#performance practice

1. What is „doing music”?

This question is as old as humankind. Be ready to revise your answer and thinking about this question from time to time – but to keep thinking about it is important and will bring you further in what you do.

Doing music is not only „to create sounds” or „to play an instrument”. Doing music involves bodily and mental readiness, social empathy, embodied knowledge, cultural knowledge, also the ability to reflect about yourself and about the things you do. And, of course, many more things you will discover along your way. „Doing music” may not even involve playing an actual instrument – it can become an embodied knowledge that you can apply to any context or action.

2. What is „playing an instrument”, then?

When you start playing an instrument, normally you learn a set of rules and tools. Movements, positions, skills. We all learn by imitation. The things we imitate and share are like the basic code that we use in our society to function together as a group. To learn these is very helpful, it will give you safety and acquaintance with your basic partner, the instrument (be it a bass or whatever). But as we do in life, you don’t stop there. Go and look for your own way to move and create sound. Playing an instrument is always a combination of a set of known elements, along with new and personal things that you can invent on your own. You can find out what sounds you like most and in which ways you like to move. Exploring this will make your performance, which is your co-existence with your instrument, really awesome.

3. Play your body!

As important as practising gestures, sounds, scales and pieces in the practise room, it is too practise your bodily skills. A really good musician’s performance consists, let’s say, in average of 20% of the qualities of the instrument itself (if it is well built and maintained), 20% is what I call instrumental setup and equipment (bow, strings, rosin etc), 20% is knowledge and practise (knowing what you do, knowing your songs, scales, positions etc.) and 40% is bodily and mental training. Musicians are like high-level sportsmen/*women, we must never forget this. And the body alone cannot work without a focused brain, so we have to develo a training that involves both: focus and activity, physical stamina and a relaxed mind, speed and control. I keep spending a lot of my time as professional musician doing yoga, running, doing all sorts of bodywork like Shiatsu, Qigong, and more. Some methods may work better for you, others less. Also receiving bodywork, like getting a massage or taking Feldenkrais lessons can teach you important things for your musicianship, even as if it appears that you are not actively „working”. Body time runs different than brain time, and so it can take a long time for your body to learn new habits or change old ones.

A body is not an object, it harbours our soul and spirit. Don’t try to „optimize” yourself too much – if you give yourself time and let things go, your body will find its own solutions how to do things in a way that is good for you. I had too many teachers that did damage me because of telling „this finger has to bend like this, you have to move like that... and if it hurts you, just practise more!” Don’t believe this! Whatever feels good, will look good. Don’t try to obey to rules, clichés, habits of „how it looks to be a bassplayer”. Play your body in freedom and joy.

4. Time

Give yourself time to learn things. Studying in university or working as freelancer can be very demanding and create a lot of pressure. Create yourself some spaces in your everyday life where you can still just enjoy musicking or doing free creative work. Drawing and painting can lead you to create your own scores, working with space makes you more sensitive and aware for different performance conditions. Real growth as an artist needs time, playfulness and spaces for trying out things that are not done for a clear purpose.

5. Rhythm and timing

No matter what you do in music, it has rhythm. No matter what you do in life, it has rhythm. Rhythm is the damn basis of everything. If you can get aware of your own internal rhythms, you can also work on your deficits: be it the ability to keep a simple pulse going over time, or doing complex five-over-eleven-tuplets. Rhythm, again, is not ony something in the brain, it lives in our bodies and in our environment. If you get aware of rhythms all around you in your daily life, this is also a practise for you as a musician. Playing together in rhythm doesn’t only mean that you do count correctly, it also involves tapping into the rhythms of the people around you. Rhythm is about trust that the next beat will fall. I have been always amazed at seeing great orchestras that see the conductor’s beat fall, and only some seconds later they enter with their sound. Yet all together.

6. Sound

For John Cage, all in the world was sound, and there is no place without. If you started off with a more classical training, the word „sound” has a very clear meaning – there is „good” and „bad” sound, right and wrong, there are sounds never sounded. Take your time to find out which sounds you like. But this involves also searching for different options aside the canon. A good teacher should open up your ears and mind to a world of sounds. Each sound is something you can cultivate and explore.

7. A word on routine

Don’t understand me wrong, routine is something great. To repeat and study a specific thing over a long time gives you a deep acquaintance and knowledge that you cannot acheive in another way. It also means that you can to things even with eyes closed. Or while hopping on one leg. Or whatever. Everyone needs routines to organize one’s daily life. I have my practise routine, a workout routine, reading routine. It helps to acquire new knowledge and keep existing skills. But don’t let routine deceive you. New things always are uncomfortable, yet wonders wait behind the door when you dare to open it. Try to give a space in your daily routine for odd things. Or combine routines. Try out your yoga pose while playing cello, take the bow with the other hand, sing along with the super-complex Ferneyhough score, whatever. Create a routine of exploration and playfulness.

All these things can support you, but don’t forget a thing: one thing is to be careful when you look for a teacher. A good teacher is invaluable, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a person you see every week, a person who does the same stuff as you do (or as you would like to do). It can be anyone who inspires you and sets you on a path. And then, keep going. As we know, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% very hard work. Keep working on your skills, not only on the things you need for you daily life or for earning money. Personal growth and inner richness is the heart of every great person, be it an artist, a musician or just someone on the streets.

This is not a manifesto, you do not have to believe in everything written here. You have the right and the duty to go out and make your own experiences.

Keep going and growing and claim your right to do beautiful, radiant things.

Yours,