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Practice Like You’re on Vacation: Cultivating Inclusive Attention for Music Making

February 17, 2015 by Lynne Krayer-Luke 1 Comment

Have you ever noticed how going on vacation helps us to feel better both mentally and physically?  That may be partly due to how vacations also tend to encourage us to broaden our attention.  We are no longer at home, focused on bills, focused on scales, focused on responding to emails.  When we go to a new environment that is relaxing, we begin to allow ourselves to indulge in the pleasure of noticing all the new, lovely information coming to us through our senses.  For example, if you imagined yourself lying on the beach in Jamaica, you would notice the smell of the salt water, feel the soft sand around your feet, hear the crashing of the waves, and somehow that tropical drink in your hand would taste far better than the one you had before you left town.  As our attention opens up, we experience an immediate and powerful effect on the entire nervous system.

The Stressed Performance Preparation

Perhaps you have a personal experience you can reflect back upon, when you were very stressed about preparing for an upcoming performance.  You might even recall a specific piece, or passage that felt especially difficult and stressful to practice.  Did you tend to focus all of your attention on the one thing that you were stressed about?  Perhaps you weren’t yet happy with the rhythmic integrity of the passage, and so you decided to focus all of your attention on the rhythm.  When this happens, we are more likely to respond with movements that are rigid and effortful (which impacts the quality of our sound, rhythm, pitch, etc), and our mind may respond with emotions of fear or even anger.  Well, that certainly doesn’t set us up for an enjoyable, productive practice session!

Don’t be a Hater

We tend to focus our attention in a very narrow way frequently in our culture.  No doubt the saturation of computers and smart phones in our lives further encourages this narrow focus of our attention.  However, it really isn’t fair to hate on narrow, focused attention entirely, because in some instances it allows us to perform tasks very well.  Imagine, for example, trying to schedule a doctors appointment on the phone while your kids are screaming in the background.  If you didn’t focus most or all of your attention on hearing the person on the other end of the phone and what’s written in your schedule book, it would take you a lot longer to complete the task, and you may even be more likely to make a mistake like double-booking yourself.  Narrowing our attention in this fashion is great in the short term, but when used chronically it becomes exhausting and stressful both psychologically and physiologically.

Performance Anxiety

Have you ever walked onto stage, felt nervous or scared, and then focused all of your attention to the notes on the page?  By the end of the concert you find your head buried in the music stand (oops!); and as an added bonus, your neck muscles are screaming at you.  Narrowing our attention is something that occurs reflexively when we feel our well-being is threatened in some way.  Interestingly, this can cause our visual field to be narrowed because our visual system is hardwired to our emotions.

What Musicians Pay Attention To

As musicians, we cannot afford to focus all of our attention exclusively on one thing (like the notes on the page).  We have a long list of things that we  must give attention to.  Let’s take inventory of just SOME of things on that list:

…notes on the page, conductor, our sound, which specific instruments we are playing with and the quality of their sound, our intonation, our intonation relative to the people we are playing with, our rhythm, how our rhythm fits with the people we are playing with, the shape of the phrase, where we need to breathe, how much air we need for a specific breath, the quality/character of that breath, the quality of the movements we are using to create the music we are playing, the size of the hall we are playing in, the acoustics of the space we are playing in…

How Do I Pay Attention to EVERYTHING?!

Do you feel overwhelmed yet?!  It’s an impressive list, and of course there are many more things we could add to it.  How is it possible to give attention to all these things at once?!  We can do this by expanding our awareness (a.k.a. attention) to be more inclusive.

