When I was at school, the worse crime of all was to be caught daydreaming, writes Gerard McCrystal. The philosophy of my old school, St. Columb?s College, was very influenced by the strict discipline of the Christian Brothers.
The daydreamers were the losers, those who were set to become ?cornerboys?, according to the President of the College, Monsignor Coulter. Daydreamers were those who had no concentration, so therefore had no chance of passing exams, applying themselves to anything and were devoid of any self-discipline. In many ways they were losers in all ways. I was one such ?corner-boy?. At school, art was considered a recreational activity like physical education. Music wasn?t even taught as a proper subject so when I announced to my form teacher that I wanted to be a professional musician, it was not much of a shock.
I am now Professor of Saxophone at Trinity College of Music, London and have taught extensively in schools in the past. The main thing that I get completely frustrated with is that my students are so concerned with playing the right notes, that they rarely go within themselves. As a musician you need control, of course, to have freedom, but with control alone one will never have freedom. Of course in classical music the big problem is that the notes cannot be changed. The composer has already dictated the phrase, the dynamic etc. That is where the difficulty lies. The performer must overcome these technical difficulties to allow their imaginations to go free.
Ironically, the only job I have ever been offered outside of music was in the Chicago Stock Exchange. I was studying there and the head of a major company heard me playing and asked me in for a meeting. He saw that as a musician I could use my creativity to overcome business problems that wouldn?t go away, instead of applying the usual business school formulae. In the same way the prisoners in Colditz, in such a restricted environment, used their imagination to find ingenious ways to escape.
I have come to realise that in life there is nothing greater than the human imagination and that it has no boundaries, rules and regulations. The arts in general encourage this. The arts are important because they are not just another examination subject. You can all play the same music, draw the same subject, but the results will all be different, unique like ourselves.
One of the biggest problems in the work place is stress and stress related illnesses cost companies a lot of money every year. Ironically if the employees had been encouraged to use their imagination via the arts they would have been unconsciously trained in stress management. One technique I use with my own students is to get them to lie on the floor, relax every muscle, and then concentrate on their breathing. I put a book on their stomachs and as they concentrate on the book rising and falling with each breath, they begin to breathe deeper and use the diaphragm more efficiently. Finally, I get them to imagine a happy time in their lives and try to go back to it. This all takes about half an hour and when they play afterwards the effect on their playing is amazing. When people are trained to use their imaginations, fears can be overcome and they can begin to achieve their potential.
In so many schools the arts are seen as a pastime, not as important as the real subjects like English or maths. Can you imagine a National Curriculum where the arts are incorporated into other subjects? How sad it is that exam results and league tables are the order of the day. If only we were trained to apply our imagination to problems, instead of getting the ?right? answer we could have a generation of happier, balanced people.
Gerard McChrystal is an internationally renowned saxophonist. He is Professor of Saxophone at Trinity College of Music, London and also teaches at The Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff. e: saxsaxsax@ntlworld.com