Intuition

Hello, my artistic colleagues!

So, today I've got a little theory I'd like to test-drive on all of you...your feedback, as always, is invited and appreciated.

Probably most of you have had the experience of performing with a conducted ensemble in a hall that is either large enough or reverberant enough (or both) to have elicited this instruction from the conductor to the ensemble:

"Trust your eyes, not your ears."

Now, the reasons why vision is more trustworthy than hearing in this kind of situation are rather cold and scientific, as it turns out (sound waves travel more slowly and are "bendier" than light waves, meaning that light gives you time-related information more reliably in an objective sense). However, the reasons why we tend to have a hard time making our eyes the boss of our ears when we're behaving artistically are probably more complex. At the surface level, music IS sound, so it makes sense to use sound to govern the production of sound. I would argue, however, that we westernly-enculturated people are accustomed to using our eyes for most of the information-gathering we do any given day. And, while we use our ears for some pretty bland stuff as well, we still function relationally largely through our ears, and most likely, the feeling-ful aspects of music are what drew us to it first. So, when we make music, we are in the habit of listening and reacting, because our ears are a more direct connection both to our hearts and our intuition, if one accepts intuition as a kind of highly-ingrained and partially unconscious memory for how things have been before and are likely to be again.

That's my theory, anyway: there is a hierarchy of heart/intuition connectedness within our senses, which is probably a little different for everyone, but for many of us, our ears are probably more intuitive than our eyes. And, in turn, this intuition comes from habit and experience, but it's so close to us that we experience it as almost a "sixth sense". The good news is that if intuition is derived from conscious experience, we have the chance to educate it, and it'll become more finely tuned over time, if we invest our energies in awareness.

Rising Level 2's

Look at Ottman, 8.49 and 8.50

Read through the treble voice first in each example. What aspects of the melody behave as you expected (for example, the V-I feel between the first anacrusis and downbeat in each)? Did any turns surprise you? Are you able to suss out what you expected that didn't happen?

Now, for each example, read through the lower voice for each. Choose a voice to memorize in each example, and take a stab at singing the memorized part as you play the other on the piano. Go by feel. Trust your instincts, now that you've taken a little time to intentionally inform them.

Rising Level 3's

Look at Ottman, examples 8.51 and 8.52. Follow the same instructions as the rising 2's.

Rising Level 4's

Look at Ottman, examples 8.53 and 8.54 (mind the clef in 8.54). Follow the same instructions as the rising 2's.

And, in honor of intuition:

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/may/humphries/