Comments

Buri, as always - awesome post and so so true! There is a reason that I take brief breaks to sip my cup of tea, grab a glass of water, stretch my hands etc. or just to move around! Thanks, Buri, for reminding us of some important things that we should keep in mind.

William and Constance Starr discuss relaxation and focus in detail in their book "To Learn with Love." They advocate the use of relaxation techniques such as progressive relaxation and visual imaging before beginning practice. They say that "profound muscle relaxation can lead to startling changes in awareness and states of consciousnessness." Not only the body, but also the mind, must be relaxed. Then the mind and body can be coordinated in their focus. The Starrs and Suzuki agreed with Zen writers who state that "the mind and body are one, that a calm mind and clear vision are attained in a quiet body, and that only the quiet and focusing mind can perceive the ticking of a clock or produce an exquisite tone on a musical instrument." They advocate practice of martial arts suck as aikido to help attain a state of relaxed focus of the mind/body. The Starrs believe that people brought up in Japanese or related cultures benefit from these aspects of their cultures when they learn to play music. I think that your suggestion of warming up both the mind and the body by focussing on your internal feelings and ways of expressing them would help in the same way. I sometimes warm up by putting my fiddle under my chin and letting it play me. I, too, believe in the Zen approach. I have practiced yoga for years, and I can attest personally to its value. It is a matter of chi or prana. It's also very hard to explain in words.

On a practical level, I thank you for your suggestions on warming up and on stretching to relax during practice breaks. It's so easy to get involved and forget.

"We play passages over and over without ever really observing where the problem is and homing in on that."

I completely agree that mindless practice is next to useless. Before my current teacher taught me how to practice, I'd just play something over and over and wonder why it never got better, instead of figuring out WHAT was wrong and HOW to fix it. Even now I have to struggle not to go on auto-pilot, but if I maintain my focus on my goal, I can get a lot done in a short amount of time.

Very insightful post, thanks.

Karin, William and Constance Starr talk about the importance of training the student to listen, find his own mistakes /weaknesses, and correct them, rather than having the teacher say, "You played this note in this measure wrong." Self-awareness is a quality which is notably lacking in many people, but it can be recognized and nurtured. That is one of the most important challenges in teaching. What did your teacher do to increase your self-awareness? I ask because I'd like to try help my students help themselves more.

Thanks again, Buri, for giving us so much food for thought.

Greetings,
actually I find the comments more interesting than the original post...
Cheers,
Buri Buri, thanks, but you're entirely too modest. This is a fabulous essay. Among other physical things (stretches, arm swings, etc.) I do a ritual hand washing ala Gould before I start the morning practice.
Also, are the typos on vacation? Greetings,
vacation? Good heavens, no. I can write a blog in the word processor and then the spell checker kicks in.
Aaaaaa technology...
Cheers,
Buri