Oh yes, the Monkey Mind. I know it well....

I've been reading Miss Music Nerd's blog for a few years now, ever since my good friend Paul Kinney mentioned her on the old Handbell-L. I follow her on Twitter, too.

Anyway, she's preparing for an upcoming recital & today blogged about her preparations for it, specifically, about her Musical Monkey Mind! She says:

One issue is what goes through my mind while I’m actually playing the piano. You’d think my mind has enough to do just looking at notes and sending the signals to my fingers to play them, but random thoughts do creep in, from whether it’s too hot or cold in the room, to that thing that guy said the other day that annoyed me. Or, if I feel I’m playing well, I’ll start thinking, “This is going really well!” or, “Dang, I’m good!” which basically guarantees that I’m about to go splat. Chiding myself doesn’t work any better — no point in thinking, “That bit didn’t go quite how I wanted” when that bit is in the rearview mirror.

I *totally* understand what she's talking about in this post. There have been SO MANY TIMES that my mind just seems to wander while I play, and to random things as she says. And she's absolutely right that when your brain starts into the "Wow, that went well! I am so good!" you're 99.44% certain to mess up within the next 5 measures!

She then goes on to say something that I wish I could print out on fancy paper & hang on my practice room wall, especially that last sentence:

Performing music is a very Zen activity. The only thing that really works is just to take it moment by moment, not worrying about what just happened or what’s going to happen in a few minutes. And if something goes less than perfectly, you have to instantly forgive yourself and move on.

How many times do we hang on to our mistakes, not forgiving, but rather kicking ourselves over and over again? And then we seem surprised that we keep making mistakes! I know I've been guilty of this myself, but I'm working on it & maybe someday I can overcome it. (Not soon enough, though! LOL!)

BTW, I finally got to meet Miss Music Nerd when I was in Boston! We met at a coffee shop for a few minutes before David, Ruthie, & I had dinner with Griff Gall. Here's a pic of the two of us together!



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