When my younger daughter was in grade school, she could not have learned to play the upright bass. It was not in the realm of possibilities. Bass was not offered and would have been too tall for her. The instrument she chose was clarinet.

So we rented her a clarinet and she practiced and practiced and practiced. By middle school, she was quite good. The band director said, “We need someone to play bass guitar for the jazz band. Would you be interested in giving it a try?” To which she replied, “Sure.”

The following year, she began learning upright bass for orchestra.

Draw a circle. Then a little ways out, draw a circle around the first one. And a bit further out, draw a circle around the second one. What you have resembles a sort of bull’s eye target.

Inside the first circle, write Currently Possible. Inside the second circle, write Adjacent Possible. Inside the third circle, write Distantly Possible. And outside the three circles, write Not Yet Imaginable.

When my daughter started band in grade school, clarinet was her Currently Possible. Which made bass guitar – though she couldn’t have envisioned it then – an Adjacent Possible. Upright bass, at that point, was only Distantly Possible.

When she started playing bass guitar, we could erase it from the Adjacent circle and add it next to clarinet in the Currently circle. Which means that upright bass, which before was in Distantly, could be moved to the Adjacent circle.

And once upright bass became Currently Possible, things that were Not Yet Imaginable became imaginable and moved closer.

For example, when she was 18, the bass player in a bluegrass group moved away and the group was searching for a replacement. Would she care to try out? Though my daughter had zero experience in playing bluegrass, she had a very good ear and could follow the chord changes even in songs she didn’t know. She got the gig.

She went on to study opera, jazz, and modern choral music.

I use my daughter’s musical journey to illustrate the concept of the Adjacent Possible. Many examples of this concept can be found online. Here’s one:

In the late 1800s, more than 60% of premature babies died. An obstetrician, Stephane Tarnier, was visiting a zoo and noticed that newborn chicks were kept in heated boxes. Based on that idea, Tarnier designed the first incubator for premature babies, which saved many young lives.

Care of premature infants improved because something that was Adjacent Possible was redesigned in such a way as to become Currently Possible.

When we creep out of our shells and learn things and try things and meet people, distant horizons draw nearer and our possibilities expand.

Today, my daughter is a member of an Irish traditional music group called The Reel Folk. She plays harp, upright bass, and sings. They play festivals and fairs, and have just recorded their first CD. Such a thing, back in her grade-school clarinet days, was unimaginable.

Go to thereelfolk.com and you can see my daughter and her bass.

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