The Power of Process

Intention Over Instinct

What’s your process when you stand in front of your music to play?  when you are on stage to perform? Or enter the audition room?  How do you prepare? (If you are not a musician, insert your activity for playing)

I have been thinking about this recently.  I notice when I am navigating an obstacle or playing a piece new or old, I often dive in the way I have always dove in, without much thought other than what I want to execute and what the outcome looks like.

Guess what? This approach isn’t setting me up for success.  This is like going into an unfamiliar dark room to find a quarter somewhere in the space.  Each time we play we can organize mind and body for the task ahead of us, instead of diving in the way we always have.

‘How’ you ask?

Take a moment, and it really doesn’t take more than a moment, to think about what you are planning to do. I like to remind myself that I am using combinations of movement to breathe life into my musical ideas. Next, engage the senses (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) and organize around an intention. You are now ready to begin.

Entering into performance awake and alive in the present moment, rather than stuck in worries about skills or what it will sound like (if you are a musician) you enjoy options, options that allow recovery if something doesn’t go as planned, options in movement or in how you actually create sound, phrases, expression.

Practicing this every time we deliver our instrument or arms to the instrument can override our instinct.  If we truly know this process, through mindful repetition we can access it even in situations where we perceive pressure to deliver.  Bonus, approaching playing in this way all the time enhances the learning process, you get more out of time spent.

My instinct remains to dive in, head first, I choose to interrupt this instinct with a mindful process that propels my expression and confidence.

Be curious…

Musicians’ Drop-In Body Mapping Class - Tuesday 12/1 - What’s behind you? Explore the other side of your performance possibilities taking advantage of space and the other 1/2 of your body. https://www.breathemoveperform.com/drop-in-details