Three is a Magic Number

The focus of my music when I was young was playing in school bands.  Back then, my focus was entirely on working to push the right keys on my instrument, blow into it the right way and get the "right" sounds.  I was very much learning how to play the pieces we were playing by rote.  I also didn't go any further than the physical act of moving fingers over and air through the instrument back then.  To put it another way, all I paid attention to was how to be a clarinet player or a bassoon player.  I was doing nothing to learn how to be a musician.

Instrumental musicians describe things relating to the physical playing of the instrument as "technique".  Technique covers how you hit the keys on a piano, how you blow into a trumpet and how you strike a guitar string.  There's no doubt that being proficient with technique is very important to being a good musician.  It is not, however, the be all and end all of musicianship like I thought when I was younger.  I've come to understand that musical skills can basically be divided into three categories.  We've already talked about technique.  The second category is theory.  Theory means understanding the "rules" that govern music.  Examples of theory would be knowing that the C Major scale contains the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B with no sharps or flats or knowing that the G Minor Seventh chord has the notes G, B flat, D and F in it.  The last category of musical skills is a little more ambiguous.  Let's call them Feel.  Feel skills are what lets a musician change what they are doing with their music to alter the listener's experience.  These are the skills that enhance the emotional appeal of music.

I've read before that someone can be a passable musician simply by excelling at one of these three areas.  Someone who excels at two of the three areas will often be seen as a very good musician.  When you get someone who excels at all three areas - those are the transcendent musicians, the ones you can listen to for hours.

I think there is another way to describe these three categories that helps to take this concept beyond music and into applicability for other areas.  Technique involves using your body, theory involves using your brain and feel involves using your heart.  When the different aspects of musicianship are considered in this way, it becomes easy to apply these aspects to other areas.

Mediator skills can also break down into these three areas.  The mental aspect of mediation lies in understanding different theories relating to negotiations, human dynamics and particularly conflict.  The physical aspect of mediation lies in observing people who are participating in mediation, being aware of what their bodies are saying and being in control of your own body, voice and mannerisms.  The heart aspect of mediation lies in having a sense of what is going on with the participants and how to alter what you are doing with your mind and body to increase the likelihood of resolution.

I've had experience in front of many mediators in my career.  Based on that I would say what is true for musicians is true for mediators.  Someone who excels in one of the three areas will be an acceptable mediator in many cases, although they likely won't have much luck with tougher cases.  Someone who can excel in two of the three areas will be a good mediator, probably able to get some pretty tough cases resolved.  Someone who excels in all three areas, well those are the who have the ability to deal with even the toughest cases.

Today's post title is the title of a Schoolhouse Rock piece.  For those not familiar, Schoolhouse Rock was a series of short cartoons set to music that would come on during the commercial breaks of Saturday morning cartoons starting in the mid seventies.  The pieces were educational, teaching about grammar (Conjunction Junction, what's your function?), civics (I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill), and multiplication.  For those of us of a certain age, these short cartoons were a nice supplement to our education.  When it came time to review the multiplication table for three we all learned that Three is a Magic Number. Appropos of today's post is one verse in particular:

The past and the present and the future,
Faith and hope and charity,
The heart and the brain and the body,
Give you three as a magic number. 

I definitely aspire to use heart, brain and body as both a mediator and a musician.