Effortless Mastery

I have a musicology exam tomorrow. I feel pretty good about the subject matter, it's just the idea of writing about 3 essays in a bit less than 2 hours that's getting to me. There was a study group planned but it sort of disbanded. Two of us resolved to work on outlining the essays anyway. This is mostly because we know that if we don't sit down and do it with another person around to motivate us by making the other feel like a lazy slob for not working, there's a good chance we'll grow over confident in our understanding of the material and elect not to study at all. That would be a bad move. When we sat down to study we quickly discover that between us, we have the attention span of, I don’t know, a fly… trapped in a room full of people smoking pot… with all the windows closed. It’s that bad. So we decide to take a few hours off (not like that’s what I’ve been doing all day) before getting dinner which will focus our bodies and minds in order for us to have a productive and successful study session. Yep, that’s the plan. It’s totally gonna work!

So in the mean time I thought a little mind numbing stumbling would be a good way to relax (If you don’t know what I mean by stumbling, go to www.stumbleupon.com and watch your free time melt away). However, I kept getting this feeling the universe was trying to tell me something about my so called life as a musician through the “randomly” generated websites that kept popping up… granted it’s probably just the finals stress talking, but still.

One of the first sites I stumbled upon was a Wikipedia entry about something called effortless mastery. Effortless mastery is kind of the goal that all musicians are working towards, well, one of them at least. The wiki had this to say on the subject, “The concept is an attempt to give a name to the state of mind in which one can reach the potential of their musical abilities. This state of mind is characterized by a direct, fluid link between the physical processes of performance, and one’s individual creativity. Performers practice the act of tuning out distraction so that they can count on their ability to do this during the performing event.” Basically it’s 2 things:
1) Knowing how to play your instrument (voice included) so well that when you are performing you don’t have to think about how to make a particular sound but rather, which particular sound you will make next in order to express yourself and the piece you are playing.
2) Being in a state of mind while you are performing where you are strictly in the moment. You aren’t worried about what just happened (your voice cracked) or what is going to happen next (how you’re going to hit that high note), you are just focusing on making the sound coming out of you at that very moment the best it can be.

Sounds nice huh? Yes it does, especially for me whose knees shake every time I sing in performance class. So I may not be there yet, but I can still be inspired by those who are. And speaking of those thusly enlightened, the next thing I stumbled upon was this.



Sure the dude’s only got like three teeth and a crazy beard but the man can play! Do you think he’s hung up on what chord progression to follow or what the fingering is for the next chord? Hell no! The music is coming to his fingers and he’s concentrating on really performing it. Not in the show-stopping tap dance number kind of way, but he is performing for those people none the less. And it is obvious that the emotion and expression of his playing is not lost on them. Effortless mastery.


While I was thinking about the subject I was reminded of another performance that really spoke to me, the “Let it Be” scene in Across the Universe. This clip is either the audition for the part or a very early rehearsal.



Wow, right? That lady (Carol Woods) has got some pipes! As a singer, this performance really hits me. I am absolutely floored by how deeply connected she is to the music. She knows the words and the melody and the notes and the chord changes so well, they are so deeply internalized, that she doesn’t have to think about them at all. All she is focused on is really making them mean something. She delivers each line, each word to the fullest extent of her abilities and her emotions. You’ll notice that towards the end she even cries and her voice cracks when she so touchingly speaks the words “let it be”. In those few minutes, we (and the director) feel so connected to her performance that we can practically feel the pain she is expressing. Effortless mastery.

I guess this is what my voice teacher meant when she told me that in order to be able to use what she teaches me in performance, I have to get it into my “lizard brain”. She was talking about knowing something so well that it becomes instinct. That skill has been learned and repeated and explored so many times from so many angles that it is stored in the part of your brain that reminds you to breathe. It’s instinct, like a lizard finding a sunny rock to warm himself. It will be a long road for me to reach this point, if I ever do, but I can just imagine how amazing it must feel to be free of the nerves that accompany performance and really be able to bear your soul through the music. And after all, isn’t that what music is for?