Ok, not quite like that, exactly, but communication - how you engage, how you express and how you connect - is something that will elevate you on and off stage.
We often forget this when we are so focused on perfecting all the little technical details in our practice rooms!
WHY did you choose to go into music? Think back and I bet you can remember the precise moment you knew you had to do it; at some point in time, you felt moved by it. You loved the emotion behind it. You loved the electricity of playing together with others in an ensemble. You loved the blend of your sound played in time with others!
This is all, yup you guessing it, communication.
Chances are, you aren't thinking about this enough when you're practicing. Most of the time, you're thinking “omg I have to get my tonguing faster” or “I need to master those shifts" or “yikes, I have to learn these notes soon, my jury is in a week”!
When you zoom out, take a pause and think about what you are communicating, you start applying musical solutions to technical problem and …BOOM! Things shift, things get clearer (and easier)! So practicing communication is being clear about what you WANT TO SAY & what your MUSICAL INTENTION is.
Tuning into your intention - what you want to say and how you want to make people FEEL - makes all the difference.
On the clarinet this means INTENTION > INTENSITY
Often students make the mistake of thinking expressivity is overdoing it. While exaggeration is a great tool (see
3-Day Performance Challenge), it runs the risk of ruining your integrity of sound.
Instead, find your inner voice (Yehuda Gilad calls it your inner still voice) the one that belongs to you along. What are subtleties of nuance, color (and yes) intensity, transparency, and texture you can evoke that speak to your intention?
Try this Bel Canto Exercise (thank you Dan Gilbert for sharing this with us in
Thrive)!
