Introduction

Welcome to my blog. I am going to be using this blog to have a conversation with everyone who reads it. While it wont be a face-to-face conversation we are having, it will be one that, I hope, can lead anyone who enjoys music and the performance of music to a realm of new possibility and understanding as to our everyday interactions. For the next few days I will be posting frequently regarding the concepts I have been learning in my final semester at the University of New Hampshire, relating them to music and my experiences.

For the past four months I have had the privilege of working with a professor and friend of mine in the communication department at the University of New Hampshire. Her name is Sheila McNamee and she is a distinguished professor in the field of communication. With her help I have embraced new ways of thinking and being in the world. These new ways of thinking are relationally based and stress the importance of the other in creation of ourselves and how we view the world. One thing that I have found through my studies is the importance of co-relating in terms of learning new ideas and applying them to something of interest in your life. So I am going to relate the concepts I have been learning to my personal experiences performing in Our Last Night (myspace.com/ourlastnight) in hopes of finding common ground with those who enjoy music and its performance.

What is social construction and why is it important?

There are many different ways of thinking and being in the world, social construction is one which offers new ways of understanding ourselves, others, and the world we live in. Social construction is important because it allows us to view situations outside of our traditional western view of ourselves as self-contained individuals obtaining knowledge inside our bodies and step into a relational understanding of how we create what is meaningful in our lives everyday. What is knowledge besides a relationship through language? We cant grab knowledge and squeeze it in our hands, it is simply a concept, like reality, that exists in the moment of interaction. Nothing is more important than the moment of interaction. If we treat every moment as one where we are genuinely interested and listening to the other then we can understand that it is possible to maintain our own positions while letting the other happen to us. If we take this approach to every conversation we have then it becomes possible to reach new levels of understanding. Everyone has a story and no one can tell you your story is wrong, it is your lived experience and although someone could disagree they can never tell you your experience isn't how you've experienced it. We all have our own experiences that lead us down different roads, who is to say that any road is the right one? Take bands for example, no band is exactly the same but every band has a story as to how they got to where they are and why they do the things they do. In no way are their traditions wrong because they are not the same as another band. Everyone is different and every band is different. Don't you think it would be more beneficial to understand how band's stories as to how they've got where they are than trying to prove that one way is better. This example reflects our western view of democracy being the best way of being and if a people or culture do not believe the same then we should instill our ways of being on them to make them better. Couldn't it be possible that there are multiple ways of being in the world? Who is to say one way is better than another?

Do you ever notice how you feel different in different situations?

Has someone such as a teacher, coach or colleague ever positioned you in a way that made you feel uncomfortable? I have found it eye-opening to note that we chose (knowing and unknowingly) to feel a certain way in every situation and because we make a choice we can always chose to feel differently. This may seem far fetched I know but next time someone makes you feel uncomfortable ask yourself why your feeling that way and how you have come to associate that feeling with the situation. Then think of a time you felt great, where you were comfortable and your desired self was present. Now bring those feelings into the situation that is making you feel uncomfortable. If this happens you would be choosing to feel different and thus acting differently in the situation. Take stage-fright for example. What if instead of thinking that there are people you don't know staring at you making you feel nervous and uncomfortable you took a different approach and pretended that each person in the crowd was a friend or family member. Would you act more comfortable in front of them?

We are constantly creating meaning through our interactions. Much like an improvisational artist creates music with other artists. The improvisational artist must listen to what the other artists are playing in order to communicate with them and generate a meaningful whole, coherent music. Just like listening to others in conversations it is important to listen to what others say while maintaining your own position. If we find that someone is trying to change our opinion and framing us in a way that makes us uncomfortable think of the example where we were our desired selves. We can then maintain our desired self in the conversation and then ask questions as to why the other believes what they do. I feel that more often than not the other will share experiences in their life that have led them to believe what they do. Instead of knowing that our own views are contained inside of us we can look into the experiences in our lives that have gotten us to where we are. If we understand that we don't need to persuade or be persuaded but instead look to further understand the other and how they've come to believe what they believe then we can engage in much more meaningful conversations where both parties feel heard and deeper understandings of ourselves, others and our world can occur. I will talk more about this in a later post.

My next post will look into the importance of language and its relation to music. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and encourage any feedback or questions you may have...thank you.

-Woody