Letting Go of the Good Stuff

How long did it take me to learn to let go of mistakes when rehearsing and especially when performing?  Hold onto a mistake while playing and more will quickly follow.  As I prepare for Sunday's gig at The Electric Maid,  I've gotten caught a couple times with the good stuff.  Phrases that I've worked on for weeks sometimes longer have been coming together nicely.  Playing them within the context of the piece the anticipation anxiety of this part coming up has lessened considerably.

But I noticed yesterday and then again this morning, that I sailed through a couple of these difficult spots, assumed a rather smug inner attitude and thud, flop, fizz other notes suffered.  Let go, let go and let go.  Of the good and the bad.  I am reminded of the first line in the Dhammapada - all problems arise in the mind ... and so it goes.

Photo by Todd Hryck

Breathing Through Mistakes

A long time ago, I noticed that if I could not keep my breathing relatively free while playing a piece of music, I could not properly play the piece of music.  What the psycho-physical reason is for this I am not sure, but as my ability to breathe through a piece improved so did the music.  Is it unnecessary tension involving anticipated mistakes or difficult sections?  Is it fear?  Is it hearing critical voices from the past?  Hearing my own judgemental self?

Just breathe.  That simple.  Easy - not actually.  These past days I've been working on difficult passages in four different pieces that may be recorded tomorrow.  Yesterday I began playing with the idea of being free to breath through my mistakes, be they real or anticipated.  Today as I was practicing I decided to introduce a recovery period.  I'd play through the difficult section, then give myself a few breaths to recover, rather than push on.  At firs this was easy, but then my tendency to end-gain kicked in, so I had to breathe through that also.  I even gave myself the recovery breaths when I played the section well, just to keep my breathing free and my approach balanced.

I'll have to work with this a bit more to see if it becomes permanent, but my sense is that it will.

Photo by Adam Baker

Balancing Mistakes

Tonight's practice was shaped by two different blog posts I have read in the past 24 hours. The first was by Erica Sipes in her blog Beyond the Notes. I read these inspiring words last night - I don't let myself play the same mistake twice in a row.  If I do, I need to change the way I'm thinking. Wow! This is certainly not true for me, and Erica's post certainly got me thinking about how I might aim to make this my practice.

As I prepared to practice tonight I decided to address a section of a piece that I have yet to figure out how to play well consistently.  And this was where the second blog post arrived to assist me with changing my thinking.  This one by Bill Plake, a saxophonist and Alexander Technique teacher from California.  Bill's post was about the principles of standing while playing. There is lot's of good practical information in his post that I am not going to regurgitate here.  But while working with finding balance within my feet while standing, this shifted my habitual way of playing the section I was working on. I saw what I did not understand about the section and worked with this.

After a short break, I returned to practice, but seated this time.  Still finding and paying attention to how my feet supported my weight.  I began addressing the section again, in very small parts this time, to focus on the various transitions between chords.  After a "mistake," Erica's words arrived again.  I need to change the way I'm thinking. And the thought that arrived was a very Alexandrian -  think up!  As I did my body found a "better" balance while seated and an ease entered my hands.  I continued to direct my thinking via the Alexander Technique while addressing the particulars of this section of music.  Steady improvement was made and I enjoyed the process.  Grateful for the wisdom and insight that is freely shared across the internet.  Both Erica's and Bill's blogs have proven valuable to me in the past and I urge any musician to avail yourself of them.

Honor Thy Mistake

One of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies is to " honor thy mistake as a hidden intention." When I worked with Steve Geest in FingerPaint we applied this successfully on many occasions. Tonight while looking for a binder containing scores and other information related to Scattered Hearts I came across another binder. This other binder has been in my possession for years and contains information on South Indian Classical Music. This was given to me by a guitarist I played with briefly and I have not done much with the material.

Tonight I opened to a page containing melodies in the Raga: Mayamalwagaula. I was intriuged by the scale being used which is ABb C#D EF G#A. Thinking of Eno and the potential hidden intention I decided to let go of my original idea for my practice time tonight. I began warming up by playing with this scale.

I'll revisit this again, but for now I have some other guitar work to tend to.