[Mery]

Thanks Noa, yes I’ve been studying Alexander Technique. I just thought I might have missed a chapter in BP about this! No worries.

[Mery]

“I’ve done half of the exercises”

There was a great video on minimum pressure from Nate the violinist some time back, and I’ve devised my own exercises for playing with ease. I’m super interested in this, having been ‘off’ Beyond Practicing for awhile. Are there exercises I’ve missed
in the BP course for tension release?

[Mery]

I love your post and would like to hear what others say. For me, it’s a matter of reviewing repertoire (in a semi-organised way) and being pleasantly surprised when it comes out right. After awhile when the stakes aren’t high I just dive in, and when it works, this builds trust in your fingers.

[Mery]

This article talks about, among other things, monitoring your practice sessions for how they are making you feel, and if you’re experiencing negative feelings about your practice, what to do:

http://web.uniarts.fi/practicingtipsformusicians/articles/the-flow-of-music.pdf

I use the “ten pennies” tool at times – a similar tool to the marbles, but always make the segment to practice *very* small – to get it right each time. Hope this helps!

[Mery]

Hi Kenji,

I think you could use your audition recordings to isolate (and then practice) just the places where your timing became inconsistent. If you’ve already done that, I would look for anywhere you physically tense up while playing (for example certain intervals?), and practice releasing the tension in those spots. You could also practice while mentally imagining yourself IN an audition and see if that produces tension in certain areas. Hope this helps!

[Mery]

Hi Emma,

Listen to some of the great harp players such as Gráinne Hambly, Michelle Mulcahy, Laoise Kelly. Listen very very closely in slowdown many times- your aim will be to hear the ‘notes between the notes’ – there is finger articulation in there. Once you can hear some of this in your mind’s ear, take a tiny phrase, maybe 3 notes, try to copy what you are hearing. Then ask an Irish harp teacher for lessons on how to physically make the sounds you now hear. You can hear these players on you tube and probably email them for lessons.

As for feeling the pulse of the music, listen to a lot of the music while physically walking (marching) and/or dancing to the beat, or clapping your hands, or tapping feet, or lilting the melody with your voice (diddle-dee-dee, etc) – anything to get your body physically moving with the music. The more you practice this the better you will get – it’s a skill. It has helped a number of my students (Irish flute).

I hope this helps!

[Mery]

Hi Alfred, I would recommend planning some very small goals when practicing, to give yourself a lot of wins within a single practice session. Most important is to congratulate yourself, with as much good emotion as you can, when you reach even the smallest goal. I have found this video really helpful with that-

https://tinyhabits.com/tiny-habits-for-practicing-musician/

Hope that will help! – Mery

[Mery]

I’ve experienced this too, mainly after critiquing a recording and then attempting to record again, while trying to keep in mind all the points I used to ‘fix’ the mistakes. I think it’s a matter of changing hats so to speak.

First the solution should involve isolating the specific tricky bits and practicing them enough, at a slow enough pace so you do have time to think, in order to put the fixes into permanent memory without having to ‘think’ about them.

Next I think practicing ‘hat switching’ is in order, to get that ability under your control. So first you think and practice, as above. But then you stop and do some centering (where you -can- imagine all those details ahead of playing) and mind-emptying. Followed by creating music (ie not practicing, just playing with a still mind). Even if you can only do that latter for a couple of seconds at first, you have practiced the ‘hat switching’. Aim to extend the amount of time you can create music without interrupting yourself. If you find yourself thinking when you’re supposed to be in ‘playing mode’ then you would remind yourself which hat you are wearing. Sometimes I’ve just stopped and sat there holding my flute till I stopped thinking. Change back and forth between the hats, always taking time to empty your mind before creating music.

I observe things to stay in the moment when playing. Hearing the sounds, feeling the pulse of the music, feeling the vibrations underneath my fingers, observing unnecessary tension so it releases. When I just can’t clear my mind and take off the ‘coach’ hat, I take a break.

I’m no expert here, I’m still doing the course myself, but this is something I work on and use with my students too. Hope it helps!

[Mery]

Hi Ernesto – There’s a guitar instructor Tom Hess who has some tips relating to what you’re experiencing. Here is a link to one of his articles
https://tomhess.net/HowToIncreaseGuitarSpeed.aspx
and near the bottom on that page there are other links for more detail. I don’t study with him but have found a lot of his information useful. Good luck!

[Mery]

This exactly answered my question too. I was answering different questions with different scenarios, which gave me a lopsided assessment result. – Mery