Importance of Language

"The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for. " -Ludwig Wittgenstein (20th Century Philosopher)


I would like to start this post by providing insight from a book I recently read written by a fellow bass player named Victor Wooten (bass player of the Grammy Award winning group, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones). The book is entitled "The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music." In this book Mr. Wooten provides a unique insight as to the co-relation between music and language. He points out that individual notes are much like individual words. When speaking one does not think of each individual word as it is spoken, instead we focus on the meaning we are attempting to convey. This directly relates to music improvisation where the artist does not think of each individual note as it is being played, instead the focus is on the meaning that is generated from the grouping of notes making up a phrase. (Wooten) Much like music improvisation, we engage in communication everyday. We don't know what we are always going to say or do but we know that we have the ability to communicate with one another and thus improvise. This is a vital point to embrace when moving forward to grasp the concepts in this manual because it provides example as to the need for the other, like the need for notes to be embedded amongst other notes in order to create a meaningful phrase.

Moving forward, lets apply the metaphor of an individual to individual notes played on the guitar. We do not use one note when playing music, music is made by grouping notes together to create phrases. Playing a single note would be meaningless. The meaning of one note depends upon the positioning of notes around it. Now think of ourselves in a traditional western view of ourselves as self-contained individuals. Edward Sampson's description of the individual as self-contained provides insight into our traditional view of the individual.

"(a) Containers have an inside and an outside; what is not inside must clearly be outside, and vice-versa. In other words, there is a rather clear-cut in-out distinction. (b) Containers have boundaries that separate their inside from the outside, and offer a kind of protective shield...when I describe our current conception of the person as the self-contained individual, I am referring to this container whose boundaries lie at the edge of the skin within which is housed the essence possessed by the person." (Sampson; 36)

We are not as simple as a container which contains knowledge and experience inside. Things are much more complex than simply being black and white or right and wrong (which I will talk more about in my next post) This self-contained view separates us as individuals, it steers us away from the importance of the other in creating ourselves. Wouldn't it would be more beneficial to tear down the walls of our so called 'containers' and notice that we create who we are in and through our relationships with others?

We need the other to create ourselves in the conversation, without the other we would be left with our inner dialogue of past relations to know who we are and what is meaningful in our lives. We need the other to create meaning, just like notes need other notes to create a meaningful phrase. Our society stresses the value of the individual, however we do not exist in the world alone, we exist in the world with others and who we are is dependent upon our interactions with those others. Whether it is in a common day-to-day interaction or on a bigger scale like the relationship of an artist with a crowd.

Words alone mean little besides the associations that have been negotiated in our relationships. For instance, we agree that guitars have strings, drums have heads, and chords are made up of notes. But our language of these things only makes sense in the context of music. If someone where to language of drum heads and bass strings in a doctors office no one would understand what they were talking about. Language is contextually dependent. We have different ways of speaking in different fields. For instance, the language used in a football game would make no sense during a basketball game. If the Celtics called a timeout and Doc Rivers told Kevin Garnet to run a slant route and look for the ball from the quarter back at mid-field it wouldn't make any sense. He would be using a language 'foreign' to the game being played and the result would be chaotic. Wittgenstein's use of the metaphor of language as a game has helped me understand how language is contextually dependent and led me to question how our society views professionals and experts.

Would it be safe to say that to become a professional, in lets say music, one must master the language of the subject?

What I am saying is that we have different ways of languaging which make sense in some fields and not others, our western view of expertise is dependent upon the mastering of language in that given field. We often think doctors are all knowing and we tend to take what they tell us for granted without asking questions. This could be because we feel that we aren't familiar with medical language and when we enter into the doctor's domain we feel positioned as the patient, being told what is wrong with us and what treatment methods we should use. What must be noted is that yes, doctor's have gone through extraneous study and do probably know more about medicine and treatment methods than we do but to say that doctor's know our bodies better than we do is naive in all aspects of the phrase. Everyone is different and different things work for different people. Who's to say one method of treatment is universal? One method might work well for one person and have no effect on another. We are experts of our own bodies, don't you think it would be beneficial to create a shared understanding between two experts (ourselves with our bodies and doctors with medicine) concerning how we are treated in a medical setting?

We should ask more questions, not just at the doctor's office, but in life as well. The right questions can cause great self-reflection in both ourselves and others, they can led us to learn things, like possible treatment options in a medical setting, which we never would have known otherwise. Questions, when used properly, can take a conversation into a much more meaningful light. Sometimes simply listening genuinely to the other is enough to cause a meaningful shift in a conversation. It seems as though western society is used to reloading and defending positions trying to convince others that our way is the best way. Why does it have to be this way? Can't we hold our own while understanding where the other is coming from and how it is possible for the position of another to make sense to them while differing from our perspective? It means we don't need to focus on persuading others to 'see it our way,' it just means that it is possible to hold differing opinions while still creating a meaningful conversation where we can learn new ways of being and understanding.

In my next post I will talk about the importance of dialogue in better understanding our worlds as well as performing as a product of relationships with the other.

Thanks again to anyone who has taken the time out of their day to read this, it means a lot and I appreciate your comments.

-Woody

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