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Good questions. Before I say anything, I should say that I don’t want you to get too caught up in the details, in that ultimately, the hope is that this becomes something very organic and natural, and personal to you. Pre-performance routines look different from person to person, and this is just a starting point, with some key principles in place.
The focal point is a tricky one, in that you don’t have to stare at it or look at it per se. It’s really just to help start the process of clearing your mind. I had more of a sensory focal point where I wanted to direct sound, rather than a visual one per se. I might be looking at my fingerboard, for instance, but not actually seeing or monitoring my fingers – simply just gazing in that direction.
And hearing the opening is about really creating a clear target for yourself to go for, so for me personally, I’d run it over in my head a few times, as I was releasing tension, etc., just to really get into the flow of things and really get into the character and hear exactly what I wanted. Almost like taking a practice swing in golf.
Your centering routine sounds good to me – so it passes the “eyeball” test as it were. The most important test is to see how it works for you! It might work great as is, or you might end up tweaking a few things here and there as you get more experience and become more comfortable with it. Let me know how it goes!