I’d like to share an analogy that was shared with me by my Andover Educator (Body Mapping) trainers.  Let’s use the analogy of a flashlight to help us better understand a more relaxed, diffuse, inclusive way of utilizing our attention.  If you were sitting with another person in a dark room with a flashlight, and shined that flashlight up close on the person’s knee, all you would be able to see is the person’s knee.  This is what we do when we focus all of our attention on one thing (like the notes on the page).  It requires a fair amount of effort.  Back to the dark room.  If you wanted to see the elbow of the person you are shining the flashlight on from your close proximity, you’d have to move the entire beam from the knee to the elbow.  To place all of our attention on the notes on the page, and then suddenly move all of our attention to making sure we play in tune with the strings, requires a great deal of effort, and can feel disjointed or even disorienting.  Let’s go back to that dark room one last time.  If we decide to back up, and take the whole person into the beam of the flashlight, we can see both the knee and the elbow, and understand how they relate to one another.  This allows us to be able to easily and fluidly shift from looking at the knee and the elbow, because we are never losing sight of the other entirely.  We do this in music making too.  We can see the notes on the page, but also see the conductor with our peripheral vision,  we can hear the strings, and monitor our body for free, coordinated movement, etc.  It may feel that one piece of information is more ‘in focus’ while the other items are a bit more ‘fuzzy’, but that is ok.  As long as we allow those other pieces of information to continue living in the ‘fuzzy zone’ we still have the option to be able to fluidly and effortlessly shift our ‘focus’ to one of those items if we choose.

One Simple Step

A simple, effective way to begin training the way you use your attention during music making, is by allowing yourself to notice what falls into your peripheral vision.  Take a look at your music on the stand.  Now notice what other things you are able to see using your peripheral vision: the music stand, a person sitting next to you, the colors & textures around the room.

My family chamber music ensemble (Sherry Family Band, seen below) experimented with this recently during a rehearsal, and the results were staggering.  People commented that the rhythm was improved, they could hear other people’s parts more clearly, they felt more centered and poised.  All of that, just from allowing an opening of one’s awareness to include information from peripheral vision!!!!

Sherry Family Band

 

Continue Working

Continue including further visual information.  Notice your three-dimensional physical space (this is a trick I learned from Fehmi, “The Open-Focus Brain”).  Notice the distance from your eyes to the music on the page.  Observe the distance between you and the people you are playing with if they are in your visual field.  How far is it from you to the walls or the ceiling of the space you are playing in?  How does this information about your three-dimensional physical space effect you?

Want to take it to the next level?  Read my previous post here about how to become more aware of the information coming to you from inside your body.

We may need to narrow our attention sometimes to get certain tasks done, but when it becomes a chronic condition, stress begins to accumulate in our minds and our bodies, and we actually become less productive over the long haul.  The way we use our attention when we are in vacation mode (inclusive attention), leads to greater creativity, efficiency, accuracy & flexibility, both in our movement and our problem solving skills.  All of which we know are essential for great practice and performance.  Try it out and let us know what your results are in the comment area below.

Filed Under: Awareness Tagged With: Attention, awareness, mindfulness, music-making, Performance Anxiety, Senses

Proprioception

January 20, 2015 by Lynne Krayer-Luke 1 Comment

Imagine for a moment what it would be like to stand in a pitch black room.  Would you be able to walk?  As  long as there were no obstacles in your way, like a coffee table, you’d probably be able to walk just fine.  Right?  Why is this?  When we are walking through the dark, we rely on our sense of balance, and sense of where we are in space (i.e. we know if we are standing up or sitting down).  This is known as our proprioceptive sense.

There are millions of proprioceptive receptors in every muscle, ligament, and tendon of our bodies.  These receptors are firing non-stop, but we tend to ignore their messages in favor of our other senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching) which feed us information about our relationship with things external to us.  It is important, particularly for musicians, that we train ourselves to become sensitive to this sense because it has a direct impact on the quality of our music-making.

Just as I practice my scales every day to help improve my technique, I also practice being mindful of my body.  The more aware I am of my body, the more competent I am at expressing my musical ideas.  I find it most effective to practice developing this body awareness away from my instrument, before I even play my first note for the day.  It is my warm up for my flute warm up!

One of the most effective exercises I’ve found to work on body awareness is remaining still, as if  meditating, for 10 minutes, and observe myself.  Observe yourself now, as you continue to read. Do you notice yourself fidget or wiggle?  Or, do you remain quietly still as you continue to read down the page?  Do you shake your leg or foot incessantly, bite your lip, hold your legs or jaw unnecessarily tight, tap your finger?  Upon careful observation, you will likely find that you are doing something which isn’t really necessary.

