To live mechanically or to live consiously. Tuning your body requires you to listen

I used to play a lot of music. For some very strange reason, I decided I  wanted to play acoustic jazz guitar. I had this vision of my fingers whizzing up and down the fretboard. Joe Pass et al:) (who!?)  I can remember finding my guitar teacher, a chap called Jimi Savage (yep that was his name, and yes he did play in the Ozzy Osbourne band or something, and yes, he was really good, so first find a good teacher:) ). He used to say things like 'I can't do this very well, then immediately demonstrate an amazing tapping and sweep picking arpeggio (think Joe Satriani (who! :) ) you can do better though Nick. Great teachers encourage, challenge and empathise. 

He would look at me and would always stress ' you have actually picked the most difficult form of guitar playing just so you know'. Fast forward 10 years, by then the apprentice(me) had moved to some sort of crafts person but no near any sense of mastery of the instrument. My fingers could at least find chords and  I suppose I could accompany a singer(she kept changing the key, that was a real pig:) ) and piano player. In fact, the piano player was blind so any of you reading this and musical would appreciate that our discussions were sound-based and not really 'chit chat' music.

Learning to play music has so many parallels in what I do. I use the context when discussing mathematics with my University students, I use it in my Yoga practise and teaching and also in running as well.

The bottom line is to become a musician you need to LISTEN. When you first begin to learn anything, you do need to learn the scales, the procedures, the naming of parts as it were. The place the fingers to the notes, the sound follows. There is a sense of externalising learning. This is quite normal, and we have to go through it. A good teacher though (and Jimi was)  also allowed me to do some gentle improvisation, even with a few scales at my parrot learnt disposal. In other words, the mechanistic approach of scales is replaced by a more conscious awareness of sound that goes under the scales. The mind-body connection is clear.

Over time the subtle transition from finger to note to note then to finger became apparent. The humming of the song came first, the fingers second. The vocabulary of learning had changed. Developing a listening ear and also tuning ourselves into the sounds of our own body has strong parallels to a yoga practice. At first, we learn 'moves' or feel compelled to learn shapes, the externalisation is the body, but as we begin to develop a sense of the body and breath connection we begin to develop to listen to the small sensations. In a class being led by a good teacher, there is space for this, but the best practice is the 'music playing' practice at home. Here the refinement of tone and breath is found.

Tuning your body and breath is like playing a musical instrument. For runners, I meet there are those that externalise their practice, the Garmin, the feedback, the Strava, the training routine. We do need some structure and feedback but consider and reflect on the idea that learning to play your instrument takes time, it takes skill and to develop this inner LISTENING needs space not clutter. A mechanistic approach to your running needs to grow into more conscious awareness of your movement.

A running practice combined with a yoga practice is a great blend. Be a musician :)
Nick