Our last day began with our balancing exercises; it was amazing to have experienced such an improvement when we had only done 5 minutes each morning. To prepare for the afternoons Mini Fest we drew a diagram of the key themes we explored during the week:
We each contributed something we had taken from the week that was of great value to us.
John acknowledged that what we had been exploring during the week is somewhat a paradox; we want to feel lighter as performers but at the same time we must appreciate the reality of our weight and give that weight to the ground.
John talked about his first experience of performing with “flow”: He was playing in a quartet at around the age of 15 and felt a real sense of freedom and no effort. The cellist asked him ‘How do you do that?’ and he responded, ‘I just breath’. That was his spontaneous response, without great thought or analysis, ‘I just breath.’.
We then discussed as a group how it is difficult in today’s society to remain grounded when the world is so fast-paced and there is constant distraction. A lot of us live in a bubble and the world has ceased to be something we view as a living thing.
After our morning break we went into more detail about how we could incorporate what we had learnt over the week into our practise sessions. John suggested we explore squatting or sitting whilst playing/singing so that our attention includes more than just the activity of playing.
We later talked about goals and how often when the reality of those goals presents itself, it doesn’t actually lead to fulfilment, or at least it’s not the goal that fulfils. Our own work with ourselves can achieve much more self-satisfaction and fulfilment than external rewards. Someone in the group made an important point that we are all programmed to have an idea of what success means and working/training to achieve “success” can be a very artificial experience when we believe success is only manifested in one way and in actual fact there are so many ways to be a successful musician. John left the discussion on a quote from a colleague that was certainly food for thought: “You are the world’s leading expert in playing like you”.
We finished the day with our Mini fest, a short workshop that summarised what we had been exploring during the week. The change in each and every one of us was quite clear to see and the importance of just ‘being’ now resonates with me on a much deeper level.
