I had the chance to chat with a cello doctoral student yesterday and he told me about a class he took this semester with someone who teaches Alexander Technique. He said he’s had Alexander lessons in the past which were focused more on the body part, the posture part, of the “mind-body” part of the technique, but that this instructor emphasized much more the mind-body connection and mental habits of focus. The cellist shared two things that kind of stuck with me,
First, he talked about how, when performing with a score, and trying to focus, people may tend to zero in the “black dots,” the actual notes themselves. Instead, the idea is to focus on the white spaces, to look at the white parts of the score. And when you do this, the notes come along as well, but because you’re not zeroing on the black dots, it helps you play in a more relaxed way. The cellist said he performed a very intricate piece with an ensemble, and there were spots were if he had any kind of slip, it would knock him out of the piece (he explained it much better..) anyway he said he had been quite nervous about it, but when he switched to focusing on the white parts of the score, he was better able to play without being nervous. I’m going to try this during practice and see if I can feel that it would help.
Another idea he talked about which is similar is the idea of peripheral vision while playing from the score. He said that if you are focused in on the score too intently, your whole body stiffens up and that tension contributes to performance nerves. And when you have almost tunnel vision, staring in at the score, you are more vulnerable to being shaken, for example, if something moves just outside of your vision or there’s an unexpected sound. But instead, if you open up your attentional focus, and allow what’s in the peripheral vision to come through as well, your body relaxes and you can be more attuned to the environment you’re in.
I know that playing on a new piano in a new space has often been decentering for me. And of course, for my piano jury, being able to practice in the jury room two separate times beforehand was quite helpful. The first time I played there, the big windows off to the bass side of the piano completely threw me, it was like visual noise trying to get into my brain. As it was, I practiced there twice in the two weeks before the jury and that really helped me acclimate myself to the space, but I wonder if the peripheral vision focus thing could help in similar situations in the future.
Anyway, I thought these ideas were ingesting and I’m going to try them out!
(Disclaimer: this is my retelling of his retelling, so if you’re an Alexander specialist and this sounds off, please assume it’s something lost in my retelling!)