Directing your attention

As musicians our job is to transfer the music from the score (or our thoughts) through our instrument to create sound. It is easy to get stuck in our practice in the middle of this process, hanging somewhere lost amongst all those instructions and conceptions about how to play or sing. This can push music to one side, out of sight. On the other side, our refined interaction with the instrument or voice is also clouded over by thoughts and plans about how we should “do it right.” This can leave us unsatisfied at the end of the day, feeling cut off from the reason why we practice our art.

To avoid getting in a fruitless loop with ourselves it is a good idea to devote a few minutes each day to discovery: about the message in the music, and about the exact way we interact with the instrument or voice to create sound and articulation. It helps to first re-set yourself by a calm warm-up lie down or stretch. With a refreshed view of things you begin to notice, without pre-conceived plans or notions, exactly what is required to create sound and articulation on your specific instrument. Think what it is it the instrument asks of you, and no more. Combining this in a day with another session of dreaming the music without playing, you may find that you can cut out the critical middle man more than you knew. Then, you can review all those instructions and concepts of what is “right” in technique with a clear eye, in the pure context of your own experience.

In the film below, a masters student explains how he has changed his practice by daily warm-ups and use of the practice tactic Frames of Attention. In this practice tactic you focus on the task of playing and singing, using a different frame for your attention each time. The idea of this practice tactic is to focus on the playing or singing itself, rather than on yourself or your technical instructions and goals. This allows your brain and body to organize itself in relation to the minute tasks involved in making music. In Frames of Attention, you focus first on what the instrument (or voice) requires in order to make the sound and articulations that are heard by the public, then widen your thoughts to the resonance of the instrument, and then the acoustics of the room.

In the film, the cellist explains how he had tried for years to obtain a free vibrato, focusing on the movements in his arm that he had heard the vibrato required. He noticed that when he focused, instead, on the tiny contact point between string and finger, that his vibrato became simpler and the tone clearer. For bowing, he noticed that his sound was also clearer and deeper when he focused on the contact point between string and bow.

In Frames of Attention we let our thoughts focus on three frames in succession, finally making a whole. The three frames are called: micro-contacts, the whole instrument, and the whole space. We first focus on micro-contact points, for instance the place where the fingertip meets the string. This is not the whole fingertip, but only the part where string and finger meet. A cello string is a few millimeters thick, and the fingertip touches it along a length of about half a centimeter at most. So the micro-contact point of finger to string for cello is circa 3 millimeters by 5 millimeters: the thickness of the string and the width of the finger, making a small thin rectangle. If the cellist is calm and focused, he can feel this small contact point through the pressure applied, and by the buzzing of the string under the fingertip when he bows. For bowing, we focus on the micro contact point between the string and the hair of the bow. This contact point is just as small, as it also is comprised of the width of the string, and the amount of hair resting along the string (which varies with the tilt of the bow.)

Different instruments have different micro contact points to consider. The pianist has the tip of the finger to each key, the trompetter has the small contact point of lips to mouthpiece and the finger contact to the keys, the singer has the contact of tip of tongue to teeth and lip to lip.

Note: For singers, who are used to imagining and trying to sense things all over the body, it can be helpful and refreshing to concentrate only on the conscious structures: lips and tongue, almost “tasting” the shapes of the words and the tip of the tongue and the lips during consonants. For other “professional breathers” it can also be a relief to focus only on fingertips and lips and tongue, leaving breathing to sort itself out for once. You may be surprised that it can do this very nicely when left alone. It helps if, in addition, the imagining of the musical phrase is clear and strong.

After the first focus frame of micro contacts, you then move your focus on to the whole instrument, its resonating body. Here we think of the back of the violin, the sound board of the piano, the whole tube of metal that makes up the saxophone, the resonating cavities of the face and chest of the singer.

Finally you notice the whole space and how the sound is also formed by it. You have created sound waves that bounce off all the objects in a room, and its walls, ceiling and floor. Ask from the room that it be present in your sound. Again, do not send the sound, but notice it coming back from the room to you. If you are in a small room, it is good to find a door or a piece of wooden furniture, and stand with your back to it. Listen behind you to see if you can hear it reflecting your sound. Move around, putting your back to different walls and objects: can you hear the difference? Singers can put their hands open in front of their ears, directing the hearing backwards. Besides making you stand up taller, this process improves sound! It is also a good training for finding the right spot on stage for your performance. You can then change the set-up or positioning to avoid dead spots or create the resonation that you require.

For non-acoustic instruments is can be fine to practice micro contact focus first without attaching the instrument to the speakers. When you want to continue on to the whole instrument and the whole room, you can hook up the speakers, and try turning them away from you, putting them behind you, in other words, moving them around to get different results, stretching your aural-spatial experience.

The cellist on the film had first tried Frames of Attention in class, with astonishing immediate results. He says that it then took him several weeks of daily work to be able to focus on the micro-contacts. Before the film starts, he said that he could not focus if he was in his usual nervous mood of trying to do everything well. To really focus on the task at hand, we need to be receivers, not senders. Receiving the minute sensations from the instrument, the subtle sensations from touch, vibrations from the instrument, nuances of resonance, this takes calm and an open mind.

Our cellist used the Lie Down warm-up daily before practicing. He found then that during practice he could “get more by doing less.” He also mentions that when first practicing micro contact focus, he needed to do simple playing tasks, like open strings. After three weeks of daily focus work, he could then start to apply his new awareness to his playing exams, noticing that his playing was calmer and more accurate. If you think about it, this is pretty quick!

We spend a lot of time trying to carry out verbal instructions and blaming ourselves when they do not go right. Verbal instructions are difficult to translate into the subtle world of actions and reactions needed to play music. Many instructions about how to do technical things are descriptions after the fact of how it looks or feels to do things when it goes well. Some are subjective reports of how it “feels” to do something right. People are so different, so the processes and sensations differ from person to person. For instance, a stretchy person who is asked to “relax” may be doing something very different than her teacher means, especially if he has a very sturdy build. Each student needs to process, in their own way, what is meant by the teacher’s instructions. Watching teachers demonstrate can be very helpful as this gives the motor-skills brain more information than words. The teachers know what it is like to play and sing well. Their instructions hold a core of truth that we need to stop and re-discover for ourselves.

The motor-neurologist Dr. van Cranenburgh says that the brain needs a clear, direct assignment to carry out coordinated refined motor skills. By clearing away all external technical instructions for short time each day, we can allow our minds to register the subtle relationship between our instrument and ourselves, without the usual filters. By suspending our critical and goal-oriented thoughts temporarily, and focusing on the minute details of our craft, we may find that the mind and body can solve many technical difficulties on its own.

We can gain so much more from our coordination and playing technique by not thinking too much about ourselves, but only about exactly what is required of us by our craft. Then, with our imagination we spark the musical impulse, and witness how it is transferred to and through the instrument.

Please watch this film: Frames of Attention: Explanation of a practice tactic