Klarinet Archive - Posting 000075.txt from 2008/01

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Metaphor
Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:48:56 -0500

On 6 Jan, "Keith Bowen" <bowenk@-----.com> wrote:

> My point was that you have to find the right metaphor, one that instant=
ly
> works with both teacher and student. Roger Scruton in "Aesthetics of
> Music", makes the important point that if you try to explain a metaphor=
it
> totally loses its impact....[though] it's probably not quite true that =
you
> cannot learn a metaphor. The jargon of a profession includes ordinary w=
ords
> given, precise technical meanings (e.g. "dislocation" has equally preci=
se
> but very different meanings to a physician and to a solid-state physici=
st),
> but also includes metaphors, such as (in our case) "movement" and
> "support".

I've snipped the middle bit of your post for my own purposes, Keith, in o=
rder
to highlight what I see to be the difference between metaphors in the
aesthetic sense, and metaphors as they may be used in instruction -- what=
I
call, 'teaching metaphors' -- that are closer to what you're talking abou=
t in
the bit after the snip.

In fact, I don't know quite what Scruton meant, not having read his book;=
but
I imagine his point is that, like jokes, aesthetic metaphors work partly
because of the commonality they implicitly assert between generator and
recipient, and that an explanation damages that complicity. So, it's an
essentially deeper experience to see for yourself (standing alongside
Shakespeare, as it were): "the sails conceive, and grow big-bellied with =
the
wanton wind" than it is to have to have it pointed out to you. Similarly=
to
think for yourself that a musical phrase can end suddenly, 'like a mouse
disappearing down a hole' -- and even to discover how to play it like tha=
t --
is one of the deep joys of music.

If that wasn't Scruton's point, then you'll have to explain it to me.

But I think of, and use metaphor in teaching, in a piecemeal way that alm=
ost
*requires* explanation; and the problem here on the mailing list, as I se=
e
it, is not so much the metaphors themselves as that too few of them are
presented at once -- which gives the impression, as you say, that they
constitute some sort of TRUTH. Whereas if you give a number of different=

metaphors that in some ways contradict each other, you don't run that ris=
k.

I once wrote, apropos metaphor:
(in
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1999/09/000395.txt
)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--

Why are metaphors useful?=20
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=20
The ability to perform some complex skill (like playing a clarinet) is
experienced by the performer as a whole. It is impossible to teach this
whole to another directly. We could say that it consists of various
components =99- physical, mental and emotional. Any way in which we descr=
ibe it
has to be incomplete.

If we are in the position of learning such a skill, obviously we start of=
f by
making mistakes. If then those mistakes go uncorrected, and get built in=
to
our playing, we arrive at another, counterproductive whole. It is then
difficult to take this apart and find out where we might change things in=

order to get better.

It may even be the case that we have several things wrong, and changing j=
ust
one of them won't be good enough to show us we are on the right track.

In this case, the wise teacher, and the wise student, will try a number o=
f
different ways of approaching the problem. These approaches are best mad=
e in
the realm of experience, as a complement to the realm of direct instructi=
on.

We can ask the student, or ourselves, to try to imagine the experience of=

playing as though it is like the experience of something else. This is t=
o
immerse ourselves in a metaphor =99- which, usually, is best chosen by so=
meone
who already has a successful experience of the particular technique. In =
this
way, trying out a number of things that this more expert player knows the=

experience is like for him or her, we stand a chance of catching on to th=
at
expertise for ourselves. We shall also see that we can already be imagin=
ing
the experience in terms of a wrong 'something else', which holds us in a =
grip
that we must break. Moreover, we may be reinforcing this grip by the way=
in
which we talk about the situation to ourselves.=20

This is because language is constructed metaphorically. Often we are not=

aware that we are held by a metaphor, because it is built into an idiom o=
f
our language that we use without thinking about it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---

On this view, a metaphor is rather like a tool that is selected by the
teacher from their personal collection in order to restructure a particul=
ar
student's experience. (They can forget the metaphor afterwards, if they
want.) So having to have several goes at it doesn't really matter.

But on this list, there is no possibility to evaluate how things are goin=
g
with the student. (Nor is there that possibility in the published wisdom=
s of
Legendary Teachers.) Hence the danger you identify, which I have been
banging on about here for some 10 years.

Notice that in my article, which is actually about articulation, some hal=
f a
dozen metaphors are presented together. Not all of them would be appropr=
iate
to a particular student -- indeed, with some students you don't want to
mention articulation at all, as they've already 'got it sorted':-)

> If the metaphor is sufficiently widespread it can be learned, essential=
ly
> as a code. I'm sure that generations of students have asked "what do yo=
u
> mean by 'support' (in clarinet playing)?" and then gone on to use it
> themselves.

Actually, I think that 'support' really needs to be properly explained --=
and
mostly isn't -- and that the danger of it being misunderstood is quite hi=
gh.

Tony
--=20

_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
tel/fax 01865 553339
mobile +44(0)7790 532980 tony.p@-----.org

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