vesterberg.se

Gerald Weinberg posted a comment about musicians and systems thinking recently. Here are my thoughts about this subject:

Music can be played and created in solitude, but an extra dimension is added when musicians meet and play together. You don’t have to improvise; even playing a familiar song is a greater experience when played together with other musicians. Add an audience and you have yet another dimension. An enthusiastic crowd can inspire you and make you play like you never before. There is more to listening than just consuming. Listening can be participation and interaction. That makes such a difference. Of course each musician has to take his responsibility, but the whole is surely greater than the sum of the parts.

Music has much to do with relationships. It is said that international sports promotes understanding and fellowship, but think about it, competition is a main ingredient in sports. Imagine a musical movement where people from different countries meet and play together without competition and create music together. There you have some promotion of fellowship. Especially Jazz music is an universal concept that crosses all cultural boundaries. In fact, I believe all creative Arts promote connectedness.

Some of today’s music is produced like on assembly line, barren and without lasting impact. It is commercialized fast-food.

I had worked in the computer industry for some 15 years when I started playing myself. I had a rather analytical and left-brain approach to my work and life in general. Along this path I eagerly developed the technical and solitude side of playing bass. I soon discovered the other side; the need to play with awareness, to be connected with myself and with others. Music is to be played together with other people, whether they play or just listen. Being the person I am, I began to reflect over this new perspective and started to hunt for more information along this path. I found a way of thinking that felt natural. This is the way the world operates. If you let loose your artistic right-brain side, it will teach you connectedness.

You may live by these principles more or less, but perhaps you are not aware of the system or how things fit together. I have found that the better I understand the system, the better I can direct my steps, and maximize my musical learning and experiences. There are always problems along the way that needs to be solved and if you can see the principles, you have a better chance of finding a solution. Thankfully, often intuition comes to our help.

We, as citizens of this earth, should strive for wholeness. Only then can we break the downward spiral of destruction. We cannot afford to live in our own egoistic, disconnected world. I believe musicians and artists have an important role to play for us and for the future.

A week ago I completed “An Introduction to General Systems Thinking” by Gerald Weinberg. What a book!

During Christmas I read the novel “The Aremac Project” by the same author. That book is a sci-fi thriller about two software developers. Since Gerald Weinberg is a consultant in the computer industry, I became curious about it and bought it. It was well written and exciting with all the details interestingly and correctly described. Anyway I sensed he was a good writer with depth and I wanted to read more. I am constantly hunting for books and resources that are food for thought, about software development, project management or life in general. Finding a good book is like finding a treasure. The past year systems thinking and lean thinking have been on my mind. So all this lead me to “An Introduction to General Systems Thinking”.

What is systems thinking? Wikipedia says:
“Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when the systems relationships are removed and it is viewed in isolation. The only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the part in relation to the whole. Standing in contrast to Descartes’, scientific reductionism and philosophical analysis, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner. Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the elements that comprise the entirety of the system.”

We have concentrated on and optimized components and forgotten the interaction between them, perhaps because of the complexities involved. We have exaggerated the apparent independence of the parts of a system. Science has been very successful, but the consequences or side effects as seen today are scaring. Look at the effects on nature for example. Systems thinking study the process of defining models and making assumptions to find the optimum necessary ingredients in a systems model for a specific purpose that is possible to handle and solve.

The book was originally published in 1975 and has been reprinted many times. It has become a classic. Weinberg uses clear writing and basic algebraic principles to explore new approaches to projects, products, organizations, and all kinds of system. He unravels the scientific defining of systems and the assumptions and simplifications made. Weinberg discusses the science of mechanics and the science of large populations and how the underlying philosophies and the simplifications made have been used inappropriately for systems that should have been handled in a different way.

The book requires some concentration and energy to read, but is indeed food for thought. To me, systems thinking really improves my thinking as a project manager, application developer, general problems solver and as someone who cares for the environmental issues and for people around me.

Now I have used Auralex Great Gramma for some months. It looks like this; my Behringer PEQ 2200, EBS HD350 and Ampeg 410HLF neatly stacked on top of it.

This product from Auralex.com is an acoustic isolation platform that floats the speaker cabinet. I bought it because several prominent bass players on the net recommended it and I got curious. I have written about it earlier here. The advertisment promises great purity of tone and after using it for a while I have to concur. My tone is now more defined and there is less disturbing vibrations. My bandmates confirm my opinion; they can hear me more clearly now. I can allow a higher volume on the deep tones on my equalizer.