Socrates was famous for his method of “drawing out genius” in others. He used to teach people by getting them to look deep within themselves, notice their richer thoughts and perceptions, and describe these things out loud. Doing this brought great insight and clarity to his students, as they were opening the door to their own inner genius.
This “drawing insight from within” has proved to be a much more effective method of learning than the “shove information down our throats and hope it sticks” approach used today.
In the days of Socratic Method where the teachers would use clever questions to draw perceptions and insight out of their pupils, much larger leaps and bounds were made.
Here’s a startling fact:
In late classical Greece and Renaissance Europe, the Socratic Method of learning produced 10 million times the rate of world class geniuses than that of today’s teaching methods.
10 million times!
Isn’t that unbelievable considering all the modern advancements we’ve made and all the new teaching resources available?
So why is there such an increased rate of genius using Socratic Method and how can we apply it to song creation?
Again, Dr Win Wenger puts it very well:
Because to examine your own first-hand perceptions and awarenesses, and to seek to make your response from them, reinforces not only those
particular awarenesses, but the trait, the behavior, of being aware! And because that genius is already there in nearly everyone, if given its chance to express and emerge. It's there in your own awarenesses, not in someone else's second-hand rote-memorized data.
When you create music you can reap the rewards of using Socratic Method. Once again, your job is to look deep within yourself and become aware of the many perceptions, thoughts, and hunches you have about music.
And instead of expressing these ideas out loud by speaking them, you must express these perceptions in as much detail as you can, using your chosen instrument.
In a little while you will be taken through a powerful improvisation technique that will enable you to put the “Socratic Effect” into play. With the Socratic Method, once again you are putting into play the “Law of Effect.” If you remember, the law of effect states that you get more of what you reinforce.
With Socratic Method, you are reinforcing that you are aware of these secondary perceptions and therefore these perceptions will become much easier to “lock onto” and will become much clearer.
As Dr Win Wenger elegantly stated, when you use this method you are not getting caught up on someone else’s second-hand rote-memorized data. This is why it’s important to look beyond your consciously created ideas and focus on the subtler perceptions that rise from your unconscious. It’s in these perceptions, thoughts and hunches that your true genius lies, not in second hand data that you’ve used to consciously create your ideas.
So how can you tune into these perceptions, thoughts, and hunches that will allow you create mind blowing musical ideas?
Well, once again the answer is inspired by the insightful Dr Win Wenger and his “Principle of Articulation”
This principle states that “the more you express or articulate a given perception, the more you will perceive and understand of that and related perceptions.”
When you use this principle (like in the improvisation exercise coming up soon) and begin expressing your perceptions, these perceptions are being fed back into your brain, and you will then have new perceptions about the perceptions you’ve just expressed.
This powerful feedback loop creates a growing flow of new and meaningful musical perceptions and will send you through an amazing landscape of new inspiring music.
The Learning Loop
Whenever you learn something, the most powerful point of greatest insight is in the information that is fed back to you after you take action on the knowledge you’ve gained.
For example, if you are learning mathematics, the point in the cycle when you are taking in the instructions is not the most crucial moment. The most profound learning will take place when you examine the feedback that comes back to you after using this information.
This feedback is the most powerful point in the learning loop. And it can be used in music creation processes to great affect.
For example, when you part take in the improvising procedure, you will be encouraged to record the entire session. The time when you listen back to recorded sessions is the time when the most progress will be made.
Your brain takes in this information, this feedback and evaluates it critically. It listens for moments that are pleasing to the ear. It listens to moments that are “boring” and begins programming itself to “drop” these parts, leaving only the fine musical moments.
It’s this feedback loop that creates the most insight and change in your musical creation abilities. As you continue to repeat the procedure, your perceptions become easier to notice, and you will find that because of the learning you have done “listening back” to prior sessions, your ideas will improve more and more, and less “boring” parts will crop up.
Early In the Process
The hardest part of this whole process is becoming aware of your subtler, more meaningful musical perceptions and thoughts.
At first, you may not notice anything at all, and you might find this frustrating. You may notice very subtle “flashes” but they are hard to describe and materialize into a performance. You may find yourself fumbling around, without stumbling onto a rich stream of ideas. It can be slow going at first (it certainly was for me).
I assure you though, as you continue with the procedures outlined shortly, the “Principle of Articulation” will come into affect. Also, leveraging the most powerful point in the learning loop will accelerate your musical growth even further.
Can you remember the snowball effect? When you begin the snowball is small (in other words, you aren’t aware of your many musical perceptions) and it takes a little bit of effort to get going. (Just like back in the early
days of fumbling your way around your instrument trying to connect these subtle perceptions to your hands or mouth.)
As you get the ball rolling though, momentum begins to grow. The Law of Effect begins to have a big impact and you find it much easier to tap into your richer resources for ideas. The snowball gets bigger and bigger, and rolls faster and faster.
It’s like opening the floodgates to your “right side,” creative mind. Once they are open, the law of effect has a compounding affect and soon the ideas are flowing thicker and faster than you can imagine.
The link between your perceptions and your instrument grows stronger and stronger, and soon you become a master of this music creation process, and things happen easily for you.
Your job is to get the ball rolling. Your job is to begin the snowball effect. You can do this by using the procedures outlined in a later chapter.