Laying Down the Visualization

Another nap after work this evening to rejuvenate my ailing body.  Delicious homemade soup with pumpernickel bread for dinner, followed by more resting while working the crossword puzzle.  Then I hit the floor for an Alexander technique lie-down.  After a few minutes with my back settling into the floor and my right arm relishing letting go, I decided to work with visualizing the piece Senseless Loss.  This may have been the first time that I've ever worked with visualizing a piece during a lie-down.  With freedom in my body I could see my fingers moving on the fretboard in my mind's eye.  My right arm remaining relaxed, my right elbow free,  my neck happily resting on the paperback books.

Towards the end of the piece, my visualization faltered as I was uncertain of one of the fingerings.  Yet in the prone position on the floor, I was able to remain focused and free about what I was undertaking.  When I moved to play my guitar, I decided to begin with Senseless Loss.  But first I just held my guitar between my legs and inhibited my desire to play.  I gave myself the Alexander Technique directions to free my neck and spine, my back, my legs, my shoulders and my arms.  Then after I moved my arms to the guitar, I paused again, quickly running through the directions.

After playing a few bars I paused to turn on the recorder.  As I began to play my tone was soft and even, the notes flowing from my fingers.  I began to think how I might write this up for the blog.  And yes my playing deteriorated rapidly.  As the Guitar Craft aphorism aptly states - We begin again constantly.  And so I did.  First taking time to find my breath; to work with the Alexander Technique directions; and to just be in the moment with my guitar, with myself. With the recording device running, I played through the piece again.  Then I moved on to improvising with chords based on fourths.

After a short break I returned to the guitar.  Taking time to reconnect with my body and my guitar through breathing and the Alexander Technique,  I then turn on the recorder.  Playing through Senseless Loss one more time.  As much as possible keeping my attention directed, my body free.  Though I have not listened to this run through, I suspect this is the best that I've ever played this piece.  I will not listen to the recording tonight.  The process is what matters most, not the end result.  Perhaps I'll play a bit more, perhaps I'll rest.  I'll make that decision in a moment.

Take a Different Path

While I was stuck in traffic, I began visualizing a section of music that I am having difficulty playing.  At one point during my visualization, I had a sense that I did not understand what my right hand was doing nor what my right hand needed to do.  I noticed I was tensing a bit, even though I was not actually playing.  Employing the Alexander Technique, I found length and width within myself.   As I began the visualization again, I only went as far as the bar where the confusion was.  Now I at least knew where the issue began.

After dinner in the back yard on a beautiful spring evening, I decided to practice out on the porch.  Between the breeze and the singing birds, I just had to be outside.  I played through several pieces that I'll use in a performance at the end of the month. After taking a break, I began to investigate the right hand confusion that my morning visualization had revealed.  Deciding to incorporate the AT practice of inhibition,  I played the four bars leading up to the confusion and then paused.  Doing this several times I saw what my right hand was actually doing.  I continued to play these four bars and then inhibit playing the next one, until I had a sense of how to proceed.  The issue arose after arpeggiating 3 bars in the same pattern, then strumming four strings, and following this by playing two different artificial harmonics.  By inhibiting the movement to the artificial harmonics, I found where my right hand was, and then could think about how to attack the harmonics.

Once I worked out the movement, I began to play the part through.  Pausing between parts to direct via AT, I began again, and decided to skip the third bar.  I played the harmonics well, and then continued to play with skipping bars and adding bars and varying the bars leading up to the strum in a myriad of ways.  By taking these different paths to the transition I was practicing, I was hoping to obliterate the muscle memory that had become associated with this particular transition. While gaining confidence, I was also enjoying this impromptu approach immensely.  Grateful that good work had been done, I completed my practice in time to watch the second half of the Celtics/ Heat game.

Happy that I stumbled upon this photo of Vulture Peak in India. This is where the Buddha inspired Avalokitesvara to give the Heart of the Prajnaparamitra Sutra, which in the words of Thich Nhat Hahn is "Avalokitesvara precious gift to us, the gift of fearlessness." Amen.

