Inner Game

Several friends who are colleagues at work were emailing over the weekend in a friendly chatter, and I had mentioned that we ought to send the son of a client who was recently drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies (good for him!) a copy of the Inner Game of Tennis. I had expressed mild surprise that one of my colleagues had not heard of it in an earlier conversation, and someone asked us how in the heck two guys who don't play tennis were talking about the Inner Game of Tennis.

The Inner Game of Tennis has long been something of a bible for performing musicians. I was first introduced to it in college (perhaps even earlier). It is literally a life-changing book, and is especially helpful in figuring out how the mind works, why we get nervous, and most importantly, how to deal with that nervousness, overcome it, and perform at your highest levels. Tim Gallwey wrote it and I believe he really thought at the time he was only writing about tennis - but it has spawned an industry. If you don't know about it, you need to check it out, even if you don't play tennis (or music).

As "proof" to my colleagues, I started to look up a reference to the book, The Inner Game of Music, that Barry Green wrote in collaboration with Gallwey. In looking for that I saw that there is (naturally) a website on the "inner game" generally (Gallwey's site, http://www.theinnergame.com/). As evidence that application to music is not just an enhanced memory of mine from "old college days", I was interested to see that one of the main navigation points on the homepage of Gallwey's site is to its applications to music (IG Music). And there is a website devoted entirely to the Inner Game of Music, http://www.innergameofmusic.com, run by Mr. Green. I am going to check out the websites (there is an interesting little video bite of Tim Gallwey on his site).

Using the Inner Game techniques got me through Juilliard (when my teacher reconstructed my embouchure from the ground up, not easy at 22 after 13 years of practicing and playing every day using a technique that was not going to get me where I needed to be). I still probably consciously think about one of the techniques on every single performance to this day.

Katie Bar the Door

Well, the Endicott household has just become the proud owner of a Ludwig five-piece drumkit, thanks to the fact that a friend's young son is moving to New York and trying to get rid of stuff and raise a bit of cash. He may be able to have a nice meal out, at NYC prices!

Now the drum set can be set up to be the "house" set for Nathaniel's band rehearsals, Voodoo Blues Band touch up rehearsals (yes, we have them occasionally), and for perhaps some impromptu jazz jam sessions.

Next step will be to get the basement in a bit better shape to accommodate the same!