Many of the activities that bring me the most joy in life are all the things that require – or compel! – total focus from me. Writing music. Writing words. Puzzles. Making music with an ensemble.
Ensemble music is the trickiest, because it relies on the whole ensemble committing to focus in an unfocused world. If even a small percentage of the ensemble isn’t on board with this commitment, the potential for transcendent music making falls flat.
The bad news is that we are spending so much of our days practicing being unfocused. How many of my students are doing their homework while simultaneously playing Netflix and checking Snapchat? That sort of behavior is training our brains to be unfocused. Switching into the true focus in rehearsal and performance is that much harder when you’re practicing a different mindset.
But there’s more good news than bad.
First, students know what it feels like to truly focus. They know from when they get into a flow state playing a video game, or running, or reading, or any of their personal passions.
Second, ensemble music making is a great place to practice the focused mindset, and they will find it useful throughout their life. It gets better with practice, and if we can talk about it, model it, encourage it, and celebrate it, we can see our ensemble musicians build it.