I remember the same kind of
conversation before a recent bass
concert. "I'm nervous," Self I would
say, "My bow is shaking." "1 think
I'm going to have a memory slip." "1
feel sick to my stomach." "I hope I
look good." "What about my reputa-
tion if I goof up?") Tim hit some ten-
nis balls my way, not acknowledging
my nervousness or desire to make a
good impression. He cleverly moved
my attention off myself by telling me
to watch the seams of the ball, listen to
the sound as it hit my racket, and
notice the feeling of the swing and the
resistance of the racket. I soon became
so engrossed in watching, hearing,
and feeling the experience of hitting
the ball that I forgot my usual fears
about whether or not my shots were
going in the court. Self I was suddenly
quiet, giving Self II a chance to
emerge. Self II, the body and brain,
learns from the actual experience-its
sights, sounds, feelings, and under-
standing of the performance. Self II
deals with the actions and percep-
tions of the present moment with no
wandering of the mind into the past
or future. Self II excludes the personal
ego and self-doubts. It seemed as if I
were playing "out of my mind" and
everything was easily falling into
place. I recalled a similar experience
in playing my bass. Gallwey calls this
state "relaxed concentration," and
maintains that it is the "master skill"
essential to excellence in any pursuit.
If only I could find a way to recreate
this state with consistency and con-
trol, to learn, enjoy, and perform at
my full potential every time I take the
music stage or the sports field, I could
revolutionize the quality of my life as
well as my music!
Tim showed me how this brilliant
process solves all kinds of problems.
First he asked me, "What do you want
to change about your tennis stroke?" I
told him, "My forearm feels out of
control." He was helping me to estab-
lish a goal. When teaching a music
lesson, similarly begin by asking the
student what he or she would like to
fix, change, or accomplish. Amaz-
ingly, the students know what needs
to be done. Once the goal is clearly
defined (the forehand stroke or the
intonation of a particular passage),
proceed with an awareness process by
having the student focus on what is
happening at the moment. In the case
of my forehand, after hitting several
balls, Tim had me locate exactly when
my forearm felt awkward and what
felt awkward about the motion. In
music, have the student find exactly
where the intonation is faulty by
locating which notes are flat or sharp.
After hearing the reality of the pre-
sent situation, changes naturally
occur along the lines of our pre-
established goals. Looking more
closely at my tennis arm, I discovered
an uneven motion in my elbow pre-
cisely before I hit the ball. I learned
that if my elbow were stabilized just
before I hit the ball, the motion be-
came smooth. Tim then put a number
"5" on my present elbow motion. "1"
would represent no excess motion
and "10" would be an extreme elbow
motion. As I hit the ball, I was to tell
him the number that corresponded to
the movement of my elbow without
judging myself or trying to control my
stroke. The first ball was a "5," then a
"3," then a "2," and then a "7," then a
"2," and finally a "1." Using the
numbers focused my sensitivity and
awareness of the present motions in
my elbow which assisted me in allow-
ing Self II to make the necessary ad-
justments towards my goal.
Using the same principle I began
instructing my bass students to pay
attention to their elbow, when shift-
ing over the neck of the instrument
caused them to play flat. I noticed that
many students discovered by them-
selves that if the elbow is raised be-
fore the shift, the notes will not be
flat, and through that awareness, the
change was made automatically. In
Florida during one of my first Inner
Game lectures, I tried an experiment
with a pianist. The student wanted to
know how to make the piano sing like
a string instrument. She played a
series of chords and asked me to help
her find ways to sustain the sound.
Not knowing how to play the piano, I
had no idea what instructions to give
her. Using the Inner Game process, I
13
 asked her to give me an idea of how
she would like it to sound. She re-
plied, "If I could show you how I want
it then I would not be asking you how
to play it!" We laughed. I suggested to
her that on a scale from one to ten, she
state how she was presently sustain-
ing the chords. She replied, "About
4." I asked, "Could you sustain them
less? In the opposite direction you
want to improve-to a 3?" She reluc-
tantly demonstrated how she didn't
want to sound, and then evaluated
her performance at a 2. Then I asked,
"Without trying to make a high score,
could you sustain a level of 5?" I knew
it was only one degree more than
where she began. This did not appear
difficult for her as she played the pas-
sage. She purprised herself and gave
her performance an 8. She was
amazed that she almost totally solved
her problem. I asked her what she had
found different between the perfor-
mance that was a 2 and the one that
was an 8. Herresponse, after thinking
carefully, was a list of technical
changes sounding like, "I kept the
• weight of my arms into the
keyboard." "I relaxed my shoulders,
and my pedal motion was quicker
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QUARTET
COMPETITION
Eastman
School of Music
University
of Rochester
First PrIze:
Over $31,000 in tuition
remission and stipendsper
year for coaching wijh the
Cleveland Quartetand other
membersof the Eastman
faculty, and for a full program
of study at the Eastman
School. Normallya two-year
program.
Eligibility:
Competitionopen to existing
quartets(preferred)and
individuals, who will be heard
by the Cleveland Quartet.
Date/place of performance
by arrangementw~h the
Eastman School.
AppIIc:atIcIM ancllnqulrles:
Contact Jon Engberg,
Associate Directorfor
Academic Affairs, Eastman
School of Music,26 Gibbs
14
and more precise." "I heard the music
in my head." I pointed out to her that
after establishing dear goals, all she
had done was to become aware of the
present without passing judgments.
Then she began to move naturally to-
ward her goal without having to "try"
to produce all the individual changes
that had taken place.
Tim further explained the learning
process through a model triangle that
deals with developing will, aware-
ness, and trust skills to increase "re-
laxed concentration."
Trost Awareness
Will (Goals) After establishing a
goal (will) of what needs to be
changed, we increase our auiarness of
'what is' without judging or trying to
change it, by using our senses of
sound, feeling, sight, and our mental
perception. We are able to begin to
trust the wisdom of the body and
brain through exercises designed to
allow us to rely upon Self II to learn
and perform. This enables us to keep
our mind in the present, maintaining
our concentration and confidence and
not being distracted by doubts and
fears of the past or future.
My tennis lesson continued as I let
St., Rochester, NY 14604
(Tel. 716-275-3050)before
March 1, 1982.
EuIm8n SIrIng FacuIly
Violin: CharlesCastleman,
Anastasia Jempelis, Abram
Loft, SylviaRosenberg, Peter
Salaff,· OliverSteiner,
DonaldWeilerstein,· Howard
Weiss, Zvi Zeitlin
Viola: AtarArad,* Heidi
Castleman, MarthaStrongin
Katz, Francis Tursi, Christian
Woehr
Cello: Steven Doane, Paul
Katz; Robert Sylvester
Double Bass:James
VanDemark
Harp: Eileen Malone
• Member, Cleveland Quartet
go of my initial self-consciousness.
Tim explained, "We are going to
shoot a make-believe film of you play-
ing tennis but the camera will never
show where your ball lands. Don't
worry about the accuracy of your
shots. Just enjoy swinging and as-
sume the role of your favorite tennis
player." I decided to "become" Bjorn
Bjorg since he impressed me as being
in complete control of himself. With-
out conscious effort my strokes be-
came smooth, my footwork co-
ordinated, and my level of enjoyment
soared. The funny thing was th
t my shots were amazingly accurate
even though I was not trying to hit
them in the court.
In Canada I used this same
technique during a demonstration of
the use of 'role playing' in music. I
told a violinist that we were going to
film a make-believe movie of her
playing the violin. However, her
sound would be replaced by a record-
ing of her favorite violinist. She
should play without worrying about
making mistakes, poor intonation or
phrasing. Her job was to imitate the
appropriate visual qualities and spirit
of the music. She chose to imitate Ar-
AMERICAN STRING TEACHER
thur Grumyo because she said his
performance of the Mozart concerto
was like the quality of spring and
sunshine. She assumed a proud and
confident posture while her playing
was immediately light, free, and ac-
curate. The shift into her ideal mode
was a movement into her Self II-
playing in the present, expressing the
realities of her experience with the
sound of spring and the qualities of
sunshine that gave meaning to her
music. Since her performance was
being 'dubbed' by her idol, Grumyo,
Self I had no opportunity to distract,
interfere, or criticize her own play-
ing.
My tennis lesson was concluded on
a similar note. "Role playing" Bjorg, I
was exuberant and no longer con-
cerned about making a good impres-
sion with Tim. Self II led my concen-
tration into the process of discovery,
through awareness, trust, and will.
Later, in pondering how effortlessly I
learned, I realized that Tim gave no
instructions on 'how to' swing the
racket, where to place my feet, or pos-
ition my body. Through Tim's ques-
tions, I established my goals, point-
ing my attention to the areas I felt
needed to change. Instead of focusing
on how I was doing, my mind was
busy on the experience of the play,
increasing my awareness of the pre-
sent, establishing goals so changes
became effortless and easy.
As a teacher, I had some initial ap-
prehension that this process would
sometimes be time-consuming, but
I've found I can help my students
learn to listen and establish goals by
providing them with quick alterna-
tives. For example, if I hear bad into-
nation, instead of stating, "You are
out of tune," I ask, "Is the B sharp or
flat?" The student listens and de-
cides, "I believe it is flat," thus in-
volving himlherself in the learning
process, heightening the ability to
hear and discriminate intonation.
The Inner Game teacher guides the
students' attention towards making
choices, establishing goals, and as-
suming responsibility for their own
changes. Serving as a guide or coach
does not bruise the students' egos but
enhances their confidence and elimi-
nates the dependency on the teacher
for all the answers.
Of course, this is only a brief intro-
duction to the possibilities of playing
and winning the Inner Game in music
teaching and performance. I've found
WINTER/1982
that learning the "inner" skills of
awareness, will, and trust is a process
that requires patience and commit-
ment, but one which is well worth the
effort involved. I see that it is possible
to overcome the mental obstacles
which hinder me and free myself and
others to perform, learn, and enjoy to
our fullest potential. 0
The American String Teachers As-
sociation will sponsor Timothy Gallwey
and Barry Green in a lecture-
demonstration at this year's M.E.N.C.
convention on February 12th in San An-
tonio, Texas. Green will also present an
InnerGamelectureat the M. T.N.A. na-
tionalconvention on March 21 and 22 in
Kansas City, Kansas.
The Inner Game Corporation is in-
terested in contactingteachers who have
had experience applying Inner Game
techniques to variousfields of music. For
further information about a projected
1982 Spring Teacher's Conference, or if
you areinterested in beingincludedon a
mailing list of Inner Game activities,
please write:
Inner Game Corporation
127 Barrington Place
Los Angeles, California 90049
or: Barry Green
3449 Lyleburn Place
Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
Please Mention
The
American String
Teacher
When Writing
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BENJAMIN BRITIEN
Simple Symphony
A famous work written when Britten
was himself very young-
Boisterous Bourree . Playful
Pizzicato. Sentimental Saraband
Frolicsome Finale
(Score 27.401 $7.50; parts each $1.00)
J.P.B. DOBBS
A HolidlY in Holllnd
Picturesque and very short
movements-
Bicycles. Canals. Country Dance.
Clogs. Windmills . Fishermen
(Score 27.916 $2.75; parts each $1.10;
optional piano part $1.50)
EDWINA PALMER &
AGNES BEST
Six Short Pieces
for elementary strings-
Prelude. Improvisation in
Threes and Fours. Reverie. Rondo
Pizzicato . Elegy . A Little March
(Score 27.100 $3.00; parts each $1.00;
optional piano part $1.50)
ROBERT WASHBURN
Suite for Strings
four short movements-
Little March . Song . Scherzo .
Finale
(Score 92.701 $3.50; parts $.50 to $1.00)
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15