What are you practicing when you are practicing?
This may seem like an incredibly stupid question. You might respond by saying I’m practicing Brahms for my recital or an etude for my next lesson. But what I’m really asking is what mental and physical state are you practicing?
When I work with students who have muscular-stress related problems such as shaking uncontrollably or undue amounts of tension, I often hear them say that when they feel they don’t have time to practice thoroughly, their problems get worse. What this means for me is that they are practicing stress and not music and this exasperates the existing problem. For example, if I usually have 2 hours to practice but today I only have 20 minutes because I have to go to a meeting, what do I do with those precious 20 minutes? Do I try to get as much done as possible? Am I angry because I don’t have enough time? How I feel during those 20 minutes will have a large influence on the productivity of that particular session. If I hurry through my daily routine, skip over things that I’m not satisfied with, I’m also practicing sloppiness. My practice session will be much different if I accept the situation and use that time to do as much as I can but as easily and as relaxed as I can.
How many students practice “hard” or until they’re too tire to do more? We want to be practicing or cultivating ease and musicality and not stress. We can even go further and ask why we practice at all? Do we practice because we’re supposed to or because we want to make good music? There is a big difference between those two motivations. One is working, struggling and cultivating stress. The other is doing what is necessary to perform well and communicate through the music. Do we want to show our audiences that we’re struggling, fighting and suffering?
Here are a few recommendations for practicing and you may have heard them already.
-Practice smart and use your time for what you need to learn.
-Check you attitude often and listen to your body and tension level.
-Cultivate ease and fluency.
-Stop when things are going well so your body remembers that feeling instead of stopping when you’re exhausted.
There is more to say about this but I’ll leave you with this for now. Of course I’d be interested to hear others’ thoughts on this subject as well.
Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.
If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe, sit and stand well!
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