The Power of the Pause

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Freedom is the capacity to pause in the face of stimuli from many directions at once and, in this pause, to throw one’s weight (put one’s intentions) toward ‘this’ response rather than ‘that’ one.

-Rollo May, existential psychologist, from his book ‘Freedom and Destiny’

One thing that virtually every musician has to do in order to improve is to change what they are currently doing. This might mean changing your practice regime, changing your understanding of your instrument and pedagogy, changing your perception of sound, changing your quality of attention, etc.

It might also mean that you have to change the postural and movement habits you bring to playing your instrument.

Habits of breathing, standing and/or sitting, how you use your arms and hands, how you balance (or not), how you use your other senses, etc. It’s entirely possible (and even highly likely) that you are sometimes misdirecting your efforts in these areas as you play.

The Alexander Technique is a practical method of helping you to change your postural and movement habits for the better. And one of the most essential tools of the Technique is known as “conscious inhibition” (most students and teachers of the Alexander Technique just refer to it as “inhibition”).

In the simplest sense, inhibition is your ability to consciously prevent yourself from reacting in an habitual, unwanted way. Unwanted tension in your neck. Unwanted rushing of the tempo. Unwanted stiffening in your shoulders, Unwanted gasping as you breathe, etc.

By keeping the unwanted things “in check”, you are free to pursue what you do want in a way that is more in accordance to your human design. You increase your odds for success.

From a neurobiological point of view, all skilled motor activity requires a balance between “volition” (muscles going into the desired, or helpful action) and inhibition (muscles refraining from undesired, or unhelpful action). Most inhibition in skilled activities takes place naturally and unconsciously (as it should).

But sometimes you need to use inhibition in a more constructively conscious way in order to improve things.

Unfortunately, there can sometimes be a misconception about using inhibition consciously. To many people, conscious inhibition means “trying” to stop something from happening. It is exactly this “trying” part that can too often create a whole other set of problems when setting out to change movement and postural habits.

“Trying” sometimes means that you are struggling to stop yourself from doing what you habitually do. As if you have little or no control over it. Here’s something F.M. Alexander (the founder of the Alexander Technique) said about it:

When you are asked not to do something, instead of making the decision not to do it, you try to prevent yourself from doing it. But this only means that you decide to do it, and then use muscle tension to prevent yourself from doing it.

But that’s not at all the way inhibition is used in the Alexander Technique. Rather than “trying to stop” something, you learn to simply decide not to do it.

I know, I know…more easily said than done, especially when you have a deeply ingrained habit attached to playing your instrument. But still absolutely doable. That’s the skill you develop by studying and applying the Technique.

The first step in learning to use inhibition in a constructive way, is to embrace the pause.

It is within this brief instant before taking action that you can choose to redirect your attention and clarify your intention and effort. In that moment you come face to face with your habitual reaction, and can give yourself a chance to say “no” to it.

You can decide not to do what you habitually do. And that’s where the magic lies.

Because if you decide not to react habitually you leave yourself free to find other ways to react. You move from habit into the realm of choice.

It is the discovery, exploration and embracing of the pause that has given me tremendously powerful tools in managing (which I do quite well!) the focal dystonia in my left hand.

Without using the pause as tool for change, I wouldn’t be able to play saxophone at all any more with any kind of reasonable skill and control. Nowadays, I’m playing better than I ever have, thanks to the power of pausing and redirecting my attention. That simple.

But I gained so much more from the using the pause than improving the functioning of my left hand. Using the pause has helped me to practice everything I practice in a much more constructive, efficient and clearly intentional way.

And as an improvising musician, learning that I can pause, that don’t have to fill every second of my solos with sound, is liberating, and (at the risk of sounding dramatic) has been life changing for me.

I listen at a much deeper level when I play with others than I ever have before. I play with greater empathy, confidence, authenticity, passion, creativity and satisfaction.

All thanks to becoming more and more skilled at pausing.

And to be clear, “pausing” is not the same as “hesitating”. Pausing invites calm, reassured choice, where hesitation invites conflict, misdirected effort and a lack of confidence and clarity.

