Absorption

Absorption. Discovery. Simplicity. The recipe for awareness as it lends itself to creative thought and performance is known to be layered over years of practice, personal interpretation and supreme dedication. However I would like to approach it as a process in simplification. This doesn't come easily and is the result of numerous stages of growth and development. One image that I would like to carry through this discussion is a seemingly all black painting of Ad Reinhardt from 1963.

Having grown up with a grandfather who was steeped in all things art, it was not out of the ordinary for us to stand in front of this painting at the Museum of Modern Art each and every time we visited Manhattan. We (my twin sister and I) would quietly stand there, taking it in, listening to the other visitors quietly whispering their opinions and with the guidance of our grandfather, began asking ourselves the battery of questions it tends to ignite. 

What is happening in this painting?

What does it mean?

Why are people are so frustrated by it?

How did he do it?

How did it make me feel?

I must admit I always loved it. From the first moment I stood in front of it, I felt as though I was looking inside a cave within an imaginary mind. As though the darkness was backlit and shining with inner life. As though shadow had been given the foreground and perspective had just shifted to place us inside art or feelings rather than as the casual external observer. As a 6 year old I just said this to my sister : we are inside the cave. Who knows exactly what I meant, but it was a visceral response to the shift in reality and space. Almost viewing the world through another's eyes.

Why does any of this matter? Because I had the supreme luck of meeting this work of art with uninhibited eyes, ears and heart. I absorbed it like one takes in nutrients. Without thought. Nothing separated me from the art. I put myself in it almost immediately. Made it personal. Became curious. Asked questions. Made sure it was on our go-to list on every trip into the city. It became part of me. It evolved. Grew. Deepened. Connected itself to more disparate thoughts and feelings. It even came to reflect much more light than dark over the years.

I was privy to the artists' thoughts as we continued to visit :

At first glance, Abstract Painting may appear to be a monochromatic black canvas, but a careful look reveals that this painting is a three-by-three grid with squares in varying shades of black. Ad Reinhardt once said, “There is a black which is old and a black which is fresh. Lustrous black and dull black, black in sunlight and black in shadow.”1 To create the work, Reinhardt mixed black oil paint with small amounts of red, green, or blue and allowed the paint to sit for several weeks in order to separate the pigment from the solvent. He would then pour out the solvent and use the remaining concentrated paint to apply a completely smooth, matte surface that left no trace of the artist’s brush. Reinhardt explained that he hoped to achieve “a pure, abstract, non-objective, timeless, spaceless, changeless, relationless, disinterested painting—an object that is self-conscious (no unconsciousness), ideal, transcendent, aware of no thing but art.”2

So, again, why is this story at all relevant? It was the living example of learning for me. Absorption. Discovery. Simplicity. The first two words in this triangle of processes are personal experiences, the third is a relationship orientation. Simple is the relationship to the piece of art or music that we are aiming to reflect. Not muddied with study, but enlightened to the point of clarity. This is final stage of the three terms on purpose - although in many cases it is cyclic. 

Our initial love of sound or an instrument or piece of music is without thought. As we begin to understand that sound, that instrument and perform that music we live in absorption and discovery en route to rediscovering the simplicity of our initial love or response.

I would like to enter the present now. As a performing cellist and teacher my compulsion is to dig. Get to the source. Find the opening into new ways of seeing, hearing, feeling in order to surround performance and ideas with more depth and meaning. Often this is figurative but don't discount the literal nature of this exploration as well. We can't hope or dream of being an exceptional player with any sort of realistic expectation of this being fulfilled. If so, the world would be teaming w rock stars (I use the term for amazing performers in all fields). Contrary to much popular belief, greatness remains rare. And should be rare. It isn't easy, it isn't linear and it certainly isn't going to happen in 140 characters or fewer on twitter. 

So, with students I feel archaeological and anthropological. I look for trends, patterns and ruins. I look for context that helps me tap into their absorption mechanisms. I look for what recreates the most uninhibited response to themselves, the cello and a piece of music. To that end I would like to describe four varieties of absorbers that I encounter on a regular basis. And as with any labeling system this is not a box within which everyone will fit. It is however a basic template to reflect my experiences. The point of developing understanding is to guide the second stage of learning - discovery.

