4.1.1: Concentration and Calibration

Ideally you will be "lost" in the performance, however the world is not "ideal" and most performers find themselves transitioning betwen two distinctly different types of consciousness during a performance. One state is a relaxed and flowing type of consciousness and the other is a more "busy" state of mind which is not so conducive to flow.

Researchers have found that the two states of mind are connected with the 2 lobes - left and right - of our brain. The physiology is not as important to the performer as the knowledge that you have control over these states. You can produce them at will, just in the same way you learn your technique on the instrument.

Once you have done something successfully once - you know you can do it again and again. This is what practice is about, experiencing a good movement and then reinforcing it by conscious repetition. The flowing state of mind will never be attained by "hard work". Take your time and gently re-direct your attention to the task at hand. This is the way to work on music in general. It is a quite different thing to sustain this kind of flow in action, than to sit and practice static "meditation".

Here is a suggested checklist of items which the performer (that's you!) can apply "relaxed attention" to in performance, when you find yourself back in a "thinking" type of consciousness.

(Partial) Checklist for Concentration and Calibration during Performance Your Rhythmic accuracy Articulation of the tune you are playing The tune another instrument is playing The Singer Timing - are you in sync with the other instruments? The reflected sounds of the ensemble (or your solo instrument) The ensemble sound overall Other instruments - for example is the bass going up or down? The conductor, or leader of the ensemble, his/her gestures, body language Breathing of the ensemble - String Quartets use breathing to synchronise phrasing The printed music, if reading you willl be reading a number of measures ahead. The relationships of your head-neck-torso.

By looking at this list it should be obvious that you won't have time to be finding notes on your instrument during a performance! Nor will you really have time to get nervous or indulge in stage fright if you are continually bringing your attention back to the tasks at hand. Try it now! These are practical skills which improve by doing!

Develop reliable calibration routines.

All professionals develop routines whereby they use the first piece of a performance to "settle in" and "calibrate" their technique. For this purpose they use pieces which they know extremely well - even beyond their normal level of familiarity with the material. Knowing the piece so well allows them to listen intently and calibrate the sounds they are producing with the acoustic environment. This also calibrates their playing mechanism, adjusting their timing and kineaesthetic responses to the highest degree. Any professional can tell you how difficult it is to get an ensemble "firing" if the first number doesn't settle in. Bands use soundchecks for this but the acoustics change when people are in the room, so it is always back to that first number to get everbody settled in. Look at symphony programs and you will inevitably see a light and familiar number first on the bill. Now you know why!

Thinking versus doing. Performing music involves all the faculties like few other activities.

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This is an excerpt from "Guitar Playing and How it Works - 3rd Edn.". The book is printed in high resolution black and white. The layout and some of the images have been changed here for clarity.

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