I use the pause countless times every day that I practice, and I bring it with me to rehearsals and to the bandstand.

When I’m practicing, sometimes I pause between iterations of something challenging that I’m practicing. Just a split second to stop and redirect my efforts makes all the difference.

And even in the middle of a performance, the “imagination” of the pause is always there, reminding me that I have more choice than I might have perviously thought.

So I encourage you to explore the pause. Before jumping right in to “fix” what you didn’t like about what you just played in your practice session (by starting over with the same misdirected effort that led to your dissatisfaction), give yourself a chance to stop, find ease and balance in your body, clarify what it is you want and don’t want, and begin again.

As I’ve said in some of my other blog articles, you’ll never waste time when you give yourself a chance to stop and consciously redirect your efforts. Embrace the quiet power of choosing to pause. Respond rather than react, and reclaim your freedom.

New Jazz Etude: Sus Chord Combined with Altered Melodic Shape

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Here’s another easy way to combine the more “modern” sounding qualities of 4ths and 5ths with a hint of classic bebop language over ii-V7-I. Take a look at the example above.

I essentially use only two different tonal elements for the entire line. In the first measure, I start with a suspended chord shape: E, G, D, A (which could be labeled either/both D Sus9, or A Sus7). I continue with an altered-note melodic shape (G, Bb, Ab, F) in anticipation of the G7 chord. In the next measure, I return to the original suspended chord shape in a different inversion from the first measure. I then use the exact same four-note altered note shape from measure one, but place it an octave higher. The notes of this shape, relative to G7, are: 1 (G), +9 (Bb, functioning enharmonically as A#), -9 (Ab), 7 (F). It seems to imply a diminished scale quality, but could be interpreted many ways relative to other diatonic scales that fit as altered substitutions over G7 (e.g., Ab melodic minor, F melodic minor, etc.)

The line then returns (3rd measure) to a variation/inversion of the original four-note suspended shape, and continues with these four notes until the end. As you can see, both four-note pitch sets (the Sus chords and the altered notes) share a common note, the “G”. The two colors combined (Sus and altered) make for an interesting contrast that works well over the chords. Dissonances that fall well within the bebop realm, but the suspended shape adds an interesting contrasting element. If you’d like to explore more creative options over ii-V7-I cycles, please consider my e-book, ii-V7-I: 40 Creative Concepts for the Modern Improviser. For a free, downloadable pdf of this etude, click the link below:

Sus Chord Combined with Altered Melodic Shape-pdf

An Essential Quality that All the Best Sight Readers Have in Common

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Accuracy. Flexibility. Consistency. These are three qualities that are fundamental to good sight reading.

Accuracy of pitch (correct notes), intonation, time, articulation, dynamics, etc.

Flexibility in reaction (adjusting intonation, time, etc.) to flow with the other musicians.

Consistency (predictability) in results.

It is easy to play with other musicians who read with the above listed qualities. But there is another quality that the best sight readers possess that makes playing with them an absolute joy and inspiration:

Expressiveness.

Put simply, the best sight readers I’ve ever played with, play the music they’re reading as if they already know it intimately.

Fearless, heartfelt, humanly dynamic, intentional…

It’s as if the meaning of the music itself is taking precedence over the details of the notated information on the page.

And they sound is if they are deeply connected to that meaning.

In fact, some of the best sight readers I’ve ever played with don’t have 100% accuracy (though their accuracy is remarkably high). They do, however, have remarkable flexibility and consistency. Both of these qualities are nested into their ability to immediately find meaning in the music, then express it.

It is this quality of immediate expressiveness that can lift the rest of the ensemble to new heights.

So how do you cultivate this skill?

Well, nearly every time I’ve played with extraordinary sight readers, I’ve made it a point to comment upon their skills, then ask them about how they’ve acquired them.

Their answers, though varied, usually comes down to this:

The quality of how they practice.

This “expressiveness”, this “intentionality”, this “presence”…is a fundamental ingredient in everything they practice.