My four archetypes of absorbers are :

The Painter

The Sculptor 

The Singer

The Athlete

When woven together we get the mind of a player. When used well, we get the mind of an interpreter with the skills to execute internal sound and vision. We get the mind that can ask why, know how and engage others in the sharing and communicating process. In fact we become the observer and invite that little girl into our world as the Reinhardt painting did for me. 

Let's dive into the absorber profiles. With each, I will offer a definition followed by examples of how one's playing and thinking is reflective of the mode. As a cellist, I will begin by sharing the tendencies seen while at the cello but as we all strive to be vocal story tellers on some level, I will also translate the tendencies into broader patterns of thought, sound  and physical sensitives.

Painter.

Imagine Rembrandt, Monet, Cezanne, Gaugin, Picasso, Jackson Pollack, Rothko, Dali....what is it that all of these artists share in common? The painter represents his vision in color and atmosphere. This can be a still life of peaches as in the case of Cezanne. Or Picasso's Guernica. This is not necessarily realism, it may be conceptual. It may be driven by internal energy or character association. But it is externally created by putting color to canvas. 

We have an organic relationship to the bow in the string world. It's called our emotional paint brush for a reason. Our voice. How one spends the bow is the most direct connection to how one hears sound, rhythm, character. The core relationship to sound is through our right side. If we draw that thread further, sound connects us to our inner voice which brings about the deeper physical connection to breath and more specifically exhalation (a discussion for the discovery process). 

Now, this is well and good to imagine but how do I recognize and define the musical painter modality? Here is what I see and hear in this absorber. This list is in no particular order - hierarchy is not at play but rather, mode of sensitivity.

-A student who is very sensitive to register as it impacts bow speed

-A student who sees color with depth, saturation, detail when playing certain pitches or in certain keys. (This is asked of all students, but Painters offer a vastly different level of explanation than the other modes)

-A student who adjusts the bow first when playing and what they deem as an unpleasant sound occurs

-A student with a large field of vision (sees form/architecture easily)

-A student who has clarity in the sound story of a piece. Almost as though one watches them paint with an image in mind.

-A student who might be defined as observant. Big picture. Right brain dominant.

-A student who latches onto the idea of gestures and rhythm. Think of a painter moving his brush with intent and groupings for impact.

Ok, who am I really describing here? This is a musician who learns from the outside in. Who absorbs by knowing the full scope. Who wants to know why things are isolated in practice because it must have a place in the painting. Who dreams in color and will welcome sound experiments without the feeling of frustration. Who will need the full connection in order to feel part of the process within the piece he is playing. Who will relish telling you what he sees and wants.

I will walk you through a couple of stages of this mode of sensitivity or absorption. A very young beginning student will clearly only exhibit these tendencies in a skeletal fashion, but they will shine through. He will play Twinkle, Twinkle and if asked 'what sort of sound do we want here?' will answer something like :  

It should look like the ocean.

It should sound like wind in the forest.

It should sound like a cheetah moving through the tall grass.

I am not inventing any of the above responses. Again, remember this idea of uninhibited absorption. They simply know how it registers with their insides and they express. If a child is particularly quiet, I will ask a series of questions -

Do you hear the sound as creamy?

Do you think this sound has a face?

Is this sound heavy?

Is this sound far away or close?

Do you see a color when you hear this sound?

The Painter will see a color, understand perspective (most likely the sound the will be close to them) and they may have personified it as well. Again, full canvas. They will be sensitive when creating the sound to make sure that their body is finding what they desire. I also notice a rather easy sense of focus given to contact point and speed/weight issues.

As a student develops this sensitivity will expand. And it will be a student that loves to know about harmony and form - to make choices around all of the context they can find. Often biographical information about a composer and stylistic elements related to a time period will also factor into choices.

Where Painters will need guidance is in the final decision. They are options people and their sense of palette grows with every new bit of information or experiment in the practice room. So, it is imperative that as a teacher, I help them settle on a voice that is their most honest and connected - inevitably the best sounding. 

