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In part II, I wrote about what it's like when I'm NOT in the zone. The remedy? Preparation and mindfulness. Preparation closes the gap between what's expected and what I'm able to do. For me, it means playing a little too fast and a little too slow an hour a day, for about 3 to 5 days before the gig. I daydream about what I'd like to play and come up with a rough list. I come up with at least one new tune, something I might know but have never performed. It's really athletic training as much as it is making sure I know the tunes. Practicing mindfulness means focusing my attention on what I'm doing, moment to moment, without paying attention to thoughts about what I've messed up in the past or what I might mess up in the future. It's allowing all my personal opinions about what I'm currently doing to pass like water in a stream or clouds in the sky. I try to be mindful of the feel of the instrument in my lap, the way my hands feel on the instrument, the shapes and motions of fretting, and the sound of my instrument in the room. The goal isn't to be absentminded, but mindful about the right stuff. The wrong stuff is a killer. If I've prepared physically and mentally, and I practice playing without all the thought traffic, I'm able to play straight from the heart. Proper preparation means most of my skills and abilities are on autopilot. I just concentrate on the feelings and the fingers follow. I've been playing and practicing more effectively in the last 18 months than I have in the last 10 years. Although my main instrument is a diatonic McSpadden, I spent the first 12 months memorizing and applying Jazz chord voicings, chord tones, chord progressions, and scales to the chromatic dulcimer. (It's got all the notes a regular doesn't.) Even though I may never be a "Jazz musician", this is the kind of theoretical development that can allow me to be faced with any kind of musical idea and know the various ways the idea might fall on the dulcimer. The last 6 months have been spent working almost completely on advanced right-hand techniques. This is the stuff I see the best players in Bluegrass and Jazz using. I've always known it would be good to learn, but I've never taken the time to do it. While the progress has been slow and tedious, everything is finally getting up to speed. The idea here is to be able to play anything I want to, anything I hear in my head, anything anyone needs me to play, on my dulcimer. I'm now spending my time dreaming up new arrangements for a variety of tunes from a variety of traditions. I'm also filled with a desire to write my own stuff. All this preparation, combined with effective mindfulness, leads to what I believe is real music. It's the kind of stuff I really want to play, and hopefully, the kind of stuff my audience wants to hear. In part IV, we'll talk about your playing. |