Has anyone else here ever read Keith Johnstone's 'Impro'? Coming from the world of theater, Johnstone has a facinating perspective on the malleability of social status.
Some of the specific ideas for demonstrating high status included not moving your head when speaking, speaking and moving slowly, beginning statements with a long 'uhhhh' (a short 'uh' sound, however, demonstrated low status), and taking up space.
I'd recommend moving it to the top of your reading list; it's one of those incredible books that i get something new out of every time I read it. It goes deep into human interaction, learning and education, consciousness - so much of what it means to be human.
Wow, that's a good essay. pg wanted to be a philosopher earlier in his life. He would have been good at it, but unfortunately I think the field is beneath him.
> Some of the specific ideas for demonstrating high status included not moving your head when speaking, speaking and moving slowly, beginning statements with a long 'uhhhh' (a short 'uh' sound, however, demonstrated low status), and taking up space.
I hope this knowledge (regardless of whether it's true) does not spread - I'm sure there would be plenty of people who will try to "hack the system" and will act according to this list, which would be insufferable.
That happened at least 10 years ago with the publication of The Game [1] and the emergence of the pickup community [2].
And if you want to know how insufferable it's been, just ask any woman who's been in the dating scene in the past 10 years how they feel about 'negging'.
I'm more of a relationship kind a guy, but let me tell you if you workout women are no saints either. Women 'negg' as well and use very brash language of your body parts and what they would do with you.
>That happened at least 10 years ago with the publication of The Game
Despite what you may feel about pickup artists, The Game is genuinely worth a read.
The trick is not to read it as a "how to meet girls" manual.
What's most interesting about it is the behaviour of them belies their own insecurity and an uncomfortableness around women. The book itself alludes to this.
Wouldn't it be better if those hacking techniques are more commonly known, making it harder to measure a stranger's social status, so we treat everyone equally?
This will not solve the root problem of the existence of social ladder, but I don't see how spreading this knowledge can cause harm.
Yes but I'll need to borrow Kahneman's system1 system2 model of human behavior. System1 impulsive default mode of the great average human intelligence. System2 the more resource intensive and introspective mode. Essentially the day to day activity of your average patch of humans is made mostly System1 behavior. Unfortunately when actors seek to emulate or broadcast average culture via System2 it leads to an unrealistic effect. The solution is to learn to skillfully use your System1 when broadcasting culture, but it can be tricky because of its spontaneous nature. Johnstone and 'Impro' are a one of a kind glimpse into a master's perspective on the nature of spontaneity, which happens to be among many other things absolutely status oriented. And as such Johnstone reflects deeply on his life time of knowledge acquired exploring the spectrum of the status scales.
Whenever I'm watching a movie with good actors, even though I know they are acting it's easy to let myself go and be absorbed by the story. They make it seem so easy (as most top professionals do) that sometimes I even start to think "acting can't be that hard!, I mean, you just have to reeeeally believe you are the character".
However in a low-budget movie, which usually has less skilled actors, you can definitely see this "System2-trying-to-fake-System1" behavior. This is also quite probably what would happen if someone filmed me trying to act, but I never found an explanation for why this happened.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely give it a go. It does look like a very interesting insight into human behavior.
Let me try to move it up your backlog. Impro is one of 10 books I keep around on a permanent basis. I've been reading it for a couple of years now, and I'm not done yet. This isn't because it's a large book. Indeed, it weighs in at a slim 200 pages. I'm not done yet because after I read a chapter I can't bear to move forward, and I spend the next few months looking at the world around me with new eyes.
Other commenters here allude to the value of status in improvisational comedy. This isn't all the book is about. It is a window into human nature in general.
brief summary, improvisational acting is a lot funnier when the social status between the actors is toyed with. Keith finds it is surprisingly liberating and easy to fake a social status with certain body language, etc. When playing low status people clammed up or stammered and said less, high status they were energetic and took up more space. The audience likes when the dynamics change gradually.
