 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2014-08-11 13:12
Concentrating while playing is a little bit like meditating: you strive to eliminate all extraneous, parasitic thoughts in order to focus on one chosen thing. When your concentration loses its grip, this is translated by playing wrong notes, making a technical mistake in a passage you normally don't have difficulties with, getting rhythmically out of kilter in ensemble playing or coming in wrong. The other thing that can go wrong is that you play correctly, but lackadaisically and without emotional commitment.
What "tricks" or better said: insights do our board members have? I have a few, but would first prefer to hear other people's points of view.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-08-11 14:58
I'd say it's the opposite of meditation. You need to LISTEN to yourself critically, honestly, objectively at every moment. Practicing IS analyzing.
But how to keep that up for a decent amount of time? The advice that I am comfortable passing on comes from Itzak Perlman (not a shabby musician). He advised to practice for fifty minutes at a time. Rest (take a complete break from it) for ten minutes. Then, you can practice for another fifty minutes. Perlman actually said that practicing for more than three or four hours (as prescribed with a ten minute break) starts to become anti-productive.
Of course I know folks who have put in eight hours a day in college (claiming this was key for them) and went on to great careers. All I know for sure is that active practice (the listening stuff) is the only productive practice. What your minimum and maximum lengths for that would be is up to you.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2014-08-11 17:59
Paul, notice that the original poster said PLAYING...not practicing. I concur that playing (as in performing) is meditating. When you're practicing, that's a whole different story...
And in my mind, listening is part of what I do when I'm playing...it's part of the meditation.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2014-08-11 18:30
Katrina: Just to confirm that you're interpretation refers exactly to what I had in mind. I wasn't thinking about practising per se, but rather performing, rehearsing, or even playing a piece from beginning to end during a practice session, once the technical and analytical work has been done. If you start thinking: "I must remember to pay the rent before I go away this weekend" in bar 44, chances are you'll make a mistake or you'll sound distracted. I'd be interested in people's views on how to keep one's mind on one's work.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: BobD
Date: 2014-08-11 19:47
I try to stay concentrated on the Conductor, but then it just encourages him but does help me.
Bob Draznik
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-08-11 20:30
Not exactly responsive to your question, but concentrating is a problem I've noticed in my own performing in that I tend to be distracted by the very music that's going on around me. Not so much from an aesthetic point of view (oh, how beautiful that is!), but from technical concerns. Am I in tune? Or more specifically, am I sharp to the flute (who is playing the melody with me) or flat to him (which way do I need to adjust)? Will the principal oboe anticipate the entrance coming up that we have together (he's come in slightly early nearly every time in rehearsal)? Is the conductor motioning me to play softer or the 1st horn behind me? The brass and the strings are a sixteenth note apart. Who shall I play with (the conductor either doesn't notice or doesn't know what to do either)?
Etc., etc., etc....
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in this kind of thing that I forget what *I'm* supposed to be playing and wind up making really random, silly mistakes. Lack of concentration? Not really. Focusing on the wrong things? Almost certainly, but in the heat of the moment it's hard not to pay attention to the surroundings so much that I forget to look where I'm going.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-08-11 23:22
Gosh I saw this question differently because it doesn't even occur to me that there would be any extraneous, parasitic thoughts when you perform. After proper preparation the performance from a technical aspect should simply flow (I don't necessarily mean play itself, but there should be no need to be conscious of the effort). Ideally you play off of what goes on around you; the pace, the style the dynamics. The performance is just the reward for the hours in the wood shed.
...........Paul Aviles
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-08-12 00:22
Well, you could always pick up your A clarinet when you're usually on the Bb, or vice versa.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-08-12 01:06
I strongly disagree with Karl. By the time of the concert, the notes are "in your fingers." You must keep them in the foreground as you play, but that's pretty much automatic. After all, it's what your body is doing.
But that's never enough. You must know everything else that's going on, not to mention adjusting your intonation, being aware of the harmony and the movement's structure, keeping with the conductor's beat and, even more important, keeping with everyone else. You become part of a single instrument, the orchestra.
If you just play evenly, without listening and adjusting, you and the cellist will never be together in the arpeggios at the end of the first movement of the Brahms Trio.
The Weber Grand Duo and the Brahms Sonatas constantly trade the lead between you and the piano. In the Reger Quintet, these trades are often in the middle of a phrase.
Anyway, the human mind wanders, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. I reserve a tiny fraction of my attention - as it were, in the upper corner of the room - watching and catching when I lose focus. The moment that happens, I redirect my attention to the music.
Ken Shaw
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Author: as9934
Date: 2014-08-12 04:32
My band director always says "you play like you practice" and I have always found that to be the case. When you focus on balancing, blending, and tuning with other ensemble members and shaping phrases tastefully then you achieve good results. As for individual practice, I go to a room without significant distractions (my office usually) warm up, take a short "break" to mess around with jazz and crazy pitch bending stuff then I do technical exercises and then work on music . When I am working on music I try to audiate and close my eyes to listen to my sound. At the end I try to record myself and listen to the day befores recording. Then I do another jazz break/ warm down and pack up.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Wind Ensemble
Buffet E11 clarinet , Vandoren Masters CL6 13 series mouthpiece w/ Pewter M/O Ligature, Vandoren V12 3.5
Yamaha 200ad clarinet, Vandoren B45 mouthpiece, Rovner ligature
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-08-12 05:04
as9934, sounds like a good solid routine. However, some of us might take issue with which parts of it are "music" and which are not. (Actually I think they all are.)
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: ruben
Date: 2014-08-13 14:55
When performing or playing in an ensemble, I agree with those who have said that the key to keeping focused is to listen closely to what's going around you and how you fit into the whole (as Mr. Shaw said). I personally find it easier to keep my mind from wandering when playing with other people than when practising on my own. When I play a piece during a practice session, I have two tricks: I try to hear in my inner- ear what would be going on if I were playing it in an ensemble. If I'm playing the Brahms' trio, for example, I will hear the piano and cello part. If I'm playing a study, I try to focus on one thing: dynamics for example. This, of course, is not to the detriment of all other elements. It is not because I'm focusing on dynamics that I won't be in rhythm, won't play the right notes or play in tune. It's just a trick to avoid the overload that is wont to scatter our attention.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-08-13 16:53
An important point to notice is that 'attention' is of at least two different sorts. In vision, for example, there's the sort of attention where you are concentrating on, and paying close attention to, something in your central field of vision.
But, there's also the sort of attention where you are suddenly aware of a change in your peripheral vision, and act – often almost immediately, and outside conscious awareness – upon that.
There is strong evidence to suggest that these two sorts of attention are mediated by different parts of the brain – see, eg, McGilchrist: 'The Master and his Emissary'.
There are analogous phenomena when playing (and listening to) music. At the level of expert playing, the second sort of awareness tends to be more fully employed. And, as when driving in routine circumstances, the more detailed sort of attention can be dealing with other matters than one's own playing without interfering with execution.
In an emergency, of course, all systems are brought to bear by the action of peripheral awareness.
Tony
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Author: BflatNH
Date: 2014-08-15 03:14
I think there are 2 different situations where 'concentration' changes.
First, playing while reading, and playing from memory (I believe) come from different parts of the brain and switching from one to the other breaks concentration, and then there is the playing while being carried away (near bliss) by the experience when *magic* happens - that is something else.
Second, listening to each other in ensemble is important as long as everyone is more or less together. However, if something happens to knock out the group's (or your) confidence - like playing in a different venue with different seating, strange ambient noise, different players/conductors, something you ate for lunch, your reed collapses, etc - problems spread quickly and I switch from listening for nuances to triage. If no one leads, I do (if I can). Once things get back on track, I'm back to playing on a higher level, and if that happens quickly enough, the audience doesn't notice or forgets (especially if we end well).
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Author: ruben
Date: 2014-08-15 09:05
Dear Bflat: interesting observations and remarks. It is true that concentration is different when playing by heart; not necessarily better, but different. I agree that there is "the damage control" concentration when things go wrong and those unique moments when all goes magically well and falls together.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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