Tag: practice

Breathing Space

Nicole NealLeave a comment

Breathing space. Time to reflect and think, or to not think and just be. Time to rest.

I also call the idea of breathing space, “stewing room”. Marginally less poetic perhaps, but it’s the analogy I’m going for (and you’ll probably see that I’m on fire with those today)

When you make a fantastic stew or curry or spag bol or chuck-it-all-in-one-pot type dinner, it somehow tastes even better the following day when all the flavours have had time to sit and stew and infuse and meld and mix to create a fabulous rich taste explosion. Well, so it is (I think anyway; don’t rely on me here) with our music making. Allowing the time and space – the stewing room – for all those elements we’ve been working on in a piece to come together can produce some wonderful results……

It’s a bit like taking a step back to see the woods for the trees. If we’re constantly working away at the detail and only occasionally looking up we’re not really coming back to our work with (a) worked in ideas being embedded and growing within us, (b) fresh eyes, ears or minds to new possibilities or even things that were patently obvious, (c) seeing what we’ working on as a whole or (d) enjoying the work as much (absence makes the heart grow fonder as they say!).

It’s also a bit like when you’re trying think of the name of something and it’s on the tip of your tongue…you can see the object/place/person in your mind’s eye, but you just can’t think of the bloody name! How often does the answer come to you when you’re not not trying to think about it? The act of trying so hard to do something can stymie our efforts. We need to give our wee brains the chance to sort through the info, make the connections and send it to where the information is needed.

Another analogy. Top athletes train very hard at their particular sport – long runs, sprint efforts, lifting weights, game play drills and so on. However, one of the most important parts of their training is the rest time. The down time between training, spent sleeping, relaxing or some other diversion away from their main activities is when the body and brain makes its adaptions. It goes through a process kind of like “sheeesh, I hope she doesn’t make me do that again, but just in case I want to make it a little easier for myself next time so I’ll repair this muscle with a bit extra fibre or make sure that neural connection is further solidified to make that movement easier”. Rather loosely, it’s similar with us as guitarists and musicians.

So cut yourself some slack and make time for breathing space.
Not too much though! I like to give myself one day completely away from the guitar once per week or per fortnight, depending on what I’ve got on. This might be a day when the office job has been particularly busy – it gives me a chance to refresh, reset, reinvigorate, and those ideas, concepts and movements to sinks into the brain and muscles.

Have a think about it. But not too much!

Practicing without practicing: part deux

Nicole NealLeave a comment

Over the last couple of days I have well and truly being putting into practice the practice of practicing without practicing (ooh too many “practices” there). Well, kind of anyway.

My enforced hiatus from “situation normal” was brought about by a slightly idiotic thought on my part. I thought that I could prevent my rather excitable young dog from tripping people up whilst on a very long extender lead by grabbing hold of the very thin, rope-like line of the lead (travelling at a great speed, I might add) with my bare hand. Yes. My bare hand. Oww. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in two angrily stinging, pulsing and then throbbing friction burns (and now blisters) across fingers one and two of my left hand. It brought tears to the eyes! So, you may agree, that this was not one of my better ideas….

It happened though and there’s no point wishing it hadn’t. I always try to make the most of situations and think about the opportunities presented by an otherwise adverse circumstance.

So, right hand exercises it has been! A good opportunity to get back to basics and review ones foundations.

I started off by carrying out some right hand touch control and tone quality exercises, using the various combinations of pima, listening in to tone quality, looking at and playing with angles of attack, the action of the fingers onto, through and returning to the strings.

I confess I soon got a little bored of this, however, and I thought what other form of right hand only kind of practice can I do? And then I was struck by perhaps a better thought than the one I’d had earlier…..

This was an excellent opportunity to puzzle out and really think about my preferred right hand fingering for a piece I’m bedding in at the moment. This involved me sitting and playing, left hand not even on the guitar (hurt too bloody much!), and playing through phrases with my right hand only. Just playing open strings and thinking about what my preferred right hand fingering is and how the notes and the music would be created with the addition of my left hand. 

OK, so you don’t really get the full picture (or sound) without the left hand, and the fingering may not fit quite as anticipated when you come back to add the left hand in properly (but that can always be played around with again), but it does do a number of things:

  • It gives you another perspective on a piece, allowing you to think about it in a different way
  • Makes you really focus and conentrate as you’re (a) thinking and playing in an unusual way, (b) hearing the music in your head and (c) figuring out, deciding and committing to a right hand approach
  • Exercises your problem-solving skills
  • Probably creates some kind of new neural pathways and connections in your brain as a result (this is not based in scientific fact, and is just my layperson’s assumption around neuroscience!)
  • Stops you from going mad from just doing pima studies!