Play With Soft Paws

Imagery To Build Awareness

What are your hands like as you play?  How do you contact the instrument or baton?  What are they like as they gesture or hang off of the arm as you sing?  How would you describe your hands?

Hands (and feet) are two places where tension from fear or too much effort can reside in a performance.

A helpful image is to imagine that your hands are the softest bear paws, think teddy bear, not a grizzly bear.  Imagine the softness of the fur, the width, the curves.  Does this bring a different sensation into your perception of your hands?

What happens to play something simple like a scale with your bear paws?  Do you touch the keys and instrument differently?  Hold the stick differently?  Do gestures have a different quality?  Is there any difference in your sound when you play/sing with bear paws?

The image of ‘bear paws’ is guiding you to find just the right contact with your instrument along with just the right effort.  How does this compare to how you usually feel the instrument? The effort?  Maybe you don’t feel any of this!  I would not be surprised.  

But guess what, accessing the way you contact whatever you have in your hand may be the key to uncovering the solution you have been looking for to tackle a musical challenge.  Without the tactile and kinesthetic senses, your ability to problem-solve is stunted. This perception allows you to access the full picture of where changes can be made to refine articulation, improve dynamics, even out technique, okay anything!  Without this awareness, you have been looking for a penny in a dark unfamiliar room.  

For the next few days, be curious!  What do bear paws add to your playing?

Be curious…