“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” – Aldous Huxley

Musicians love to talk about how the silences in a piece are just as important as the sound. I like to go a step further and say that the two are utterly inseparable. If we are thinking of them as different, or as opposites, then we are already lost. The above quote from Huxley is slightly misleading because music necessarily contains silence. You can’t have one without the other. But I agree with him that silence comes first. So if this is true, then wouldn’t we want to prioritize that side of our playing to help us become even more expressive? I think it is crucial as a musician (and as a human), to find interesting ways make the pauses as “played” and as pregnant as possible.  When we do this, the “positive space” automatically strengthens as a result and makes our playing more natural, relaxed and fun. The “negative space” around the sound is what provides the context and therefore, its identity. No background? No foreground. They are completely interdependent.

“Do you have the patience to wait til your mud settles and the water is clear?  Can you remain unmoving til the right action arises by itself?” -Lao Tzu

This is the first in a 3-part weekly series on cultivating stillness and playing with the resting places in your music. Each post will explore this topic and include specific ways to apply it to your own practice starting below with some very basic exercises. Thanks for reading!  If you find it helpful, please share!

1. Take a moment before you launch in

I like to practice something rudimentary and dead slow to begin my practice: breathing. Then take a favorite phrase or simple tune and play it with with relaxation and care. Pick something you know well; perhaps an exercise or a simple standard. Resist the temptation to consciously improve what you are playing. Let it repeat easily; as you would your breath. This is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I’ll pick just the simplest version of a tune and play it as well as I can. It reminds me how hard it is to improve on a well-built melody. Then, when you get into more involved material, you are more likely to show it the same respect.

2. The Internal Drummer

We need to be even more aware of the groove when we’re not playing. When there is a pause or long note, our internal drummer should be even more assertive. I do this by imagining a nice, easy pattern riding underneath to keep time and deliver me into the next phrase. Practice “turning up the volume” of that internal drum during the spaces. In this way, we are learning to value the places between the notes even more than the sound.

3. Between each note, wait a little longer that you think you should

Practice playing a slow phrase and stretching the time between notes. This is not to slow the whole thing down, but just to bring interest, tension and suspense. See how subtle you can make those changes. Don’t assume you know the appropriate amount of time between notes. For a master musician, time becomes malleable. More elastic. Eventually we can really play with time without getting lost. But for now, just practice it a little, then come back to the basic beat.

4. One measure to the next downbeat

Slow down your piece and just play 4 beats of the melody to the following down beat. Relax and repeat. Really dig into to the shape of that one little snippet of melody. Especially look at the rests and/or long notes! See how much one single measure can teach you about the entire piece and about music in general.

5. Add a full measure of silence between each phrase

Practice inserting a full measure of silence between each measure of sound.  For example:

Frère-a Jac-ques  (1 2 3 4)  Frère-a Jac-ques (1 2 3 4 )

The point is not to count, but rather to feel those 4 beats even more fully than the melody.  It’s a practice in waiting when you would normally continue making sound.  This is to practice a relaxed and easy kind of restraint.  Instead of counting, create a sound you like: beatbox, hum or grunt.  Whatever works.  Really enter into the silent measure and let it inform how you might play the melody in a more natural and relaxed way.

But most of all, have fun.  

-Zak

Tags: flatpicking, mandolin, meditation, Music practice, practice regimen, rests, silence, stage fright, woodshedding