When I was 37, after I’d had a fair amount of success as a performer, I unexpectedly discovered a transformative physical approach to the piano.
Here’s how it happened:
I’d been practicing mindfulness meditation for eight years and was doing it for two hours a day that spring. My cat had died suddenly, on the heels of a romance falling apart. During each one-hour meditation session, emotional pain flooded my system. I just sat there and felt it, day after day.
It wasn’t easy. But in the process of experiencing it, I also felt waves of sympathy for myself. My heart had broken open.
After some time, I calmed down. It became easier to accept my cat-less, romance-less life. I had opened up more inside, and something in me had softened.
It was during that time that I had a completely shocking experience at the piano: Instead of swaying around a lot as I used to do when I played, I found myself sitting with my torso relatively still and upright, as it was in meditation. And I noticed that my arms were moving a lot more freely than before.
I tried playing the old way, but it felt unnatural.
I was completely thrown by this experience. So I called my friend Trish, a wonderful saxophonist, and asked her to come over and watch me play and tell me how it sounded.
“It sounds much better than before,” she said. “You’re not holding onto the music for yourself now. It’s coming through straight to the listener.”
That week, I taught this physical approach to all my students and was stunned to hear each of them sounding 100% better right away.
One afternoon, as I stood in my studio watching a student play instantly more beautifully, I could almost see light bulbs flashing in front of me. I suddenly knew I had to switch my main career focus from performing to teaching. I felt compelled to help as many pianists as possible discover that they could play on a whole new level. It was the biggest shock of my life.
Since that moment, I began researching body mechanics by interviewing health professionals, including MDs and physical therapists, as well as Alexander teachers, Body-Mind Centering teachers, and other movement experts. I discovered that there are clear reasons for why this physical approach to the piano has far-reaching effects.
Stability Supports Mobility
First of all, there’s a basic athletic principle at work when we stabilize our torso and lower body while playing. It’s similar to how a tennis player gets solidly connected to the ground, in order to give strong support to the free and powerful movement of her arm when hitting the ball.
You can feel this principle operating if you sit solidly upright and then deliver a punch into the air straight ahead of you. Your arm has easy power. In contrast, try hunching over and delivering a punch. You’ll notice that your power feels compromised.
But What’s Even More Amazing
It’s great to feel this connection between being physically grounded and having more power in your arms. But even more amazing is how this different physical approach in playing music gives us immediate access to deeper expressive power.
Why is that?
When we’re more still, our nervous system is less busy with torso movement, and we can perceive sounds and sensations more clearly. We can hear more and feel more. We are literally more musically alive.
In other words, being less active allows us to be more receptive – to connect more fully to the music.
You don’t have to meditate to accomplish this change. And you also don’t have to suffer a lot of personal loss. Instead, you can experience more physical and emotional freedom in making music simply by including deliberate receptivity in your daily practicing.
How To Do This
Choose one phrase in a piece you’ve been practicing. Sing one line of the phrase (perhaps the melody) while playing notes that go with it (the accompanying parts). Certain notes may be more challenging to hear and sing than others. Take all the time you need to tune in to these sounds and feel how they affect you.
Then sing a different line of the same phrase while playing other parts.
If this feels difficult, you’re not alone! We generally haven’t been taught to include ear training in our daily practicing. But it gets easier the more you do it.
Now that you’ve taken the phrase apart this way, play it as written. You’ll most likely discover that it’s been transformed. The texture sounds more transparent. You also might feel less tendency to lean forward to make music – because now the music is coming to you more. Plus, now that you’ve created a stronger connection between your ears and your hands, your hands can move more easily and know exactly where they need to go.
How It Works
This increased ease happens because of the way your nervous system works: You have motor neurons, which inform your movements, and sensory neurons, which operate in listening. And then, you also have interneurons, which communicate between the two.
What this means is that when your body is more relaxed, you can hear better. Likewise, when you listen more closely, your body becomes better coordinated.
If you’re not used to this kind of listening work, it can feel demanding. And it definitely takes time. But it’s actually the shortcut to playing more expressively. Instead of spending time trying to figure out where and how to change the dynamics, or what to do to with your hands to make the music sound more fluid, these things start happening naturally.
Don’t get me wrong – you still need a strong foundation of efficient instrumental technique in order to maximize ease and enjoyment in playing. Using your hands and arms well is crucial, so that you don’t gum up the works with excess tension. And if you have questions about your technique, I’m happy to talk to you about how you can maximize physical ease and fluency.
But I hope you’ll try this listening practice regularly, so you can discover for yourself how it increases your expressive capacity.
Postlude
Falling apart when my heart broke allowed me to come back together more whole. The same thing happens when you take apart a phrase and experience all the sounds more fully: The phrase comes back together as it was meant to be.
And you come back together – as the musician you were meant to be.
Warm wishes for unlocking your musical potential,
Madeline
1) Feel free to schedule a complimentary consultation to get clearer on any issues you’re having with your playing.
2) The Performing Beyond Fear® exercise audio can be very helpful and inspiring before performing – and even before practicing.
3) You’ll find a lot of helpful information about instrumental technique in Chapter 6 of my book, The Art of Practicing.