Be Free

I ended my Qi Gong session this morning using my hands to trace the phrase "Be Free."  The energy was flowing in my body and a three day weekend before me.  After breakfast I went to practice for an hour.  I recalled the phrase for today and checked in with my body before opening my case.  Allowing my neck to be free, my spine to lengthen, my leg and arms lengthening I was ready.  I knew what I wanted to work on and played through Here We Are  . Playing through a piece that I know well is becoming my practice to Sanctify the Space as described in this blog previously.

The energy was in my hands and my playing of this piece was good.  I realized that I now also had a recent positive musical experience to guide the remainder of my practice.  I worked with a few chord changes from Broken Heart.  I've recently added a couple of inversions and a few new chords and would like to present this piece to The Field on Sunday.  When I stumbled with one particular chord change, I paused and came back to giving myself the Alexander Technique directions and drawing on the positive play-through of Here We Are.  I gave myself permission to be free of judgment of myself and to just focus on the work at hand. Patiently working with just the chord changes, leaving the arpeggiations until later. When I was confident I had them in my left hand, I began adding in the right hand part.  The changes came together, so I added in the chords that begin this section.

Again I just worked with the changes and then when solid added in the right hand.  Frequently pausing and allowing myself to be free in my body, in my mind, and in my heart. No need to judge a work in progress and certainly no need to judge myself. Deciding that I was also free to continue to explore the possibilities of this piece, I experimented for a while.  Though nothing of musical interest came of this particular exploration, I know that this type of effort is the lifeblood of my music.  Without the experiments, music could not whisper to me.

My wife and I left to meet with some friends. While I was driving, an act of mindless driving occurred in front of me.  I heard myself telling her that I could "be free" to not judge the other drivers. I wish I could drive like that always, but a small beginning is valuable. We returned home and enjoyed our Thanksgiving leftovers with the addition of mashed potatoes and vegetarian mushroom gravy.

A dear friend stopped by and after conversation and some quiet moments, I offered to play Broken Wing for her. She was also a good friend of Jay Bott, our friend who recently passed. A beautiful run-through warmed all of our souls. What a gift that has been given to me - music. Where would I be, where would we be without music? I invite you to "be free" to pursue your art, your life today and always. Go ahead - BE FREE!

Photo by Jim Landry

Visualizing Positive Musical Experiences

 I came across this post from January Becoming, which was written when I was suffering from the flu and my mind was focusing on negative thinking.  During this time I picked up my old copy of the Inner Game of Music and read a section on trust. In this section Barry Green mentioned the use of visualizing recent positive musical experiences to foster the creative process.  This worked for me that day.  Tonight I am in a much better frame of mind regarding myself and music, and I found myself wondering about the impact of visualizing positive musical experiences from an already positive place.

I sat for a few moments and calmed my thinking.  Then drawing on my recent Alexander Technique work, I became aware of the space around me.  I then decided to improve my studio space slightly, bringing a tiny bit of order to my work.  Back on my stool,  I visualized myself during the recent Alive Again sessions and also the night the piece Broken Wing was revealed.  Then picking up my guitar, I recalled part of my improvisation from last night that stood out. I began playing this and then a section from Broken Wing.  I was with my playing in a way that usually takes me a while to achieve.  I decided to return to the theme from last night.

I played with it a bit and found a new direction to explore. After 15 minutes of this I paused, coming back to myself and the intention to play beautifully. Another attempt with the visualization and then I turned on the mp3 recorder and began to play.  I played what I had worked out so far and when I came to the end of this, I just let my hands go.  Suddenly a new idea emerged, followed by another, and then an ending.  I paused and began playing again but did not find this same twist.  But the first take is captured, thus I know where I will begin with tomorrow's practice.  I'll also be working with this visualization more and would love to hear if this practice improves your musicality?

Becoming

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

One of the issues with illness for me is that when my body aches and is weak the mind tends to turn to negative thoughts about myself. Perhaps this is a manifestation of the mind/body complex at work.  Perhaps just a learned behavior. I tossed & turned a lot last night. Sleep was elusive. The negative thinking mounting. How to turn this seeming disadvantage to my advantage?

At times my mind was focusing on this part that need practicing in Dandelion Wish and blowing this up to my entire musical self worth, even beyond my musical life. Too huge to allow this thought path to gain momentum. For years I beat up on my self about musical ability. Did this come from coming to music relatively late in life as an adult or part of unrealistic expectations of my ego? May have even been deeper, but I'm not delving that far publicly. I watered the positive seeds in my mind but the negative had a good hold on me and continued to win out.