Trust. Subconscious physicality will always arrive from simplistic approaches. So, although this student will crave imaginative work and exercises, the way to help them ground their playing is to apply simplistic thoughts to their bodies and full range to their creative stomachs. I try to feed them as a chef would feed a diner....a starter in our terms opens the ears and the senses of the body. It may be an arpeggio or scale. It's mission is two fold, connection to inside and outside. Body and mind. So, I feed questions about the key, the color, the atmosphere and the sound world. The simplicity that follows for the body is put in terms of bow weight and speed as it connects to register. The rest is their ears being given the chance to connect the dots. If sound is navy blue it must have a slower speed and more weight. They do the heavy lifting of defining an internal sound and I carry them across the finish line. The full meal for them will involve understanding the overarching form of a full work and making choices along the way that reflect what they hear and understand internally. 

This type of learner is lost without connections. Details must be attached to broader concepts and physicality must be connected to sound, pulse or an element that is fundamental to creating the total product. My final comment on the painters is to not be fooled, their imaginations need just as much TLC as their trust of simplistic physical gestures. Think of new vantage points for them. Perspective shifts. Ages of characters. Time of day. Light and shadow. Past, present or future as it relates to the pieces they play. Abstract or still life or, etc. Help them push their visualization bec if they see it, they hear it. 

The Sculptor

Meet the student who thinks with his hands. Who molds and shapes everything with ease. Who may not hear what he wants, but has a picturesque hand shape! The tactile nature of playing and body awareness is the way the cello connects to this student, player, person. 

This will be something that makes early study seemingly easier in the physical sense. A bow hand will look and feel like a mold, as will the left hand arch. In a way this is tempting to see as an athletic experience, but sculptors are feelers. This means rhythmic gestures and sound may randomly fall off track while the hands are getting sorted. 

If you can imagine the Rodins Michelangelos and Serras of the world for a moment with me - they saw shape within a mass of rock or stone. Their vision was the mold. This student sees demonstration in that sense. Their ears will of course play a role, but their modeling and focus will be supremely on the hands. 

The benefits cellistically will help shifting, vibrato and balance in the hands. It will also mean that this type of student can feel 'softness' in the drop of the hand to the string, vibration of the string under the finger - therefore if asked it will become instinctual. It also means that conversely if changes or adjustments are requested that will be achieved through the touch. 

If that means away from the cello, and often does, I tend to head in this direction. To play my left hand on the student's forearm. To let them 'ride' my hands when playing - on both slides. This basically means placing their hand directly on mine while playing a passage on their instrument.

This seems idyllic and often can be a feeling of ease from the teaching perspective. Just demonstrate the shape and feeling and, presto chango! But like all coins, we have two sides. The question that this student leaves with me is : how can I weave and thread the ears to the hands?

This is of course a rhetorical question of Shakespearean depth. There is no formula for connections. I have found two methods to be most helpful. One, pulse work and two, contextual learning. Both basically create a sculpting experience out of playing itself. Making it a rather seamless transition into instrumental playing. 

Pulse offers an entire lifetime worth of discussion. So, rather than tackle it as a full entity, I will keep thinking of it as a tool in aiding the Sculptor connect ears and body to hands. 

I tend to think big-to-small in my own mind so in the hopes of communicating to a student with supreme honesty, I put the concept in my language and then we work on translating it together into terms and feelings that make the most sense to them. So, our first task will be conducting beat patterns of review repertoire. I would suggest 3/4 and 4/4 to begin simply because they offer the best connection to simple movements. If we conduct in 4 I will guide the arm while singing. Then I will sing while my student conducts. Then I will conduct while my student sings. You get the idea. Training wheels for pulse connection. I always make it a point to say (strong, weak, strong, weak as it will translate eventually to strong and weak measures). Following that we will move in gestures - meaning large sweeping motions that reflect the phrases. An ideal piece for this to begin would be in the Suzuki literature something like Allegro. The gestures begin as two bar arches (done with the arms while singing) and then graduate to four bar units. This will ground the hands of the sculptor. 

The context that has proven to be most helpful is again related to tactile experiences. Finding the highly resonate pitches in first, second and fourth positions to begin. Similarly, finding the sensation of vibration along the stick as the bow connects to the string. Like the conducting, the larger the sense, the finer the hands respond. This goes for all absorption types, but the source of all body motion is critical for the sculptor. The feeling of energy transfer as it travels through the hands connects them to the entire body. 

And although it may seem indirect and certainly applies to all types, this type of absorber responds very well to compositional anecdotes and personal information about repertoire. The origin of the dance, the colleagues of the composer and what that might look like in today's musical landscape.

