173: Your Musical Story

YOUR MUSICAL STORY Your musical story refers to the rhythm, the pace, and the feelings that your intentional communication creates. This episode will stimulate your creativity and allow you to feel storytelling with your heart and your whole body. It will get you out of your head. You will hear three short pieces of jazz music by the legendary saxophonist, John Coltrane. the are from his famous album, Coltrane Plays the Blues. Each piece is named after a person. The songs are: Mr. Day Mr. Syms Mr. Knight I first used this exercise when I was teaching young adults in New York City. I played the three songs for them and told them to pick one and write a story about it. The goal of the story was to make the central character of the song come alive. The students describe what Mr. Day, Mr. Syms, and Mr. Knight looked like; the described the men’s personalities and their behavior. Remember. These were musical compositions without lyrics. You will only hear the beginning of each song. It is sufficient to create an image and a feeling for you. It will also allow you to sense how the tempo changes. Why is this important? It’s important because it will help you to feel the organic beginning, middle, and end of stories at an unconscious level. That’s with practice of course. Open yourself to this experience, and you will tap into your natural creativity. It will ignite your imagination and make you feel good. Who knows? You may even fall in love with jazz if you aren’t already.