I decided to read at one point around 4 am. There was a copy of the Inner Game of Music given to me nearly 15 years ago that I had recently taken of the shelf . I read it back then but was not able to garner much practical use from the book at this time. Last night I opened it to the chapter on Trust. Ahh. Reading these words my focus was nudged. At some point the authors suggested drawing on positive musical experiences. I visualized some recent performance success and the good feelings and thoughts began to flow. I reminded myself that I am loved, turned off the light, and returned to sleep.

I woke later with the word - Becoming in my mind. I jotted this down and slept more. Becoming, we are always becoming what we think.

Visualizing the Solution

               http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_horne/2067285899/

Home ill with the flu today. Second time this season. Seems like the viruses have it in for me. Is my immune system weak or is this an occupational hazard or do I drive myself too hard in general? Or a combination of all three,  perhaps even with a genetic disposition to be infected by the flu. One thing is sure I do not feel like practicing. I was sitting in a chair and attempted visualizing the trouble spots in Dandelion Wish I described in my post Getting Honest. However I  found out that I am not familiar enough with the right hand pattern to visualize the various combinations of dyads, arpeggios, strum, & artificial harmonics.

A thought emerged that perhaps in my weakened bodily state I might have an advantage over the muscle memory of my body. Combined with the desire to build off of Sundays progress and knowing that I will be weak for the next few days I decided to experiment with a brief practice to address learning the right hand functioning in order to practice visualizing this section. To the basement.

I began with a gentle run through of Gathered Hearts. Felt good to feel the vibrations of the guitar against my chest, to hear the music, to be momentarily uplifted. Then to work with the section of Dandelion Wish that I do not know well enough. Metronome was set at 56 bpm and I began the section. I immediately lost track of the metronome click, yet realized that I was executing the part well. I began again and lost the beat but again the execution was beautiful and I noticed that my breath was gentle. I found that in focusing on the right hand fingering to remember them I was drifting from the beat but this additional attention to the right hand changed my playing. This is not surprising in itself, but every time I  rediscover this is a very fresh moment for me.

A few breaths as I visualized the right hand playing it's role and then I began again. The beat was in my body, I could hear the melody, and my hand knew what to do. I played the section gently and well many times through. This was very meditative and refreshing especially considering how my body has felt all day. I let go of the playing and played through just the right hand part. Allowing this to be separated from the left hand movements. I then incorporated the sections immediately preceding & following these measures. The playing was even and confident. I was tempted to speed up the metronome but decided to remain at 56 bpm. After 20 minutes my concentration was fading so I completed my practice. Better to allow the brain to consolidate a brief but thorough playing then to begin making mistakes and confusing the body and mind.

Recording Blues and Flues

I had scheduled a recording project with Tony Geballe this weekend to begin work on my next solo guitar release. Being an organized sort of fellow I set this up months ago. I did not take into account a sneak attack by the flu. For one that prides himself on his planning skills ... Needless to say guitar work the past four days has been minimal so hopefully the preparation of the past few weeks will suffice.

During the past weeks I have applied a variety of techniques to learning the pieces I wish to record. All are solo compositions of my own that came to me sometime in the past year. The past few months the muse has favored me with several new pieces that kept me busy. Thus three of the four pieces needed to be relearned and one of them went through a fairly major revision. Perhaps this is why I am the least confident of that particular piece " Leaving Song."

Beside dissecting the pieces and practicing transitions and phrasing; I recorded rough takes of all them over time. Much time has been spent listening to these takes primarily on my commute to work to get these pieces in my ear. I can now hear them with out playing them. Even sing them a bit. Plus they have all been notated. This is all new ground for me as I continue to learn what works for me to achieve growth in my musical abilities.

I have also worked with visualizing the pieces. Visualization of the fretboard has never come easy to me. Progress has been made in this area recently probably due to having the pieces in my auditory memory. Last night and tonight while doing my Alexander Technique lie downs I was visualizing while resting my left elbow on the floor and allowing my left hand to move and form the needed chord shapes. I can not verify if this is adding anything to my performance of the pieces but will experiment more.

Photo by:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfajardo/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0