The Singer

Sound. Sound. Sound. This absorber is guided from within the inner ear. All efforts are made to simply, find and create that sound on the instrument. Meaning, if things are to be altered in the playing (even physical) it must be approached from a non instrumental stance. 

The singer is connected to vowels and consonants. To vocal shades and colors. And cellistically will be very sensitive to vibrato and sound quality straight away. This will lend itself to discussions of bow distribution -air bowing an inch above the string while  singing to create the relationship between the voice and bow use is the connection worth exploring initially. Because it will prove to be very organic and they will immediately feel a new level of connection.

The singer is basically in need of tools and principles. How to mold the inner voice to feel the length of a phrase and tension and release. Given my background I steer this ship from the bass line. I play the bass while this student plays/sings while emphasizing structure and direction. This is essentially what I refer to as archery practice. Where is the arrow headed is an experience to determine the point of interest or length of phrase. This allows the bow to be the ultimate captain of the ship. This is again, a non instrumental task - phrase length, gesture hierarchy - played out through the use of the bow and therefore, sound. Circular thought processes help in this case so this student can begin and end with sound. 

For this type of absorber, the use of open strings is invaluable. Again, this goes for all types, but in this case the voice to bow connection is the biggest game in town. I should take a moment to say that by exploring the type of absorption most aligned with a student you are introducing them to themselves. They will feel in their minds and bodies and new layers will unfold. It's the jumping off point for incorporating new ideas while retaining their sense of safety and trust. So, open strings will be as important as scales. Or as I refer to them, scales for the right side. The absorption of the knuckles, the rotation of the upper arm and the passivity of the bow hand will give them the 'o' vowel and the depth they will more than likely crave. 

As their musicianship develops this type of absorber may lean towards one type of intensity - fire at all times. So, continue to emphasize purity of ring, vibrato as color not sound itself and variety. You must stretch their inner voice and therefore inner color wheel, emotional palette. The great Artur Schnabel provides the source material for this absorber. Meaning. Adjectives. Emotional range. And then the communication of each through sound, pulse, interpretation. 

This student is already open to a wide emotional landscape, but will be in need of operatic training in a certain sense. Vocal exercises on the cello for shifting, breathing exercises for diaphragm action and release. Characterization and imagination. This will be the trampoline into the world of the Singer.

The Athlete

The final of the absorbers is the Athlete. Numerous pedagogues speak to the athletics of playing and even to student archetypes that reflect said athleticism. I will share my thoughts on what the Athlete looks like as a mode of absorption. Repetition and precision are hallmarks of a great athlete. This is of course a massive reduction of what it takes to be a great athlete. As I discuss the synthesis involved in achieving artistry, vision will be term that appears and reappears. This fusion of skill sets and mental landscape as it interacts with the inner imagination provides the backdrop for a layered, conscious, artist. This is not dissimilar for any great artist (all professions included). That said, I will leave that for later in my rambling and stick to the task of dissecting the Athlete.

Repetition. This student will latch onto 'do it again' as though a Nike slogan were embedded in his retinas. There may not even be an off switch - meaning if asked how many times he should successfully recreate an exercise or phrase or something specific, the response may be 100. Keep in mind a general student response will range from 5-10. Therefore this student MUST be informed of purpose and intent at all times. Also, check points must be in place. For example, after every ten octaves played, take five deep breaths and say a helpful reminder of the point of the repetition. A post it on a music stand will rarely be more valuable than with this absorber.

Precision. This student will often view success as a synonym for precision. More specifically, technical proficiency is often his internal measuring stick. So, the left hand will be focus number one. The inner dialogues will say : 'Did I play the right note and was it in tune?' This is not a bad thing, but it must be steered. Meaning does not lie within precision. And as long as that remains clear, the Athlete will simply be the ultimate puzzle piece practicer, strategist and a sort of student who can lay the foundation for physical proficiency. So, this absorber can be pushed immediately to identify passages to extrapolate from a piece as practice points, two to three ways they might be broken down and things of the like. And this will open up their creative process. How to flip a passages upside down and backwards to make it more challenging will give them the ultimate space and freedom when it comes time to play things as written to explore other areas of their minds and ears.

Ultimately, we absorb along side. And as we find a student’s instinctual mode of expression, we balance and enhance. Let’s get teaching!