Have you ever walked off the stage asking yourself “what just happened?” Did you ever finish a performance with no idea how a passage went? I have!
This is the result of a lack of concentration.
Have you ever realized during a performance that you can tell whether or not the people in the front row are actually listening?
This too is the result of a lack of concentration.
Another situation that is a little less traumatic but no less real is when you are practicing an etude at home and you realize that you’ve not listened to anything that you practiced. You were thinking about what to make for supper tonight!
That my friend is a lack of concentration.
The lack of performance concentration has brought down the best of us. It’s common to many musicians, not just flutists. Here is a funny example by the Piano Guys:
Rockelbel’s Canon (Pachelbel’s Canon in D) – 4 Cellos – The Piano Guys
This elusive trait has been the bane of my existence:
getting myself to concentrate
getting my students to concentrate
getting my children to concentrate
So, what are we to do during those long and dare I say, perhaps monotonous passages when the notes themselves aren’t enough to keep us riveted? How do we maintain that exquisite musicality and professional quality sound that is expected of us if we lose track of what measure we’re in?
The answer to that is a bit elusive and best answered by each individual but it is worth exploring.
One of the places to work on your concentration is at the beginning of a piece or excerpt. You know, when it takes you two times to get started? You begin the piece/excerpt, stop and begin again, and now you are good.
Concentrate on the Beginning of a Piece
One of my professors at Eastman, Bonita Boyd, gave the example that Joseph Mariano, her teacher at Eastman, called her Two-Time Bonnie because she would begin a piece, stumble, begin again, and then get it. She told me that after that comment, she was determined to never let it happen again. That’s concentration folks.
Concentration or the lack thereof is a matter of mental discipline. The head has to stay focused on what is happening on the page. What the head can’t do is wander or what is potentially worse doubt.
Doubt Breaks Your Concentration
When doubt creeps into out thinking while we play it is a fast track to a crash. Doubt comes marching in especially in those passages that were troublesome at some point in our practice history. You may have conquered those spots but if you let your head engage in doubt, all your work may come to naught.
The best tool to help learn concentration that I have found is the lowly metronome. When I know the work and I mean really know it, I will turn the metronome on a tempo and then play through the section/piece/etude and not let my self stop for any reason.
Use Your Metronome
Whether or not I stumble on a passage I keep going and make sure that I don’t let that stumble ruin the rest of the piece. I feel like the metronome keeps me honest. The unrelenting beat won’t let me stop and fix a stumble I must keep going and keep my concentration.
This is akin to the Olympics when a figure skater stumbles on a jump in the long program but comes back stronger after that and nails everything else. That skater didn’t let one lapse ruin the rest of the program. They kept their game face without letting that one spot wreak havoc on the rest of the program.
Keep Your Game Face
We need to learn to keep that concentration all the way through a piece and not be distracted. By practicing concentration we all can learn to keep it throughout a performance. But a lot of that practice is self exploration. Find out what helps you to keep concentration.
What tools or methods do you use to develop concentration?
Have fun!
DoctorFlute
More ideas: