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The Creative Elements
of Music

Articles on Inspiration in Music

The Creative Elements of Music

Inspiration in Music-July 2005 Oakland, California
By Barry Green

What do fire, water, air and earth have in common with the seven chakras and the creative process of musicians? For the past two years, I have been fascinated with the magic of inspiration and how it manifests in some kind of artistic expression. In writing the final chapters of my last book, The Mastery of Music, dedicated to ‘creativity and inspiration,’ my curiosity was inspired by interviews with composers Dave Brubeck, Gunther Schuller, as well as Terry Riley and Libby Larsen. I was so engrossed in the energy of these conversations that I vowed I was going to stay on this path even after the book was completed.

I had read Mihaly Csikszentmihali’s definitive book on ‘Creativity’ but finished with more questions than answers. I wanted to learn more about this process. I decided to seek out others who excel in tapping into their creative energy.

Long time colleague and improvising cellist guru David Darling helped me to organize experimental workshops in creativity. Being fascinated by the accessibility of David’s effective approach to teaching improvisation, I was inspired to attend his Summer 2005 weeklong workshop: ‘The Art of Improvisation.’ It transported me into a world of creativity and inspiration, and I was overwhelmed by how David’s approach embodied so many clues to this elusive creative process. I had rarely experienced this as a classical musician, certainly not with the frequency of great musical moments that I enjoyed when I tried David’s style of free improvisation. In July 2005, I organized a project with David Darling and other colleagues, which was dedicated to exploring this magical creative process with all types of music to include jazz, folk, classical, and free improvisation.

Terry Riley wrote, “If you believe that there is a field of consciousness which somehow connects the whole universe including ourselves, into a seamless web, then someone like Mozart has a very fine tuned antenna for this kind of thing. He could pick up signals from this ‘consciousness station’ much better than others. But we can also tune into that ‘consciousness’ station.” What’s the difference between Mozart and us? I would suggest that it has to do with our ability to ‘hear’ or ‘listen’ to this station. Once we receive these impulses, it has to do with what we do with them. Most of the time, I am convinced we create blocks within our mind and body that inhibit these signals from being heard and then transformed into some kind of artistic expression.

This consciousness station, which some might call the ‘music of the spheres,’ ‘eternal,’ or ‘infinite,’ may come from several places. Perhaps it originates from a source, not only from the outer spheres, but from the bowels of the earth, air, sun, and water. I believe that it can come from anywhere. There may be a connection between the elements of nature and the elements of inspiration. I learned from our Inspiration in Music workshop, that while we may receive this inspiration from anywhere, it comes to us THROUGH our BODY. Our body is like a vessel for our creativity. It not only receives the inspiration but it processes it and then transforms it into some form of expression we call Art (music, dance, etc.).
Chungliang Al Huang, the world famous Tai Chi master, poet, educator, dancer, and calligrapher said: "Reach up to the sky, as you reach up, remember to allow the energy to come down into your funnel to receive inspiration. If you reach for it and are open to it, it will come to you. Opposite is to bring the energy up from the earth, the grounding energy, and then around the human energy. Gather all these into you and you will never burn out."

Fire energy, water energy cleansing, tree energy that reaches into the earth … RELEASE that which you have and make room for more. Each energy comes from a different place (fire, water, earth, air) and each energy sounds different in music. The fire is the passion. The water energy is fluid like a river, different in its speed and intensity; it is the rhythm. In the air we find the birds singing the melody and hear the beautiful harmonies. The earth has the form, structure, and power that takes the vibration into our bodies and spreads it out through our limbs. It has to fill you and enter your body and them come out again, to be released. Chungliang says: “The wind of God is always there, you must learn to put out your sail and catch the wind. Otherwise it is of no use to you unless you are open to that which is greater than you.” This is where we are our biggest enemy. We don’t always know how to let in the inspiration and we create blocks in our bodies that make it difficult let go of this artisitc ideas.

