Letting Go Of Expectations
Freedom to Play
A really interesting thing happened last week that got me thinking. I was practicing tone and intonation with a drone. As I prepared to lay my sound over the drone, I had the thought, “I hope I am in tune.” I played, and guess what? I wasn’t quite in tune. I noticed all of the tension that accompanied that fleeting thought.
I decided to turn this upside down. Wondering what would happen if I just played my note and observed where it was in terms of pitch, in other words, no expectation. I set out to give it a go. You might say, I gave myself permission to be out of tune. This permission allowed me to play the note by listening to the sound of the drown and adding my sound in, and I was in tune. In fact, the whole sequence was beautifully in tune with the drone.
The permission I gave myself allowed me to be flexible in my embouchure and formulate a sound based on the context of the drone. WOW!
This experience led me to think about the expectations we bring into our practice. Mine include…
E3 isn’t a pretty note and not in tune
That measure is hard
I am not good at playing softly
I don’t know how to breathe quickly
My list could go on. Can you imagine how all of these expectations combine preparing the body for all of the potholes of music-making?
What if you left your expectations behind and approached your practice with the intention of growth. You focused your efforts on specifics, be articulating your weaknesses clearly. This would remove the straight jacket and free you up to use and grow the movements that fuel your artistic expression.
Be curious…