Last Saturday, I practiced. By peeling potatoes.

Most musicians wouldn’t call that practicing… but the people who work with me understand that the BEST practicing happens when there is a certain combination of elements happening all together.

Having your musical instrument in your hands is not necessarily one of them.

In fact, when you’re NOT combining these elements, practicing your instrument can actually take you in the wrong direction, and make your playing worse.

Have you ever had the experience of practicing something over and over again… concentrating… working hard… but you get more and more frustrated because it seems to just be getting worse?

Eventually, you have to stop and leave it, and try again later, when hopefully things will be easier.

I think every musician has experienced that.

There are real reasons why that kind of practicing doesn’t work – it doesn’t have to be left up to chance or it being a “good” day or a “bad” day.

👉 You can learn to practice in such a way that you are ALWAYS improving – and things get easier and easier because they are under your conscious control.

This starts with having a clear understanding that your underlying mind-body coordination sets the stage for everything you do with your mind-body-self.

When you are well-coordinated in a specific way, things work better; when you are out of balance and lack mind-body coordination and awareness, things don’t work well.

So, when I was peeling potatoes, I was actually working on my mind-body coordination by combining the following elements, which will make my playing BETTER the next time I’m practicing with my violin – 100% guaranteed.

I combined:

🦚 A spirit of healthy curiosity + experimentation
🦚 Self-observation
🦚 Presence
🦚 Awareness of mind + awareness of body
🦚 A desire to notice and experience the easing/flow that is already within me instead of focusing on any tension, difficulty, or negativity in my attitude
🦚 The use of specific words or non-verbal thinking called “Constructive Thinking” (CT), which I teach to my students and practice myself

All of these elements combined allowed me to put the potato-peeling into a bigger, more meaningful context, which made it infinitely more interesting.

I noticed that, as I got interested in the activity, I stopped pushing and rushing through it to get it over with. I slowed down naturally and fell into a rhythm, which became something like:

PEEL / CT / MOVE with CT
PEEL / CT / MOVE with CT
PEEL / CT / MOVE with CT

In this way, I not only improved my sense of steady rhythm, but I improved my use of the peeler – and my bowstroke, and I eased up on my left hand, learning how to hold a potato – or violin – with the appropriate (responsive and constantly changing) tension required for the task.

I know from many years of experience working this way (I’ve been practicing the Alexander Technique since 2003), and teaching hundreds of musicians of all kinds, that this way of bringing intention and awareness into daily activities is an essential key for dramatically and quickly increasing musical skills, because of how it incrementally improves mind-body coordination.

⭐ When you bring a more coordinated, more easeful Self to your musical practice, it’s impossible for the results NOT to be better! ⭐

My students typically practice while doing such activities as..

– brushing teeth
– walking
– doing dishes
– driving
– talking
– engaging in stressful activities like going to the dentist or a doctor’s appt. (amazing things happen in these cases!)

Add into the mix some short Awareness Etudes that I teach them to do for a few minutes daily, and the results are:

✅ They consistently report that their musical technique is improving – seemingly magically by itself! 🙂

✅ Not only that, but pain is relieved and starts to disappear as unnecessary tension is released with greater awareness…

✅ And performance anxiety starts to fade, too, as improved mind-body awareness and coordination builds self-confidence and control.

Curious about how you can learn to do this and experience all of this for yourself?

Simply send me a comment below or email me at Jennifer@ArtofFreedom.me and ask me about The Musician’s Mind-Body Breakthrough. Enrollment is now open for students beginning next month. I look forward to helping you sky-rocket your technique (without even trying!), while improving every aspect of your life with ease! 🙂

With Love & Enthusiasm,
Jennifer

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