Sharp Edges or Spirals?
What are the transitions in your playing (life) like?
Music-making is full of transitions both large and small. Do you notice them? Transitions can be the end of one phrase to the beginning of the next. The passing off of melody from one instrument to another. The change in direction of the bow on the string. Exhale to inhale. How do your transitions feel? Like sharp edges in your playing or never-ending spirals? Transitions offer the opportunity to refine our craft.
I have been thinking a lot about transitions in lots of areas of life (including Parkour). For instance, moving from one project to the next. As I shut the mental file on one activity and open the next, how I do it can be either empowering or draining. Noticing this transition provides an opportunity to enjoy the process of changing what I am thinking about or how I move. When the transition is smooth, it energizes me allowing me to move my thinking.
The same is true in music-making. For instance, the quality with which I bring my instrument up to my face will directly impact how I play. Awkward instrument delivery = awkward playing, this may be at a low level, but it will inhibit breathing, articulation, technical facility, okay everything!
When we transition out of a phrase in a clunky way, our mind and body are feeling clunky. To start the next note/phrase/piece in this condition inhibits expression because the mental baggage and physical limits are still in us.
My favorite way to begin tuning into transitions in playing is to play a series of notes very slowly, noticing when each key touches the cup of its hole. Feeling that moment, identifying just enough effort, and then how one finger combination transitions to the next allows me to calibrate playing effort and fine-tune these changes so that when I am at tempo I own the movements. This is a process that can take revisiting to fully embody, each session reinforces the last.
Working out a slightly awkward transition to a fluid transition allows me to navigate my music-making with more ease. Fluid transitions throughout create soaring expression. Â
Fingering is just one place to tune in. What about change of direction for the bow? Or inhale to exhale? Or the change in direction of the conducting baton? There are so many possibilities, each offers a way into the process of craft. The process drives the outcome.
Be curious…