To them, there’s nothing that is purely a “technical” or “physical” exercise in practice. Everything is mindful. Everything has meaning. Everything is played through this meaning.

Scales, arpeggios…even long tones, are played with musical meaning and intention. Everything has dynamics. (Everything is dynamic!) Everything “comes to life” in the hands of the musician.

Human expression. (Isn’t this why, ultimately, we are moved to play music?)

And these extraordinary sight readers all seem to have this in common, too: They love to read music! (Why wouldn’t they, right?)

Here are some things you can do in your practice sessions to help you become a more dynamic, expressive sight reader:

Read every day-When you read new music every day, you improve your ability to expand your attention (to more readily include more details in your expression). So read all kinds of music, from technically challenging, to easy and rhapsodic, to rhythmically complex.
Sing-When reading a “difficult” passage, isolate it, then slow it down until you can sing it. Singing it helps clarify your musical intention and expression. The clearer it is in your ear (musical imagination), the more likely your brain will carry out the physical work necessary to fulfill your intentions. (Did I mention that the best sight readers I’ve ever played with also happen to have extraordinary ears?)
Pay attention to details-Make it your habit to look carefully at the music you’re reading to include not just notes and rhythms, but dynamic markings, articulations, etc. Work toward seeing the “entire” piece of music the first time around.
Study-Take some time to become aware of and understand any kind of stylistic elements that are central to the music you are practicing, as well as any harmonic/cadential knowledge that gives you a deeper insight into what the composer is wishing to express. Learn to “think” like a composer when reading something at sight.
Seek your most beautiful sound– Let everything you read manifest itself as a celebration of your personal sound.
Play around with time-Even where rhythmic precision seems crucial, always feel free to be flexible with the time (so long as your conscious of doing so). It will help deepen your insights into the music and deepen your expression within it.
Let your ears lead everything-Yes your eyes are important. But work on strengthening the connection between what you see in the notated music with how you vividly imagine the music sounding.
Look for ease-In attitude and body. Let yourself be light, free, balanced, mobile and well-connected to the ground. “As you practice, so you perform.” Aim at making ease a habit.
Trust all this– Know ultimately (when you are actually sight reading at a rehearsal or performance) that you can trust that all the work you did (as listed above) will enable you to perform in more seamlessly expressive manner.

Try working this way for a while, and transform your sight reading experiences from “labor” to joy! I’ll leave you with a quote to ponder, often attributed to Beethoven:

Wrong notes are of little consequence, but to play without passion is inexcusable.

Be Mindful of This Very Important Connection When Playing Your Instrument

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Whether giving an Alexander Technique lesson to a musician, or simply observing myself when I practice, I’ve come to notice one particular postural/movement habit that we all seem to have in common when faced with a potentially “stressful” stimulus when playing our instruments.

This is also something I can see as I watch musicians (and other performing artists) during performance.

When I say “potentially stressful”, I mean to include a wide range of things, from mild to powerful.

For example, a mildly stressful stimulus might be to slightly increase the tempo of a particular etude you’re practicing. Whereas a more powerfully stressful stimulus might be anticipating playing the first note of an important audition for which you’ve prepared.

In either case, there is an almost universal tendency with respect to your movement and posture when faced with these types of stimuli:

You begin to lose your connection to the ground.

It is your connection to the ground that is the basis of support that encourages the freely fluent, agile and powerful movements you need to perform at your fullest potential.

Nearly all of our movement/posture, with respect to our human design (and with respect to our relationship to gravity), is based upon support (the ground) and suspension (the elasticity of our musculoskeletal system).

When you lose support, you also begin losing the elasticity necessary for optimal suspension, and ultimately, optimal coordination.

So what does “losing connection to the ground” look like?

Here are a few examples when you’re standing:

You stiffen your feet and ankles, losing the mobility necessary to respond effectively to changes in balance.
You roll to one side or the other of either/both feet (this too, involves stiff ankles).
You hyper-extend (“lock”) your knees.
You clench your buttocks and/or compress you hips, while at the same time “lifting” yourself off the ground slightly.