Our body is complex. When it expresses music it comes from many places. There are seven chakras that represent a form of energy that travels through our body. The energy is called "chi." Chi gets blocked. The energy (inspiration) must be awakened and move up and down the chakras freely. Chungliang believes that humans are always congested. Chi circulates through our body pathways called meridians. There are main meridians which branch off into the small meridians. When the muscles in the body tighten or the heart closes down, or the mind and imagination filters inspiration, these energies are blocked and we cannot express ourselves. Our goal is to keep these meridians clear and open, easing the circulation of the nervous system and the conscious system as well. While there are seven chakras identified that have specific functions in human behavior, I think they also have some general musical counterparts.
The lower chakras have been associated with survival, animal instinct, and pleasure (sensuality, sexuality, power-principles, and strength). In music this has to do with our discipline, our commitment to being musicians, our identity as artists, and holding the groove and expressing our power in our interpretation. The middle chakras are about passion and reside in the region of the heart. It is what transforms music from dynamics to feeling, from expression to love, from a feeling to a serenade or lullaby. The upper chakras are about consciousness and this is where we engage creativity. This allows the body to choose the unexpected rhythm, dynamic, change of character, brilliant orchestration, or musical idea. At the top of this chakra is the spiritual connection that allows us to play with the guidance of Beethoven, Mozart, Brubeck, or our own higher powers. It allows us to tap into this universal consciousness. It COMES IN from the Universe, the worldly elements. It enters our bodies and GOES OUT through these chakra meridians as music or art. Our challenge is to keep the body open to receive and recycle this chi energy as artistry.

There is this expression called, ‘Going Deep.’ David Darling learned this from his producer Manfred Eicher during the recording of his first album for ECM. Manfred would not accept a funky cello lick. He said to David: “I didn’t hire you to do that shit, I hired you to go as deep as you can, just play your cello!” And David said: “That made me go into my inner drive. Manfred demanded a direct line to the heart or where the real emotions lie.” And here again is where I learned also from Chunliang Al Huang that there is a difference between just reaching up and reaching into the universe for inspiration. He asked us first to take our hands and extend them up as high as we can. Then he asked us to extend them to the roof of the concert stage where we were standing; we extended further. Then he asked us to reach to the clouds above the concert hall; once again we reached further. Then we were invited to reach to the stars in the universe, and finally to the infinite beyond the stars. At this point, my arms were about out of their sockets and my feet felt like they were off the floor. Going deep is like the difference between reaching up and REALLY reaching up. It includes getting beyond the mind, imagination, and then some. It involves going beyond today, beyond time and tapping into the infinite inspiration of all music.
Let us explore how we create our own blocks to receive and transmit this inspiration and creative expression.

BLOCKS:
Music has to flow through our nervous system (and chakras) without blockage. When we have a block in our concentration, we have to overcome it. When our mind is cluttered and preoccupied with thoughts, doubts, and fears, it is not free to express the musical energy. The Inner Game of Music has been the focus of my work for the past 25 years and effectively deals with freeing the mind of needless distractions that keep us from our performance potential.

Lao Tsu, the 6th century BC Chinese poet credited as the father of the Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power), wrote:

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.

And my own favorite expression is: “Music is a beautiful painting on a background of silence.” Let the thoughts come and go, but when the music comes, it must be on a clean slate--empty, clear, and available only for the music.
The mind and mental distractions are not the ONLY blocks we need to overcome. While the mind is part of our body and nervous system, our 2005 seminar on Inspiration and Creativity reminded me of how much the body needs to be free for expression as well.

Lao Tsu also wrote so profoundly:

A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filed with sap.
At death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.

This tells me that if the body is stiff and unyielding, it cannot live or express life.
My own Inner Game demonstration was conducted in partnership with Alan Scofield, my long time friend, choreographer, and movement specialist from our sponsoring multi-cultural music education organization, Young Imaginations. After my presentation of Inner Game theories of concentration: Awareness, Commitment and Trust skills, I presented a live demonstration of their applications to piano performance.

