Starker quote

"Don't put your thumbs in storage."

CelloChanWoods retreat 2012.  Day one talk.  Well being and the art of cello playing.  

This retreat is about exploring ways to be at your cello in a way that allows your natural energy, talent, power, emotions, musical ideas, and joy to be accessible to you in the way you desire. 

It is an opportunity to understand your issues, clarify your goals, and learn how to solve your problems from a more knowledgeable and clear perspective.

On this retreat we will be talking about the mind body connection.  You will attend classes, talks, discussions, practice sessions, and ensemble with the goal of integrating the mental, emotional, and physical process.   Chan means to see - thus cellochan.  But is means to see as deeply as possible.  Total seeing.   If we understand something, we can do it.  But that understanding in the case of cello playing means: mentally, emotionally, and physically understanding something in the same instant, during movement, and as a whole.  So, during our time together we will study ways to bring these different facets under one roof so that playing can start to truly become an extension of our natural selves and not a reflection of our conflicts, conscious on subconscious. After all, like it or not, the cello is a mirror. You can see yourself and your struggles in it.  So it’s probably time to stop struggling, redefine your approach to learning at the cello, and enjoy your work.

The cellochan mission statement:

To help students enjoy making music

To employ the cello in the work of self acceptance

To cultivate ways to serve others through music

There will be four ½ hour talks during our retreat each morning to help us set the tone for our mental direction for the day.

1. Awareness * Mind / Body

2.  How to move within awareness * Stillness and  motion                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
 3. Practicing * Like a crystal

4.  Being a cellist.  Going forward and Stories of great musicians

Becoming aware of your body

A disciple once asked his old Zen Master, “What is the highest teaching of Zen?”  The master replied “Attention, attention, ...attention.”

The student said, “Yes master, I am ready.”  Again the master said,  “Attention student, attention.”

“Yes master, what is Zen’s highest teaching?”

What is it...? The word starts with A.

CelloChanWoods is not a Zen retreat or a Buddhist retreat.  But there are some valuable concepts that I will offer to you over the span of four days that directly relate to becoming more liberated at the cello. 

The truth is that most people are not very clear about what bare awareness really is.  Raw awareness is not a tense thing.  It simply is itself.  (In the beginning of trying to understand this, most people see mind chatter as the only way for the mind to be.)   But pure attention is invisible and it is right in front of you.   It also has an enormous amount of power, just because.  Not because of some extra exertion on your part.  Ask yourself when you last exerted your self in order to pay attention, as opposed to finding it easy to pay attention.  Let me give examples of what both kinds of awareness might look like.  The first: If you are tired and bored in class, but you are going to have to remember something for a future test, you exert yourself to pay attention. This exertion is in contrast to the you that is bored.   You are in conflict with the desire to think about other things or perhaps even to sleep. What is set up here is a very subtle kind of stress, straining, and disturbance.  The second kind of awareness is so unified with the object of our attention that we hardly know we are paying close attention.   An example of this would be a fascinating event or story that transfixes us, eyes wide and mouth open. The body seems to drop away – i.e. we are not aware of it, and our attention is simply fused with the matter at hand. The matter at hand could be anything in the physical or mental world.   This is complete attention without conflict or exertion.  But how quickly it fades. Back to the chatter. Another quality of complete attention, focus, or awareness is a sense of ease.  There may be an intensity to it, but not strain.

When we play music, we are often in conflict with ourselves in a number of ways that we may well be unaware of. It could be that we are unclear about the musical line, our overall musical conception, the physical demands and how one hand works with the other hand, and countless other things.  Trying to do things on the cello without awareness makes it impossible to see the bigger picture and is a set up for struggle, frustration, and failure.  (Of course there is a time for work on small passages or notes that we will go into detail about on Saturday.)  We cannot express ourselves freely because we are scattered, trying in the wrong way to keep track of things, because the energy of the music itself has become broken up.  Music.  What is it?  It is you.  Playing the cello itself is complicated and has to be brought under control on your own terms.  It can often feel like there are too many balls in the air to juggle. This is a scattered mind.  Janos Starker said to me, “ Most people are still practicing when they are performing.”  That is an interesting statement to me.  How does one go from the state of mind that most of us practice in to freedom and ease of playing?  How can we become free on the cello?  An unfocused mind exerts force to play.  A quiet mind is power from which playing flows.  Again Starker:  “Power in playing is not force.”  Force is something pushing against something.  Power is itself.  The power that beats your heart is a natural, balanced power.  

The necessary first step is to stop.  Relax.  Let the mud settle and look around a bit.  In Zen it is called, “stopping.” Get off the mental merry-go-round and let thoughts fall away.  There is saying by Lao Tzu that I think is a lot of fun.  “Stop thinking and end your problems.”   Easier said than done!   So, first we must feel what not being in conflict actually is.  We have to do this before we can move from this newfound place of centeredness to falling into the river of music.  Today we will be concentrating on finding this center both mentally and physically.  I encourage you to be open-minded.  When you do Eileen’s visualizations, really do them.  When I move you in a certain way or instruct you to do something, fully do it.  Investigate.  That is another great word.  Don’t take my word for it...investigate.

 In Eileen’s movement class, she will be doing visualizations with you as a group to bring you into your body and to blur the self-created lines you have drawn between your mind and body. The cello movement class today will concentrate on your cello position in a completely balanced and solid way.  This balanced, relaxed position will prepare you for movement work tomorrow.   The meditations you do today are short and introductory, but will help you learn to minimize your random and planned thinking and to sit in still awareness.  A greedy mind has to move, has to chatter.  Let thoughts fall away, you won’t disappear!

Remember, mind chatter or the monkey mind as they say in Zen, is the ongoing chatter that is part of our usual way of being. Monkeys leap from branch to branch, sometimes shrieking and/or laughing as they go.   A monkey mind is like a chain smoker.  One thought leads quickly to the next, most of the time without the consent of the thinker.  Have you ever shifted to a note too fast – before you knew where it was?  Or imagine a line of gasoline after a match has been set to it on one end of the line.  Just so, one thought produces the next and the next and the next.   We even think that a random thought has a right to be attended to in all cases, regardless of its negative nature.  This however, is not the case.  Who after all is really in charge?  

When the mind settles, we begin to become aware that the foundation of our mind is not chatter, but something vast, powerful, and at peace.  It is not still and it is not moving. Come talk to me about that if that troubles you!  :)   Our quiet mind, where music is born and lives by the way, is a place beyond the province of words to describe it.  And it puts our chatter to shame.

When Eileen, our Trager specialist and Physical Therapist works with each of you on the Trager table.  Tell her to the best of your ability what parts of your body feel tense when you play. You’ll get a lot out of it if you are open.  Her work with you will attempt to get you to a state of relaxation that is deeper than normal for you.  She will help you feel this place we’ve chosen to stop at......our rest stop, before moving on tomorrow into motion. There will be no talking, except to whisper something to staff if you need to, until sectionals begin at 9:40 this morning.  This means that we’ll all be in total silence during my talks, meditation, and during Eileen’s class. 

I will now instruct you on your meditation.  When you meditate today, thoughts will, as usual, come up. Sit comfortably on your chair with your back on the back of the chair, but sit up.  Rest your hands in your lap in secure way.  Your feet should be set apart and solidly in front of you.  When the bell rings, you will have 6 minutes of meditation.  There will be three periods of 6 minutes each with stretches in-between.  You may find yourself becoming tense, bored, or anxious.  Simply ignore it. We are getting the mind ready to play.  Breathe with your lips slightly apart and shut your eyes.  Do not force your breath in or out.  Allow it to happen while watching it from afar, as if your mind is above you just quietly checking out the scene.  Give your body to the chair, your mind to the method.  Wandering thoughts are natural.  Acknowledge them but do not engage with them.  Let them go on their way.  Or, as they say in Zen, drop them over the side of the mountain.  What remains is a peaceful, spacious place from which your best cello playing will come.  I’ll end our talk this morning with this quote by the Buddha.  “There is nothing to worry about, you already have everything you need to be happy, be grateful.  For it is a healthy state of mind.   By meditating, you are taking a step toward calming your mind and readying yourself to play the cello from a more powerful and intelligent place.  What is the highest teaching of Zen?  Attention.  It is the place from which everything you need comes.

Thought for the week

"Stop thinking and end your problems" 

Lao Tzu

In the context of playing the cello, this means to back up and "see" as much as possible when playing in a relaxed, flexible state.  This will help integration of the facets of technique to happen naturally.  It is a good method to include in daily practice to accompany slow work on more local issues.            

Janos Starker recommends playing in a dark room for 1/2 hour after regular practice.  Why?  Because, as he says "most people are still practicing when they perform"  One has to be able to play freely and in a holistic, aware way without over doing local analysis.

Suzanne