When frogs sing together, I don’t imagine they spend much energy judging the performance. They probably just notice how things feel– how it feels to sing in the warm night air and how it feels to sing together.
Certainly we all process and relate to sounds differently. And certainly I’m not the only one who turns a critical ear to my own sound output. On a good day, I’m in the business of paying attention to what I’m doing, noticing what’s working and what isn’t.
I wrote about practicing music with awareness in my recent article The Inner Game of Irish music, suggesting that when we listen attentively to ourselves, and when we trust ourselves to hear and feel what is working and what needs to be adjusted, we enjoy playing… and we offer ourselves the opportunity to make lasting, meaningful improvement.
Being aware of the process has led me to rethink my stage shows, too–not just the playing, but all the bits in between when I get to connect to my listeners. I’ve been REALLY trying to savor this time. Every night is different, and there’s always something different to comment on. That’s such a great part of my job!
So now I’m trying to take the awareness game to the next level. Before our last show and onstage, I pledged to try and extend this practice of presence and appreciation to my day to day travels: sometimes I can get overwhelmed with details on the road and I miss some of the cool stuff along the way. (Or I transform what could be a chill day into a more stressful one…)
I think the first step is to lay back and just prepare to leave (and not WORRY about preparing to leave). If I can do prep work for a tour with presence and joy, I can certainly do the tour… and all the traveling, checking into lodgings, finding meals, checking email on the road… with a certain amount of ease and humor.
Last week I cleared out my studio. This symbolized a clearing of old nonsense and baggage. Why not clear out my tired old I’m-so-overwhelmed story… and just pack what I need and prepare to enjoy the trip? And then once I’m on the road, why not just be on the road and do what I need to do in each moment? What’s the big deal?
The frog gets the idea of just singing, without worrying about how it’s all going and how it all fits together. Teach me to leap, little frog, one step at a time.
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*I've* been having more fun onstage anyway! : )
Shannon,
you did call this blog *leap* little frog. sometimes, I find, the stepping over the threshold part [can we say transition? yes] to the next sort of activity/way of thinking is itself the hardest part.
so to speak. looking forward to hearing how this all plays out with you. safe travels.
One of the things that helped me when I was traveling a lot on business is that for the simple stuff- toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, deodorant–anything I could, I simply got extras and left it packed. It greatly reduced the number of 'things' to think about, and the likelihood of forgetting something annoying. I also had a 'standard trip list'- stuff I took every time. Then I only had to think about the things that were unusual for any given trip. I'd even pack my bag the last time I did laundry before the trip (even if it was a day or two early)- knowing I was ready in advance was a great de-stressor.
Another thing that has helped us on long/complex trips, is to print out all the reservations/lodging confirmations/maps and put them in a three ring binder in order by date/time needed. We add to the binder while doing the trip prep, can easily check that it is all there before leaving, and can easily find the information when we need it. (You may already be doing something like this of course- your travel is so much longer/more complex than anything JT and I do!)