If we are constantly moving and adjusting all the time, it can distract us from experiencing our underlying condition.  Some would say that this is our way of trying to get away from ourselves—getting away from feelings of discomfort or agitation.

Can you stop these activities/movements, remain quietly still, and watch yourself?  For what length of time?  What is your physical and emotional reaction?  When you notice an urge to move,  observe it with indifference, decide to not make the movement, and instead remain quiet and still within your body, accepting the conditions as they are.

If we want to be able to get away from discomfort, we must first know where we are starting from.  We must first come to accept ourselves, with all our “imperfections”.

Filed Under: Awareness, Senses Tagged With: awareness, body awareness, proprioception, Senses

Never Stop Learning!

September 5, 2014 by Vanessa Breault Mulvey Leave a Comment

It was so exciting to watch an adult flute student integrate new movement ideas in his playing yesterday afternoon. Changes to sound, technique, comfort and expression all resulted from clarifying his conception of how the body is designed to move.  We updated his body map with this new information, and  restrictive tension released that allowed him to move air through his flute with ease.  It was thrilling to hear his flute tone suddenly ring out in an expressive phrase.  WOW!

This reminded me again that we have the capacity to learn throughout life.  At any age we can learn to play the flute more beautifully, move more fluidly, even learn a brand new skill.  This is why I love what I do.  Virtually every day I learn something new about movement or  my own potential, or I assist someone else in discovering that they too can learn to move more fluidly, play more beautifully, more comfortably.  We are so lucky to be able to enjoy the gift of learning throughout life.  The next time you think you are too old to move with poise and ease, redirect your focus.  Learn about the body’s design for movement, find the movement within yourself (often,) and be aware of yourself from the inside using the kinesthetic sense throughout the day.  Your body will thank you and your flute playing too!

Move well & never stop learning!

Filed Under: Breathing, Learning Process, Practical Anatomy, Senses, Uncategorized Tagged With: awareness, health, joy, Learning, Movement, Music Performance, music-making, process

Releasing Trigger Points

October 25, 2013 by Vanessa Breault Mulvey Leave a Comment

I have been trying to release trigger points in a couple of key muscles recently.  My trouble spots include the anterior deltoid, pectoralis minor and a back muscle (which I have not been able to identify.)  These triggers points have been the sources of some discomfort and limited movement lately.

The discomfort  is a signal for me to tune into my body using the kinesthetic sense, and encourage movement in the affected muscles in gentle ways.  Here is what I do…

  1. Use whole body awareness as I move through my day, approaching tasks in an ergonomic way.
  2. Map the location and function of the muscles affected by the trigger points.  Where are they located?  How are they designed to move?
  3. Perform gentle massage on the whole muscle, then target the trigger point by massaging across the muscle fibers & over the trigger point.  This can be uncomfortable, but I encourage the muscle to unwind  by using enough pressure.
  4. Rest!  Taking a few minutes out to lie on the floor and rest gives the whole body a break.  The Constructive Rest Guide is a great tool for rest that is rejuvenating and healing.
  5. Move!
  • Knowing a muscle’s function allows me to utilize a small range of motion to gently move the muscle as it is intended.  As I do this, I tune into the fine line between comfortable movement and uncomfortable movement. Over time the scope of comfortable movement increases, allowing the movements I use to increase as well.
  • Passive movement of the muscle is another great tool.  An example of this is holding one elbow with the other hand, and using the holding hand to rotate the upper arm. This allows the shoulder muscles to go along for the ride as the upper arm is being moved.

This week, the trigger points have or are beginning to release.  Hooray!   Integrating anatomically accurate movement into all that you do is one of the best ways to take care of yourself and avoid musculoskeletal injury.  If aches and pains persist it is essential to see an experienced health care professional to rule out more serious conditions.  Happy Moving!

Filed Under: Awareness, Injury, Practical Anatomy, Senses Tagged With: arm movement, Attention, awareness, health, injury treatment, wellness

What lies beyond the barriers of fear?

August 21, 2013 by Vanessa Breault Mulvey Leave a Comment

It has been a little over a year since I confronted the fear of heights that limited my willingness to try new things and take chances.  Never did I imagine the great experiences that would come my way once I broke through this imaginary barrier.