I have noticed a lot of engineers speak very quickly because you are in a hurry and flit between points (ie. Elon Musk) this is a specific kind if social status projection. Another way is to change how you dress. Another way is how you carry your body. Interesting how much people use these signaling queues to categorise each other.
One of my favorite listeners is the pianist Chick Corea. Sure he can dazzle when the spotlight is on him but the support he provides as an accompanist is also top notch. Interestingly his listening skills as a jazz pianist are evident in his speech. In the same way that he helps his colleagues on the band stand to realize their visions in the moment he also seems to help channel the ideas of the people he talks with. There is an interview he did with John Mayer that I think illustrates this well. IMO Corea is a better listener than Mayer where as Mayer seems to be more involved with his own thoughts.
Here is good example of some one with proven jazz and classical mastery to trancend the theory he clearly knows and improvise with beat frequencies. Keith Jarrett, 'Spheres / Hymns'. He especially uses this technique between 20:00 and 30:00. See my thread below if you'd like to read more about why this composition is relevant to the parent thread.
I have a theory that papers seeking a true break through in music theory should be exploring Christopher Alexander's work 'The Nature of Order'. We need music thoerists / scientists / programmers to be fleshing out Alexander's thoeries in relation to music. Shouldn't the scientific spirit take us where we haven't looked yet?
To illustrate my point with a musical example I'd like to refer to Keith Jarrett's recording 'Hymns / Spheres'. This is a musician who has become as intimate as a human can with classical and jazz. In a C. Alexandrian fashion, Jarrett takes all of these elements and applies them on an ancient cathedral organ in Germany and trancends both genres and his usual way of playing. The lowest hanging fruit in terms of understanding what's going on here more completely is not in music theory or acoustics but in Christopher Alexander's 'Nature of Order'.
Architect Christpher Alexander has developed a beautiful theory that is absolutely applicable to this topic (dare I say, second to none?) in his work 'A Pattern Language' and especially in his 'The Nature of Order' series. It's painful to think how little attention his work seems to get when you think of what could come from further exploration of the ground work he has laid in regards to understanding and creating meaning, that which comes from the heart and life preserving / nurturing processes.
Something that I don't think is addressed enough is how a well practiced and versatile musician can make a living through their immediate community. It could still involve secondary income from the music industry as supplement to a healthy primary income provided by the synergy between them and their community. I can elaborate but I'll wait to see if anyone else finds this interesting.
> how a well practiced and versatile musician can make a living through their immediate community
There are so many barriers to this.
They need a venue at which to perform regularly, which helps somewhat to promote their performance. These are becoming few and far between. They are not likely to make much money for said performances (of course this depends on the size of the venue and the following they've managed to develop.)
Forgot about making any money selling recordings. People expect music to be free nowadays. The days of selling $10 cd's at your show are pretty much over. Maybe if you cater to an older crowd that isn't hip to the streaming/Youtube culture you can sell a few cd's here and there but certainly nowhere near enough to support yourself.
So... the "healthy primary income" you describe would be nearly impossible to achieve in today's environment. Most local musicians need to supplement their income working other jobs such as barista, Uber driver etc.
As a pianist the key here would be musical versatility, there is a lot of work but it is spread across musical domains.
The musical skills might include reading literacy, proficiency in improvisational idioms and the ability to teach these things.
The more difficult realm might be establishing a working band of professionals, per individual the professional attitude would be worth more than sheer musical skill. Professionaly minded people working together can build skills that will eventually surpass what an individual can bring alone.
Networking is important, there's lots of ways to engage with your immediate community and it has always helped me to reach across as many professional aisles as I can. How many high functioning professional musicians do you think the average person knows? You should be one of them for the people close to you.
EDIT: I'd like to add venue versatility. Most discussion seems to be around entertainment venues but what about educational, accompaniment, theathrical, ceremonial, religious (I do not personally partake in this).
As something like a solo pianist, I would say you might be able to scratch out a living using all the various outlets you described -- teaching being primary among them as far as ways to generate income.
