Over the years I have learned and observed certain things through performing and teaching that I would like to share. One of the most basic learnings for me has been that the instrument, in this case the cello, is truly an extension of the player. The ultimate goal then, is to achieve a type of control that allows the player the freedom to be him or her self in the context of the music being played or improvised. Sounds obvious doesn't it? I'm really talking about freedom. The road to that kind of freedom on the cello, or in life for that matte is a rich, challenging, and mysterious one to say the least. Why mysterious? It is my belief that much of what is involved in mastery of the cello demands being open to oneself, one's heart and mind, all the while engaging in dialogue with the instrument. This very engagement is a constant learning process for a player. Listening is activity and takes effort. We are explorers. We are exploring our inner world...listening to it. Because an artist is gathering his/her feelings and observations and transforming them into the language of whatever medium the artist is using whether it be painting, music, poetry etc. So, listening is a kind of seeking awareness that can never go on automatic for a true musician. That may sound like it would be tiring, but actually it is energizing because one is in touch with one's energy as a continuous flow and not blocking it.
So let's talk about the body first, since it is more concrete. In western philosophy, and Descartes is a good example of our culture's thinking, we tend to think of the body as separate from the mind. We've all heard the quote: I think; therefore I am. However these days there is more and more discussion about how mind and body are interconnected on a deep level and not really at all separate. My thinking is more along these lines.
The Oxford Dictionary: Body: the physical structure of a person or an animal, including the bones, flesh, and organs : it's important to keep your body in good condition [as adj. ] body temperature.
• the physical and mortal aspect of a person as opposed to the soul or spirit : a duality of body and soul.
Eileen, a physical therapist and Trager specialist will be explaining a bit about anatomy and the muscles used in cello playing, in addition to explaining the Trager technique briefly for you.
The two of us did a project last summer working with 6 of my students first on the Trager Table, then leading them in a short session of meditation, and then having a brief cello lesson. We then repeated the process over a period of an hour and half. Our project identified for the student which muscles are involved in playing the cello and how to let go while still remaining engaged and active. We worked with a technical issues/skills needed to play from the perspective of a body free from tension and resistance to movement. There are many educational movements out there today geared to mind body unity and in general I think this is good. How do we get to a profound state of acceptance or relaxation on the physical level is one of the questions an instrumentalist must ask I believe. Eileen will demonstrate how this can be done through Trager techniques. Trager is a set of motions the therapist puts a client through while he/she is on a comfortable massage type table. http://www.trager.com/
It is my belief that we must begin to play the cello with the realization that we are never truly physically still and that movement when needed,however slight, can be a cure for blocks and tensions in playing. These blocks are actually defenses when a player is worried about a mistake about to happen or generalized over caution and fear of losing control. If one realizes that one can find solutions by being more immediately flexible and allows freer range of movement, if only a hair, that player is beginning to move toward freedom. One has to learn the cello from the inside out, so to speak, and this cannot happen without making many mistakes. Albert Einstein
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
Let's talk a bit about the mind. First, what is a mistake? We all have our set definitions in our minds. Let's redefine a mistake from the current definition in the Oxford dictionary: "an action or judgment that is misguided or greater clarity to a given situation than was the case before it took place." From "How Children Fail" by John Holt. "From the time of birth until the age of three years, children have a "tremendous capacity for learning, understanding, and creating." Adults, either through their own actions or through excessively dictating their children’s actions, destroy most of the this intellectual and creative capacity. Most frequently, we destroy this capacity by making our children afraid; afraid of being wrong. Holt’s examination of our present educational system is a critical and insightful study, one which forces us to look more closely at the lessons that we are unwittingly imparting to our young ones."
More about the body: The body searches. It is almost as if in some sense it has it's own "way." I often say to my students, who is beating your heart? In Zen we would call that big mind. Or maybe Freud would call it the subconscious. But I am getting beyond the body at the moment. The body is set up magnificently to do things, things that we do every day without a thought that are just as difficult as playing the cello. The body learned these various things through repetition and making many mistakes. I guess we could even suggest that evolution is a stream in slow motion (from a more detached perspective) of a long line of mistakes and corrections. We have become human through a long history of trial and error. It moves at it's own pace. So the body, as far as cello playing is concerned, is not really the problem in my view. Given enough space and time, the body is quite capable of playing the cello. George Nicrug, former head cellist at the New England Conservatory said, " I could teach a monkey to play the cello." What was he saying? He was saying that he had the pedagogy and craft of cello playing so clear in his mind, that he could transmit that to a monkey. He also, more importantly I think, was hinting that a stunning technique, something that some people bow down to as before an alter, is really not the center piece of being an artist. It is a part of the whole - and given the right approach, can be learned. So then, what's so great about a superb technique if you're a monkey? Where is the rest of it...the speaking of the soul- the music? What about the unique expression of a given player and how does that mesh with technique? Now the subject gets a bit stickier.
Here are a few quotes/definitions on mind:
Webster's medical dictionary: Mind: That which thinks, reasons, perceives, wills, and feels. The mind now appears in no way separate from the brain. In neuroscience, there is no duality between the mind and body. They are one.
Albert Einstein again. I like Albert.
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Oxford Dictionary: Mind
That part of being associated with thinking. Both Plato and Aristotle stressed the immaterial nature of the mind and, even today, the concept of mind is distinguished from that of the brain as a physiological centre of thought, although few support the radical distinction of mind and body as proposed by Descartes.
Buddha "All that we are is the result of what we have thought: all that we are is founded on our thoughts and formed of our thoughts." These momentous words lead straight home, into man's very heart. Mind is the nearest to us, as through mind alone we become aware of the external world—including our own body. If mind is comprehended, all other things are comprehended
Mind is where, if there is truly a where, the music arises. It, in my view is the beginning and the end as we go full circle like one breath following the other in our lives. Descartes insert:
Since I hold the view that nothing is truly separate from anything else, though we can't see this directly, the music that arises in the mind also arises, in the body. Where does the mind begin and the body leave off? This question is an old one. Rather than use the word mind, I prefer to use "bare awareness." In Zen we ask, who is it that is aware? Or what is this awareness? For our purposes tonight, that is not really important and is a question still being asked. But the question is relevant in that it acknowledges that there is this awareness and it is hard to pin down just where and what it is. It is a mystery. In the context of teaching the cello, I see awareness as a friend, active observer and director of our playing. The observation of detached awareness, in Zen, is a potent thing. It has the power to transform what it observes. It is like shining a light on the situation and bringing clarity and healing. The meditation technique called Silent Illumination in Zen is a simple one. It simply involves the watcher, this awareness, become aware of the body and it's surroundings. Master Sheng Yen, a famous Zen Master and mentor says "Your mind creates your world." He means that situations, be as they may, do not in and of themselves dictate your state of mind. This is your choice in the final analysis. So as a cello instructor, I deal with many situations involving many different students. Fear, impatience, tension, unhappiness,
Mediation : The Japanese term "shikantaza" literally means "just sitting." Its original Chinese name, mo-chao, means "silent illumination."The method of silent illumination slowly calms the mind until it is completely settled. This is a gradual method where one allows wandering thoughts and vexations to slowly dissipate. You can liken this method to a pool of very muddy water. If there is no wind or activity to disturb the pool, the mud will gradually settle to the bottom, allowing the water to become clear. Like the clearing of the pond, silent illumination seeks stillness and clarity. One keeps letting the mind-dust settle until all of it has reached the bottom.
Next, be aware of your body, but do not think of it as yourself. Regard your body as a car you drive. You have to handle the car well, but it is not you. If you think of your body as yourself, you will be bothered by pain, itchiness and other vexations. Just take care of the body and be aware of it. The Chinese name for this method can be translated as "just take care of sitting." You have to be mindful of your body as the driver must be mindful of the car, but the car is not the driver
Sheng Yen also said, "practice is the goal" What does he mean? Or take Pablo Casals, one of the greatest of all cellists and artists. "I always practiced as if I had forever" These two statements are the same at heart. They are saying that the process begins and ends where you sit. So many people, students are rushing ahead of themselves to get to the result, ( often approval, the confidence they believe playing well will bring, or as a tonic for whatever ails) that they are incapable of "just sitting" and allowing the process to bring it's fruits. We all know that the person afraid of dropping the tray is more likely to do so. He is watching himself in the wrong way. It is fear. Detached watching, being in a state of keen focus and calm...backing up as it were, is the place where great playing, in my view, is possible. It's paradoxical. This kind of detachment brings about a larger unity of Mind and Body. Here is a formula: : Calm down and relax + become aware of yourself in that moment + focus and begin to make/produce/sing the music inside before and while you play not losing this focus + allow the body to be free to find it's way as an extension of the mind. This is not to say that there is not a place for slow work that is more local and differently focused, but the method above is the method within which the other ways of working are contained. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart quote
“The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.” This can only happen when Mind and body are not in conflict. So, to summarize. We go from relaxation and calming to focus and keen awareness, to flowing activity, correcting ourselves as we go along if we slip into tension, scattered unfocused mind, or anxiety.
Music:
• noun 1 the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds in a pleasing way. 2 the sound so produced. 3 the written or printed signs representing such sound. Music - The organization of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Music - The organization of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony.
From the Harvard Dictionary of Music:
Some medieval writers believed the word to be derived from the Egyptian work moys ( water) co. Of basic importance throughout the Middle Ages was Boethius concept of music as an all embracing "harmony of the world" divided into musica mundana( harmony of the human soul and body and musical instrumentalis misc as actual sound. 485 bc.
Let's begin with some quotes once again:
Music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.
Leonard Bernstein
Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors.
Leonard Bernstein
The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.
Leonard Bernstein
“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”
Pablo Casals quote
“The heart of the melody can never be put down on paper.”
Pablo Casals quote
“It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.”
How or why has been a mystery forever. Just as why and how we are able to think has always been, ultimately, a mystery, We can discuss it forever and we can come to conclusions, but we can never be sure. So I will to speak about music as I understand it within the context of Mind and body tonight.
Music arises in the mind. When I say music arises, I mean, it comes about. Just like our thoughts. It comes about. In Zen there is a phrase "just so." This refers to the fact that things are as they are, and though they can be labeled and "explained" from a given perspective, the thing still remains itself is....... just itself. Music does not only arise, it in some special sense, is always going on in my view, as odd as that may sound. We just hop on for the ride. Just as we are constantly in motion, however still we think we are. We are constantly breathing for example. I'll put it another way. Music is not apart from the player, it is the player and it flows, as do we. Change is constant and happening every second of our lives. Music cannot be wrestled to the ground and controlled. It is something to listen for, to watch for, and to join with.
Meditation is the process of calming the mind to help a person see more clearly. The process is like the mud in a stream settling to the bottom until the pebbles show clearly on the bottom. Agitation is not good for playing and is not power or dramatic playing. It prevents powerful dramatic playing. Janos Starker:
"Power is not Force." A rushing stream or river is powerful, but nothing is being forced. Once again, we are talking about flow. We don't create the flow, we find it, see it, and join it.
What are we trying to achieve by playing the cello, mastering it? I submit it is an attempt to integrate, heal and express ourselves which is what great art does. Integration is health..it is integrity. It is also about connection to others and when we come full circle those we touch and ourselves are in a greater state of harmony. Here are some quotes about the artistic process:
A excellent professional cellist and friend; Nina Deverich's comment : Where are we going to put all these cellists....in context of today's limited job market?
My answer was, we are going to enjoy the music they make where ever, however and when ever they choose to make it. Playing is itself the goal.
Or as Sheng Yen put it "practice is the goal" Why would he say that?
I think it is because being a musician is a state of being. It is a path and a process and one that happens in the moment, not in the past or the future. Sometimes I say to a student, " your finger tips need to sing" or "play from the back", or "play as if you are a mother watching your child ( the body dealing with the cello) learn to walk."
Music:
What is music
Hope you will share your definitions at the end of our demonstration
Music is akin to life energy...the energy that runs and imbues everything and it is mysterious
( share quotes........i.e no one can truly define music. )
Music is related to our emotions, thoughts, and deepest selves. If we can't listen to or accept that, we have trouble being in touch with music, our music.
Starker ( Force is not power) Power of the rushing stream....flowing. How does one jump on? By letting go while at the same time being in a calm, watchful state that joins with the flowing. Often I'll observe students playing and all of a sudden they get lost. Their minds shift and they go from doing to too much thinking. Has anyone every been driving and realized at a certain point that 10 miles have gone by and you don't remember paying attention? It's a bit scary.