And even when you’re sitting you can lose this very important connection to the ground. Here’s a few ways how you might do so:

You stiffen your legs, thereby diminishing the necessary contact of your sitting bones to the support of the chair.
You begin to push (or pull) toward one side or the other of your pelvis (and thus, your sitting bones).
You begin to draw your knees up into your pelvis (as your feet come up slightly off the floor).
You lift yourself up from the support of the chair by narrowing your entire torso. (This is something you also might to when standing.)

I should also mention here (with respect to the principles of the Alexander Technique) that when you’re engaging in any of the above listed posture/movement reactions, that you are at the same time stiffening your neck, interfering with how your head needs to freely balance on top of your spine (in order to allow optimal coordination).

And these tendencies are not only potentially problematic to the “mechanics” of your coordination, but are also (perhaps even more important!) evidence that your quality of your attention is less than ideal. It has gone from being flexible, integrating and expansive (inclusive), to inflexible, disintegrating and narrow (exclusive).

(There is always a reciprocal relationship between the quality of your attention and what you do in your body. It’s sort of like, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” In any case, one conditions the other.)

But here’s the good news:

You’re not stuck with any of these tendencies.

Because they are only that. Tendencies. Or “habits” as we would refer to them in Alexander Technique jargon.

And habits can be changed.

Start by paying attention. Notice both when, and how, you lose your connection to the ground.

Notice what types of stimuli (thoughts, circumstances, conditions, etc.) seem to invite you to lose your connection (the “when” part).

Notice what you do with your entire self (including your attention) when you lose your connection (the “how” part).

Once you notice, you can practice pausing to gently redirect your attention, allowing yourself to be easy in your body and regain your connection to the ground. (And allowing yourself to reconnect to your intentions, and with the music itself.)

Finally, there is a difference between being “planted” (stuck hard and fast into the ground) and being “grounded” (surely, but dynamically connected to the ground).

Aim for being grounded, letting your weight pass freely down through your legs, through your feet, and into the support of the ground (when standing), or through your sitting bones as you allow the chair to support you (when sitting).

Then think of yourself as going up lightly, freely and expansively from your supporting surface. Let the earth play its role in helping you make music. Notice the difference.

New Jazz Etude: Diminished Scale Polymeter Study

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Here’s a unique way to express the color of the diminished scale by combining two different compositional elements: specifically, diatonic triad pairs, and polymeter. Take a look at the example above.

I’m using the “whole step/half step” diminished scale starting on “C”: C, D, Eb, F, F#, G#, A, B (enharmonically including D#, Ab and Cb). I’ve organized the scale into diatonic triad pairs that are rhythmically asymmetrical. So the first measure starts with an Ab major triad (inverted from the 3rd of the chord) that is a five-note pattern (returning to the starting note of “C”), then is followed by a B minor triad (again, inverted from the 3rd), which is organized into a three-note pattern.

The second measure starts with an F major triad (again, organized into a five-note pattern), followed by an Ab minor triad (three-note pattern). Measure three starts with the five-note pattern of an F minor triad, followed by the three-note pattern of a D major triad. The line concludes in measure four with a B major triad (five-note pattern) ending on an F natural (to imply the continuation of the rhythmic subdivision).

This “5/8 to 3/8” subdivision works remarkably well by both “fitting inside the box” of the 4/4 measure, while at the same time implying a polymetric rhythmic tension. This “5+3=8” over 4/4 is a simple technique you can use to organize seemingly mundane and clichéd melodic material into surprisingly new melodic ideas. I’ve put in accent marks to demarcate the subdivisions. I suggest playing this etude (with the metronome), first with a “straight” eighth-note feel, then onto a swing feel, once you are clearly hearing (anticipating) the subdivisions relative to the clicks on the metronome. If you’d like to explore these concepts further, please consider my e-books, Diminished Scale Diatonic Triad Pairs, and Essential Polymeter Studies in 4/4 for the Improvising Musician. Click the link below to download a free pdf copy of this etude:

Diminished Scale Polymeter Study-pdf