The magic tube
or how a simple tool can make all the difference to how we negotiate creating something
A year or so ago I had a brainwave.
One of the hardest aspects of learning to play an instrument or sing is learning how to improve. It might seem like the obvious thing to do is simply play or sing over and over again until you get it right, but there’s so much more to it than that.
Consistency is really important, of course, and I always tell my students that doing a smaller amount more often is always going to be better than having a huge session once a week. But one of the best things you can do is learn how to be strategic. And this means really thinking about what exactly it is that you’d like to improve.
But this is so much harder than you might think, and especially when you’re still pretty new to the whole thing. There are so many things going on in a piece of music or song, and how you can possibly pull apart all these threads and decide what to do next?
Well!
This is where my invention comes in. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you…the Magic Tube!
Okay, okay.
Really it’s just the cardboard tube from a roll of kitchen towel that I’ve covered in pretty wrapping paper. But let me tell you that this tube really does have magical powers.
‘Are you ready for something magical?’ I always ask my students, before flourishing my magic tube in front of their faces.
They usually laugh or look at me as if I’m crazy, but because true genius will never be stopped, they have no choice but to listen to what I have to say next.
Which is that if they hold up my creation to one eye and look at the music or the lyrics in front of them, they can use it to isolate the bit of music they need to work on next. It might be one bar, a phrase, a whole line, or a single note. Whatever it is, the magic tube has an uncanny knack for helping someone look at the music in a new light.
So simple, right? But so effective, because sometimes it’s the simplest things that do the trick.
The magic tube and creativity
Which brings me to creativity.
While my physical magic tube itself might not always be appropriate, the idea of it is perfect for helping us negotiate the path to creating something.
It provides a different kind of view, and if you think in terms of looking down a tube, it allows you to zoom in on smaller sections and forget the rest. It’s like directing all your focus to one piece of a puzzle, seeing how it’s working, and then putting it back in with the rest of the pieces to see how it works with them.
How to use it
I think there are many ways it could be helpful, but I’m going to focus on two examples. The first is when you’re feeling overwhelmed. So many creative projects stall not because of a lack of ideas or skill but because we try to hold on to everything at once. The magic tube forces you to ignore 90 percent of what’s in front of you, which might feel counterintuitive (because what about the rest??) but is actually exactly what we need.
The second example is when you’re finding it hard to give yourself permission to take that step back. It almost feels rebellious or like a waste of time to deliberately ignore the bigger picture and focus on just one tiny piece. But the magic tube officially gives you permission to ‘neglect’ everything else for a little while without feeling guilty or irresponsible.
Honestly, it’s a huge relief when you realise you don’t have to fix everything at once. And focusing on one small element will naturally improve the whole anyway. Giving yourself permission to work ‘small’ can paradoxically make the big progress possible.
Finally, here are a couple of suggestions for how you could use the magic tube yourself or the idea of it:
Writing: use the magic tube mindset to focus on just one paragraph, one sentence, or even one word instead of worrying about the whole piece. You could also focus on all the sentences within a single paragraph.
Visual art: isolate one small section of a drawing or painting to work on, rather than thinking about the whole thing. Or focus on a a single colour or technique.
Problem-solving: focus on just a single aspect of a complex project instead of feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs to happen.
And before I go, here’s a reel I made so you can see the original magic tube I’m talking about! 🪄✨