This series, “Jazz: An American Art Form” is quite incredible and should be viewed if possible. In this series, Ed depicts the evolution of jazz music from its roots in Africa to the contemporary jazz superstars of the jazz era, and focuses on this style as a pure American musical idiom. Various works from the Jazz series are on display at major galleries and museums throughout the U.S. The series has received critical acceptance internationally. The complete series consists of over 70 works focusing on the African tribal contributions, and also includes such great jazz performers as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, “Satchmo” Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman.

For information about Mr. Dwight or if you wish to purchase some of these fine productions, go to http://www.eddwight.com/galleries/jazz/index.htm#

Now, I’ve termed this column, ‘creativity,’ but it’s not going to be limited to the literal sense of that word. The process of being creative involves numerous subjects. Although from time to time I will be discussing various aspects of ‘creativity’ in the “Playing/Improvisation’ section of this site and also within the ‘Player Well Being’ section, I think that it is a broad enough and important enough topic that the dividends of its pursuit are worthy of a separate section.

Simply stated, creativity can be viewed as a mental process that produces new ideas, concepts, or alterations of existing ideas and concepts. Aligned with this, either as a complimentary component or as subsequent process, is the concept of innovation. Innovation is something that can occur in degrees or by great bounds. In the development and creation of music, I encourage both.

One might view creativity as a simple concept and superficially that may be so. However, psychologists, scientists, philosophers, historians, economists, design professionals, business people and engineers have all studied aspects of creativity in an attempt to master what it really is. During the age of enlightenment in the eighteenth century, the concept of creativity was linked to the concept of imagination. This was especially true as it concerned art.

When reflecting on my own life, my biggest obstacle and hurdle was lack of self- confidence and negativity. While I could write a book on this whole phenomenon and probably should, for now I will attempt to present some of my knowledge and beliefs.

As it applies to trumpet players, the most important aspect of having a successful life and playing well is developing the proper attitude. When I say attitude, I mean having faith in oneself and always looking at your playing with a positive attitude.

Although I never met or studied with Bill Adam, from what I can tell he really was a true master of trumpet playing. On the subject of the mental side of trumpet playing, Bill basically said this:

If you pick up your horn and play something and say, “Holy mackerel! That stinks!” Well the first thing you are doing is programming your sensory mind in a negative way. And so, when you allow that to happen you only build upon that negative perception. “Now, if that tone doesn’t sound the way you want it to sound, what you do is, you say……..NOTHING about it. You don’t even think anything about it. And you re-program a beautiful sound in your mind, and the first thing you know, that starts to take over. But that’s what you have to watch when you’re playing the trumpet. If articulation isn’t there, or this or that or the other thing, you’ve got to watch your programming. Feeling sorry for yourself causes all these programming things to go to your head. So we’re going to program ourselves for all those good things that are necessary to have when you play.”

Now before we get to deep into any of this creative stuff, let’s be clear that in order to be successful we have to have a plan of some sort. While its easier to start off each day in neutral and simply react to what comes our way, that will simply lead to inertia and that will not make you good trumpet players. Live life like you mean it! Play like you mean it! A great place to start is with a positive mental attitude.

The master motivator, Earl Nightingale said this, “Success or failure as a human being is not a matter of luck, or circumstance, or fate, or the breaks, or who you know or any of the other tiresome, old myths and clichés by which the ignorant tend to excuse themselves. It’s a matter of following a commonsense paradigm of rules — guidelines anyone can follow.”

Now go play something pretty for me!!

For now, let’s focus on pranayama. The first part of this word prana means breath. When the late great Maynard Ferguson was asked about his ability to play so well in the upper register, he attributed his ability to his mastery of prana. “I tell everyone, young and old alike to go out and get a couple of books on Hatha Yoga, and read the parts about breath, or prana. The Indians call prana ‘the life force,’ and sometimes we forget that if we weren’t breathing, we’d be dead.” He asserted that there was nothing special about his lip, rather it was use and control of air.

The phenomenon of breath control constitutes an entire branch of Yoga called Pranayama. Pranayama was developed to study patterns of breathing and their effects on the mind and the body. Ancient Yogis discovered that with breath control you can increase ‘Pranic Energy’ or life force, and control states of consciousness. Yogis of Pranayama assert that by bringing in and holding pranic energy through the breath one can control all the forces of the universe, the electric, bio-electric, magnetic and the atomic.

There are three stages to the breathing process. Inhalation, which is called puraka, fills the lungs with air and stimulates the whole body. Retention is called kumbhaka. During retention, the body’s temperature is raised and the oxygen is absorbed. Exhalation is called rechak. In rechak the diaphragm is returned to its original position. The intercostal muscles are contracted and the toxic air is released into the atmosphere. With pranayama practices, vital energy is distributed throughout the body, ensuring the proper functioning of all the organs and greater levels of physical energy.

It has been said that the lungs are like bellows stoking the fires of life within you. The richer the supply of oxygen, the more vigorous and beautiful is the fire. By breathing deeply you are delivering more oxygen into your system thereby giving your body the vital fuel it needs to nourish all your organs and keep your body strong and healthy.

Since the benefits of studying and practicing this branch of yoga are so strong, I encourage you to begin this journey today. There are several fine books and dvd’s on the subject. A few of those are: