Finding the Notes In Between
Archibald J. Motley Jr., Blues, 1929. Oil on canvas
Imagine a dance hall in 1929. It’s Saturday night and dancers fill Ruggles Hall in Roxbury, bouncing to the beat of a string bass and drums as a trumpeter belts out Ain’t Misbehavin’. Now travel a mile north to Symphony Hall, where another trumpeter stands in front of an orchestra and sounds the opening notes of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto in Eb. At the exact same moment the first valve on each trumpet sticks, and their tone is suddenly muffled and off-pitch. At Symphony Hall the musicians and audience members stiffen in embarrassment, but at Ruggles something different happens. The trumpeter smoothly bends into the next note and nobody misses a step.
Trumpet valves provide a useful metaphor for binary thinking. They are designed to either be fully up or fully down, but can become misaligned or dry out without enough lubrication and stick somewhere in between. When this happens the tubing does not line up, obstructing the airflow and producing an off-pitch, softer, more constricted sound. For the first 50-100 years of the valved trumpet’s history, musicians would have cringed at the “incorrect” sound of accidental half-valves. But at some point, an unknown trumpeter’s valve stuck and they heard possibility instead of an error. Rather than avoiding the discomfort, the musician reacted with curiosity and explored the sound further. They realized that “half-valving” let them bend the pitch and opened up new expressive and tonal possibilities.
Trumpet players like Louis Armstrong, Rex Stewart and Miles Davis began to use half-valving intentionally. Davis studied classical music at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in the 1940s where he trained in the “correct” way to play trumpet, but instead made a career out of redefining what is “right.” He half-valved, bent and slid through notes, and used a Harmon mute to add grit and vulnerability to his tone. Later in his career, he used electric wah-wah pedals and effects on his trumpet, inspired by his guitarist friend Jimi Hendrix. From a traditional standpoint, all of these techniques “degraded” the pure tone Davis spent years refining in his youth. But Davis' experimentation and open-mindedness transformed his instrument and music again and again and he became one of the twentieth century's most prolific and influential artists.
As much as we may wish, we cannot plan our life out in advance like a pre-composed symphony. Our intentions will not always lead to the outcomes we want. Other people’s actions will not always meet our needs or expectations and may even harm us. External events and systemic structures beyond our control may obstruct or block our paths. In other words, the valves of our lives will sometimes stick, interrupting our melody. When this happens, where can we go if we respond with binary, rigid thinking that limits our interpretations to only two options: good or bad, right or wrong, success or failure? What if instead, we explore the metaphorical notes in between? What if we view these stuck points that we find ourselves in, not as interruptions or endings, but as beginnings or crossroads where we can pause and reassess? When we can move beyond binary or rigid thinking we are using psychological flexibility. This process does not mean denying or repressing valid emotions. Nor does it mean we condone external abusive behavior or oppressive structures.
Many twentieth-century black musicians studied classical music, but discrimination and segregation excluded them from opportunities in concert halls alongside white musicians, part of the unconscionable systemic oppression of white supremacy. Rather than quitting music altogether, some of these instrumentalists joined other black musicians and created jazz, “America’s Classical Music.” They incorporated sounds and rhythms their ancestors brought with them on slave ships from West Africa, drawing on the tonal complexity of spirituals, work songs and West African call and response. They did not limit themselves to the arbitrary twelve notes of the Western chromatic scale when the human ear has the capacity to distinguish several hundred more frequencies within that same range. Black musicians called the pitches that they found in between “blue notes,” and the blues was born.
Davis has been quoted as saying, “It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note, it’s the note you play afterward that makes it right or wrong.” By developing our psychological flexibility, we can learn to react without judgment so we can continue moving forward. We can build resilience and adaptability, and use our values to guide our actions as we navigate life’s obstacles. We cannot control the world around us, but we can find freedom in how we process it internally. We can escape the restrictive binary and learn to access all the notes in between. Just like those early jazz musicians, we can respond to the unexpected and undesirable “notes” of our lives not as failures or dead-ends, but as the first steps in a new direction.
This month Looking Glass Counseling is proud to support Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC). BARCC provides free, confidential support and services to survivors of sexual violence aged 12 and up, and their family and friends. BARCC serves survivors of all genders, empowering them to heal and seek justice in ways that are meaningful to them. Their support extends from immediate crisis intervention to long-term assistance, helping survivors navigate health care, legal, social service and educational systems.
John Tomma, Therapy Intern is in his final year as a Masters of Social Work student at Boston College, with a concentration in Mental Health. John's experience in the field includes residential and community-based behavioral health settings, supporting people with mood and psychotic disorders, substance use, ADHD, autism and developmental disabilities. Drawing on narrative, existential and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) frameworks, John views therapy as an inherently creative process through which we can take authorship of our lives, heal and thrive as we identify and pursue what we value. His lifetime of study and work in music, writing and the visual arts has shaped his open-minded and hopeful view of the human spirit and its capacity for growth and transformation.
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