Strong Mind, Strong Body

“Every moment of our life can be the beginning of great things.”

-- Joseph Pilates

For those of you that have been following my work over the past six months or so, you may be seeing an emerging overarching theme of holistic health.  The more I work with these ideas, the more I believe that a deeper understanding of these issues and how they all connect are the key to greater joy and fulfillment in our life and work, AND increased efficiency and progress. I have recently written about the concepts behind master coaching and teaching, and the benefits of a regular routine.  These past few days I have been thinking about the point where the ways in which we learn intersects with a healthy routine.  We all know that consistency is important, but what percentage of the time are we focused on the quality of that consistency? 

The characteristics of a time in quarantine provide some interesting and unique opportunities for musicians.  The expanse of time before us without imminent performances presents an excellent opportunity for getting back to the basics, but can also lend itself to unfocused work with a lack of boundaries.  Returning to the Pilates studio this past week after a full three months of mat routines on zoom, revealed that many of these same things can happen with a physical practice.  I had been working out consistently, and in some ways felt quite strong, but it was abundantly clear that I had been missing some things. This could be partially attributed to the fact that growth in a Pilates practice ideally involves a variety of equipment and the sharp eyes of a good teacher, but I was also reminded of two fundamental principles that I could immediately link to my musical practice and routine.  The first is the concept of setting intentional goals, and the second is the importance of the mind-muscle connection. 

We must use our minds if we are developing or deepening a skill.  If we can’t conceive of it in our minds, we won’t be able to achieve it. This is where understanding the objective of each exercise is crucial. A Pilates routine consists of a series of exercises, each one performed for a low number of repetitions in a flowing sequence. Each exercise combines multiple muscle groups and movements, but there is always a primary muscle that is the main focus of the exercise.  I have learned the hard way that without that deeper understanding, it can be all too easy to use the wrong muscle group to simply ‘complete’ the exercise.  Sadly, in this scenario the purpose of the exercise is then defeated, and true progress requires an ‘unlearning’ of the wrong way, and relearning of the correct way. I have had this same experience as a musician, and seen countless music students struggle with this as well.  It is all too easy to find a shortcut to a technical solution that may provide a close to ideal result, but will eventually hold us back in our progress.  Why does this happen? 

There are many answers to this question, but the most important answer would be how we would answer this question for ourselves.  In the past I think I would have pointed to lack of discipline as being the problem, but now I know that to not be the case.  I’ve found the actual reasons are lack of patience, and too much comparison to others and where they are in their own journey.  If I was more willing to not just put in the time, but to really accept where I am at right now without judgement, my overall progress would be much more organic and fruitful over time.  A healthier approach includes the willingness to take the small, thoughtful steps forward, and to ‘leave my ego at the door’ as they say in Yoga.  

The second thread of similarity I have noticed between my physical practice and my musical practice, is the mind-muscle connection.  Now that I have covered the importance of clarity and conception in the mind, all that really remains in skill development is connection to the body, or muscles -- that and many, many quality repetitions of the movement!  Connecting the mind to the muscle group first takes awareness, and being able to ‘fire’ that particular muscle or muscle group.  Difficulty in doing this in a physical practice is often a result of muscle atrophy over time, lack of flexibility, or both.  The solution of modifying the exercise, or simplifying it, can be demoralizing and discouraging, but it usually still represents the most direct path for improvement.  In my experience as a clarinet teacher the lack of ability to fire the correct muscle at the right time is also strength related, but on a smaller scale.  The embouchure (mouth) muscles need to be developed, as do the abdominal and diaphragm muscles.  Developing finger strength and independence often takes years of hard, dedicated practice to yield to a high level of accuracy and speed.  

Of course, coordinating multiple muscle groups at one time presents a higher challenge for the mind-body connection!  This brings us back to our discussion on the usefulness of returning to basics or fundamentals during this novel expanse of time we have before us -- by clarinet fundamentals I mean exercises that I work on to hone very specific skill sets.  Examples of fundamentals would include: long tones for tone development, endurance, and dynamic range, articulation work for developing speed and efficiency of the front of the tongue, and scale exercises for coordination of fingers and development of proper hand position.  Similar to the Pilates exercises I describe earlier, I always try to conceive of the primary goal, and then the secondary goals as my mind and ability allows. As a result of this consistency, and increased attention to the objectives, I have seen my skills develop and begin to serve and support one another in new ways. 

All this has led to what I perceive to be an improvement in my relationship with the clarinet. Not just because I can objectively see certain skill sets improving, but also because I am learning to be more objective when it comes to skill development.  I am sure that if I had a dozen looming performance deadlines I wouldn’t feel so cool-headed about it, so I’m trying to be mindful of using this time to make some progress with my mental health as well.  This time has helped me see how I had ingrained some serious patterns of anxiety and depression into my work; anxiety about the future and lack of confidence in my ability, and depression over what I had yet to accomplish in my work or practice.  This lends credence to the importance of not only the health of our mind, but also to our ability to stay in the present moment. It’s important to try not to live in the future or the past as we move through our work, but to seek what the present has to offer.  The more our mental concentration is hyper-focused on the task at hand, the more effective we can be with dismantling our mental clutter.  In that way the mind not only strengthens the body, but the body strengthens the mind as well.