I am preparing to teach my next Parkour session, thinking about how to guide participants to explore movement up and over objects in a new way. As I plan, one of my considerations is selecting a theme for the session. Themes are things like: flow in movement, breathing as you move, landing quietly. This got me thinking, what would picking a theme for my practicing yield?
A theme is an overarching concept you refer to as you practice everything from tone, to technique, to repertoire. For example, if I selected flow as my theme for the day here are ways to apply it:
Bringing the instrument to me - are the movements flowing?
Finger changes - does the pressure I use to close the keys allow finger changes to flow from one to the next?
Sound - do my dynamics flow either smoothly one to the next or cleanly when making a distinct dynamic change?
Breathing - does my inhalation into the phrase flow?
Does a change in texture happen cleanly?
Does the change of pitch from low to high or from few fingers on the keys to many happen seamlessly?
Do rhythms flow?
The possibilities are virtually endless. This doesn’t limit what you do as you practice, it actually enhances your practice grounding you in big picture thinking. You will also find that you overcome technical and expressive challenges indirectly by working from this big picture perspective.
Be curious…