Inner Game of Music Author to Speak at Southern Miss

Tue, 03/25/2025 - 09:58am | By: Dr. Mike Lopinto

The co-author of the celebrated book, “The Inner Game of Music,” Barry Green, will present a free talk on Friday, April 4, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. in Marsh Auditorium on The University of Southern Mississippi’s Hattiesburg campus. The book, which explores how musicians can reach their full potential in performance and learning, is just one of a series of books on human performance and learning. The event–part of the Southern Miss Bass Symposium–is free and open to the public.

The “Inner Game of Music” explores the mind as it plays against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self-doubt and fear of failure. Using the same principles of “natural learning” Timothy Gallwey developed so successfully for tennis, golf and skiing and applying them to his own field, the noted musician, Green, shows how to acknowledge and overcome these internal obstacles to bring a new quality to the experience and learning of music. This book is also ideal for those who don’t play an instrument but who feel their appreciation of music will be enhanced if they understand more about the process of playing.

Green served as principal bassist of the Cincinnati Symphony for 28 years, and more recently principal bassist of the California Symphony and Sun Valley Idaho Summer Symphony. As former executive director of the International Society of Bassists, he taught at the University of California Santa Cruz for 22 years before moving back to Cincinnati in the spring of 2018. Green is currently teaching at Ohio State University in Columbus and in the Sycamore and Princeton public school systems in Cincinnati. As a double bass soloist, Barry is known for his creative and eclectic ‘Green Machine’ concerts including the bass in jazz, folk, contemporary and world music in combination with dance, voice, art and theater. His book "The Inner Game of Music", co-authored with W. Timothy Gallwey and published by Doubleday in 1986, has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide.

The annual Bass Symposium at Southern Miss will also host Green in a master class on April 4 at 1 p.m. and in a recital on April 5 at 5 p.m. Other performers at the two-day event include Southern Miss alum and professor of double bass and aural skills at the State University of Maringá in the South of Brazil, Beto Viana, in a master class on April 5 at 6 p.m., and assistant principal bass of the Louisiana Philharmonic, William Schettler, presenting a master class on April 5 at 2 p.m.