Miriam Hlavaty, from Oslo, Norway, performed a piano sonata by Mozart that contained much dramatic activity. But Miriam’s performance goal was to be calmer in her body (rather than nervous) regardless of the feelings that were implied in the music. When I asked her what was indeed going on in the music, she described ‘decisiveness, followed by questioning, then a gossiping conversation, bold and light contrast. Then building towards more decisiveness.’ If one’s goals is to feel calm while playing all this music, that would be in conflict with these different qualities in the music. The simple Inner Game approach is to allow the feelings inside you to coincide with the music so that they become one. This approach engages the mind, which processes every changing music character while scanning the body to align these feelings with the nervous system. It is a simple and effective way of managing and adjusting a physical state of being that is opposed to the qualities being expressed in the music. While Miriam’s playing made a dramatic shift, assuming these changing qualities of decisiveness and a contrasting dialogue, her personal comfort issues immediately vanished. However, I still noticed a lack of physical involvement. This approach was cerebral and it wasn’t going very deep. It seemed like her body cut off (or blocked) the expression of these feelings.

Alan Scofield led our morning movement sessions where we practice ‘mirroring’ exercises with a partner. One person leads a movement while the other follows the body shape, feelings, speed, and emotions of the leader as the two souls gradually synchronize their movements. I had Alan sit at the piano bench next to Miriam and assume Miriam’s playing position. Miriam was instructed to play the notes as she did but allow ALAN to lead her body by mirroring HIS movements, much like our morning movement exercises. Alan was to listen to the music and choose gestures and body movements that reflected the feelings in the music while letting his hands pantomime the rhythm and direction of Miriam’s playing.
You would not have believed what happened with the sound. Fortunately, Miriam is skilled enough to be able to do this exercise and ‘surrender’ to Alan’s body and character movements. The result was that Alan got Miriam to use her body, head, arms, shoulders and even legs in the most dramatic way. The kundalini energy was free to travel from the lower chakras through the entire body to the upper crown chakras. The sound and character were unleashed. The ‘body channel’ was opened and the music flowed.

RHIANNON CHANNELS INSPIRATION THROUGH HER BODY:

Rhiannon is known worldwide for her gift of singing and teaching creative improvisation. She has taught and performed with Bobby McFerrin in his unique Voicestra, an improvisational 12-piece voice ‘orchestra’ that creates spontaneous moods and grooves. Watching Rhiannon build these musical layers into an exciting product, I marveled at how she arrived at each overlapping pattern. I noticed her body like a giant antenna to the earth, sky, and air. The musical grooves seemed to travel through her body, finding their form and shape until they came out of her voice as a polished groove.
The singers (or instrumentalists) that stand in a large circle around her are divided into four or five groups. Rhiannon starts with a simple groove pattern, perhaps on just a few pitches. Rather than snapping her fingers in time or a verbal count off, she shows the tempo with her body. Then she begins to articulate a few patterns that work with this groove, but you are not supposed to take what she is formulating UNTIL she acknowledges that she has figured it out. She says things like: “I’m working on it. Not yet.” Her legs quiver as she forms different sounds and rhythms. Then she says: “It’s almost there” and continues to sway her hips. Then she keeps ‘feeling it’ as her shoulders and head engage in the groove. Finally she repeats it (sings it) several times until it is clear that she has arrived at her final pattern. She repeats the process with the next group ‘feeling out’ another layer of music. She continues around the circle with the music appearing to rise through her feet, legs, hips, shoulders and finally out her voice. The music seems to come from the air or the earth and flow through her body until it feels right.

Mary Knysh, music educator, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist led sessions on creative, music-making, integrating vocal syllables with body/hand movements. It didn’t matter if it were body percussion, sticks, boom whackers, voice, or instruments, Mary made these external instruments disappear as she connected us to our inner music in a non-thinking state. She showed us African drum language transferred to pitched vocal and body percussion: Goon Doon (thighs), Go Do (stomach) and Pah Tah (clap), or Indonesian sounds of Ta ki ta, which are combined with steps and claps. By studying, listening, and dancing the rhythms and movements of these ethnic cultures, we see how they have integrated the voice, spirit and body into one sound. ‘Sing-dance-play’ is inseparable in these cultures. I wonder why our Western culture, with its reliance on the mind and its negligence of the voice and body, has isolated us from our true ability to communicate and make music.

VOICE/BODY CONNECTION:

David Darling has been my inspiration and model for exploring the process of creativity. During this past year I have been studying improvisation with David and marveling at how he communicates and expresses himself while dancing, singing and playing his cello. Observing this multi-faceted approach to playing (voice, body, spirit, and playing), many channels of expression are opened, which allows inspiration to flow.
David teaches that silence is your best friend. There is as much music in the silence as there is in the notes. He said: “Drummers listen to the silence. This is a big part of the profoundness of music. Anyone who listens to the silence is a seasoned musician.” When we are open to hear in the most sensitive ways, our choices of notes become natural.

For over 25 years David has collaborated with Tai Chi master Chungliang Al Huang at the Esalen Institute. In musical terms, I think of Tai Chi as the ‘continuous flow’ of music from its inspiration in the Cosmos, through the body and back out to the Cosmos. This Eastern Tai Chi philosophy is manifest in David’s style of communicating the spirit of music and life. David has embodied the opposite principles of the yin and yang (principles of balance) and the flow of chi (spirit/energy) in his teaching and playing. One of David’s most profound teaching principles is ‘Sing what you play and Play what you Sing.’ Like Rhiannon, David’s musical expression also appears to pass through his body. The voice (powered by the breath or chi energy) helps connect the human spirit with any external instrument. If the voice is blocked or silent, then the chi/spirit cannot move through your body into your musical instrument. The voice participates and joins the musical product whether it sings silently or aloud. David leads exercises that connect the voice with the body in simple re-circulating Tai Chi movements. When David makes the sound of a note he has a way of communicating it in an imaginary Tai Chi circle. A simple pizzicato note becomes a giant circle of energy and motion. It comes from the sky or earth, enters and leaves his body (and cello), and travels back out into the sky. It breathes with chi and life energy.

It is amazing how one can express the same feelings with voice, instruments and our bodies (through gesture). In a combined session with small improvisation ensembles, David, Rhiannon, Mary, and Alan, explored expressing anger, excitement, tenderness, surprise, and seduction, first with our voices, then our instruments, then our physical gestures, and then all together. Engaging multiple ways of communicating the same emotions can intensify the quality of our expression. These simple exercises helped to remove the blocks and made the improvisations so much more vivid and powerful.

This was the theme of our course: integration, mind-body-spirit, While sharing the same musical goals, each coach unlocked artistry from a slightly different point of view. At the same time they shared the identical vision of creating a balanced and inspired musical interpretation. The inspiration comes from the universe. Go out there, go deep, and embrace all these elements and bring it into your entire body. The body is the center of all this energy and knowledge. When the body is free and unblocked, the spirit will come out in many ways: through dance, voice, fingers, instruments, and even silence. There are no limits to our inspiration except those limits of our own imagination.

Chungliang Al Huang talks about the three horizontal lines in Chinese calligraphy: sky, human and earth. “If you can connect these three sides, you are a master--the essence of life. How do you get to hold the sky energy? Open yourself, watch it come in and take this life as spirit. And then it comes out through our body. We keep filling it up and emptying it out into the world as love and sound and life. It is like food for our soul, spirit and body. We are free to receive this inspiration and transform it to music, art, movement and life.”

The ‘elements in creativity’ include the passion and expression of fire, the spontaneous rhythm, pulse and strength of the water currents, the songs, melodies and inspired harmonies of nature in the air, the body chakras receives the chi energy from the earth, expresses the form and structure of sound through its power, passion, creativity. The energy or inspiration cycle flows continuously through history, today, and tomorrow. Creativity taps into the infinite and translates this into art. This is our life’s work. This is our joy. It’s really about the love of humanity, nature, and life. We are so lucky we can experience this in music and the arts.