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In between his own exhausting twice-daily training regimes, Robin recorded the athletes’ pain thresholds before and after their regular morning workout on the rowing machines when training on their own, and then repeated this a week later when they worked out as a crew with the rowing machines linked up as a virtual boat. And then he repeated all this again a week later. In both series, the physical effort produced the expected increase in pain threshold when rowing alone on the machine, indicating endorphin activation due to the stress being placed on their muscles. But rowing in synchrony as a virtual boat doubled this – despite the fact that the rowers were not putting in more effort (as we could tell from the gauges on the rowing machines). Somehow, acting in synchrony ramps up the endorphin effect to much higher levels, though we still have no idea why.
As I said above, for musicians to enter this space they have to sacrifice their dearest possession, the need to sound good. When practicing The Space, the performance is of only peripheral concern. Since it’s not always practical to sacrifice quality, the exercise is best done when one is not in performance, or “under the gun,” so to speak. But the effects of such practice can liberate a performance. Carelessness needs to be practiced! It opens channels that “carefulness” could never attract. (Fools rush in, where wise men never go .
Becoming the Instrument
Kenny Werner
Don’t assume the need for practice privacy will go away the better you get. Consider what the great composer Igor Stravinsky wrote in his autobiography: My family and I were quartered in a hotel in which it was impossible for me to compose. I was anxious, therefore, to find a piano some place where I could work in peace. I have never been able to compose unless sure that no one could hear me. A music dealer...provided me with a sort of lumber room full of empty Chocolat Suchard packing cases, which opened on to a chicken run.2 That practice room wasn’t quite what Stravinsky was looking for, and he soon found another that suited him. Keep looking for a practice space that works for you. The benefit of a shed of your own is that you get to explore sound without annoying anybody or feeling self-conscious. No matter how good you get, the exploration of sound is endless. Aural privacy will help you explore sound more thoroughly, and will save others from having to participate in your explorations.
The Practice of Practice
Jonathan Harnum
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