It is also scary for a musician to trust by detaching and allowing the body to learn, to catch up with the music in ones head and heart in effect. What most people will not allow to the extent needed is the space and time, whether we're talking about a slower tempo to work within or about accepting learning the craft as a long term process. Why? Here is how I see this. For one, people are trained from birth to be ashamed of making mistakes. ( insert your def of mistake) This creates a pattern of putting on the breaks and resisting the flow through physical tension in an ongoing basis. In other words, they have greatly reduced their arena of exporation, trial and error, and for gaining mastery. ( Pablo Casals quote)
Another reason is a type of impatience, and this sounds a bit alarming perhaps, but it is related to greed in a way. We are desperate for immediate results because we don't enjoy remaining in a state of flux or uncertainty. Results must come at their own time as a result of constant practice and an approach to the instrument that is more like parent to child then Slave master to slave. A good parent gives a child the space and support to experiment and find their footing as a human being. The slave master is not listening to the slave.....simple dictating. When we drive ourselves like this, the result is a sort of facade of control. It does not spring from the core outward. And it is fragile and can be knocked off course more easily by nerves in performance and a multitude of other things. For one thing, because our emotions are fluid and always chaning, we need a cellistic technique that an accomodate that. If we learn how to do a shift one concrete way removed from the living music, music happening that moment, we don't have the tool to express that new subtlety. We then have a smaller tool box or pallet to express ourselves with. How do we constuct a large pallet with many many colors/skills at our disposal? We practice being awake in each moment. We watch, listen, feel, and
try to clarify what we want to express again, and again, and again.
I believe that music is not seperate from the self nor seperate from the basic energy of life.
So really, in my view, Music, Mind and Body are different parts of a single phenonoim. And that is almost impossible to describe. Balance is what we seek so that the sluice way can be cleared and the water rush through. Pablo Casals grew up in the village Catalonia in Spain. In his village the ability to balance was a badge of honor and once a year all the men, young and old, would form large pyrimads standing on each others shoulders. There were teams and the tallest pyrimad won the day. Balance.
Janos Starker : "The physical aspects of playing are most important. The real problem is not to break the muscle line, not to interrupt the power as it goes to various parts of the body. We must avoid cramp in the muscles and yet not think of relaxation. We cannot relax and still create power. The cellist must learn to distribute the power from the back muscles down to the upper arm, the hand, and finally the fingers. All pressure comes from the back."
A rudimentary but vital principle, according to Starker, is that the bow arm should not be neglected but should be developed to the highest degree.
Casals - Joys and Sorrows
For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day it is something new, fantastic and unbelievable. That is Bach, like nature, a miracle.
I do not think a day passes in my life in which I fail to look with fresh amazement at the miracle of nature. It is there on every side. It can be simply a shadow on a mountainside, or a spider's web gleaming with dew, or sunlight on the leaves of a tree. I have always especially loved the sea. Whenever possible, I have lived by the sea, as for these past twelve years here in Puerto Rico. It has long been a custom of mine to walk along the beach each morning before I start to work. True, My walks are shorter than they used to be, but that does not lessen the wonder of the sea. How mysterious and beautiful is the sea! How infinitely variable! It is never the same, never, not from one moment to the next, always in the process of change, always becoming something different and new.
I see no particular merit in the fact that I was an artist at the age of eleven. I was born with an ability, with music in me, that is all. No special credit was due me. The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given. That is why I urge young musicians: "Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work-work constantly and nourish it."
Of course the gift to be cherished most of all is that of life itself. One's work should be a salute to life.
Mission statement in the context of MMB.
To help student enjoy making music.
This means to help students make music without self-consciousness and enter into it fully, which is freedom.
To employ the cello in the work of self esteem
This means to convey to a student that they are whole when they start learning and all through the process. Mastery is a never-ending project. When they can approach the challenges of cello playing with self compassion, patience, awakens, and joy, they are learning a way to approach themselves in other contexts as they face other life challenges. There is no reason to delay self acceptance. I do not believe it is something anyone should need to earn. The best playing springs from an integrated and confident person.
To cultivate service to others through music.
How can music serve others in my view? Because the process of learning and playing the cello is one that enriches and can heal a person. This person then can better connect and love others. Also, music touches the heart. I really do believe that it is a part of love itself.
Summary:
The mind is the seat of awareness from which everything flows and comes from.
The music is part of the mind, just like anything else we perceive. It is at our finger tips
The body is part of the mind, flows from the mind so to speak.
A last thought about hard work:
The integration of these three lead to clarity, happiness, solid confidence, and mastery.