What has changed?  In a nutshell, my fundamental belief in what I am capable of.  Leaping off the board on the trapeze demonstrated to me that I can do a whole lot more that I had given myself credit for.  In fact, the possibilities are virtually limitless.  I believe fear caused me to significantly underestimated what I was capable of, which caused me to shy away from venturing into unknown realms.  Today I am taking account of some of the great experiences I have had this year.

  • Take risks!  Everyday we encounter risks, some are life threatening, the majority are not.  What I used to classify as a risk (a situation where I might not perform well) I now view as an opportunity for personal growth, maybe even to have fun.  I am sure I missed out on many fun times and career opportunities with my old mind set.  No more!
  • Amusement park rides aren’t so scary.  Thrilling, yes.  Scary, no!  If you recall, it was as I sat on the bench watching my family ride the wooden roller coaster that I realized I was missing out and needed to make a change. Fast forward a year, even the feelings I get on rides are different.  Hard to put in words, but I notice that I enjoy the whole ride instead of anxiously anticipating the end.
  • Swim in the ocean!  I have always been a somewhat timid ocean swimmer.  I convinced myself that I only like to swim where I can see what is under my feet.  No more!  This summer I swam in the chilly dark waters off of Cape Cod without my old worries.  Even the cold water temperatures didn’t seem so cold anymore (or the sharks.)
  • Performing! Being in front of an audience for concerts & workshops is different.  Learning about awareness and being in the moment on the trapeze has helped me savor my time in front of  groups.
  • Scaling heights!  I have had the joy of rock climbing with my daughter.  Trusting your 11 year-old to belay you and safely lower you to the ground from 15-20 feet in the air is an amazing experience. (I think this is a metaphor for life!)
  • Goals!  My goals have come into focus.  It is much easier to turn down opportunities that don’t bring me closer to these goals!  I know what I want!
  • Learning.  I engage in the learning process everyday.  It took a trapeze class to reacquaint me with the process. The learning opportunities that life offers make every day amazing!

I wouldn’t trade the adventures beyond the fear barrier for anything.  It is great to wake up each day without the fear.  Fear has been replaced by wonder, wondering what will come my way.  Aren’t you curious to find out what lies beyond your fear barrier?

Filed Under: Awareness, Learning Process, Performance, Uncategorized Tagged With: awareness, process, Trapeze

Extreme Fear

April 26, 2013 by Vanessa Breault Mulvey Leave a Comment

I just finished reading Extreme Fear, by Jeff Wise.  Ever since I faced my fear of heights, I have been interested in learning more about fear, how the body responds to fear, and strategies to deal with it.  Fear has benefits, but it also has the power to limit how we perform, and our ability to take chances.

Wise’s book confirmed that exposure therapy is a proven way to overcome certain fears.  Looking back on my own experience, this is exactly how I approached my fear of heights.  Early on, I could not see an end to my fear and therefore did not expect to ever move beyond it.  Each time I climbed the stairs to the board at trapeze school jitters filled my body, adrenaline rush, increased heart rate, sweaty hands and that voice inside my head warning me about danger and potential failure.  Each time I mustered up the courage to make the leap, I challenged the reality of these feelings and my emotions.  I also used Barbara Conable’s advice on dealing with performance anxiety, which is to recognize the fear but also acknowledge all of the other emotions I was experiencing.  Not only was I scared, I was excited, happy and energized. In time (3 classes) I started to recognize the fun of flying on the trapeze, that I felt great after the workout, and I began to recognize powerful connections within my body (how the arms and legs connect to the torso.)  My fear morphed into one of the best learning experiences of my life (also the most fun.)  Experiencing new ways of moving, facing fear, the physics of trapeze, and performing have helped me to grow as a flutist, teacher and person.  This week, why not take a chance, face your fear.  If the voice inside your head gives you pause, take a moment to acknowledge all of the emotions & feelings racing through you, shift your focus to the good ones and go for it!  You might be pleasantly surprised at the outcome 😉

Filed Under: Awareness, Learning Process, Performance Tagged With: Attention, awareness, joy, mindfulness, Music Performance, Success, Trapeze

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