Distraction

Today let’s introduce some distractions into your practice.  “Distraction? That always messes me up.“

Distraction has some upsides that we can use to grow to really own our playing instead of leaving it to chance.

The distraction I am going to suggest today is an internal distraction.  I often find musicians hyper, I mean laser-focused on attempting to do what is hard for them.  To give you an example, a violinist I worked with this week was struggling to get their 4th finger to move fluidly to the string.  She did a great job mapping the structure of the pinky and how it relates to wrist and arm, but she couldn’t get beyond “trying” to get it to move how she wanted.  So we used distraction, we brought the movement back into the context of the whole body. Let’s use this same process for you…

Here is your internal distraction, wave your knees as you play.  This is a simple movement, the knee swings in and out as you stand or sit.  When you do this what happens to technique, sound, phrasing?  For some, it may be chaos, but maybe something new may emerge.

Why wave the knees? Waving the knees is a whole leg movement. The muscles that you use to wave your knee are located in your torso. They are in close proximity to muscles that move the arms as well as breathing and postural muscles. Waving the knee unlocks these muscles which should allow everything to move more fluidly.

If you think you can’t wave your knees and play, take a chance and see what it yields.  It may cause you to play a wrong note, wrong rhythm, but you may also find better legato, a warmer sound, better intonation, or better contact with your instrument.  Can’t wait to see what you find.