Recorder Pose -- Part One

Often in the middle of a practice session, I realise that something isn't quite right. It may be that I haven't checked on my tongue position and that it's slightly less stable than it should be. Or it may be that I haven't adjusted my hand position to have the knuckle-instrument body axis perfectly aligned. Something like that: a technical point that I've worked on that isn't yet proceduralised although I know the mechanism and purpose.

When I remember the particular point I want to give myself a quick kick up the proverbial. I know that the sequence of learning requires a lot of repetition and that items will be forgotten regularly. But I still feel silly after working through a sequence over the course of a week only to forget all about it the following week. To help eliminate these memory lapses, packaging the whole playing set-up into a single concept seems to be a sensible, efficient idea. In other words, rather than try to memorise by mental force all of the elements of a good playing position, it seems worthwhile to create an overarching notion of that position, a notion that contains the elements in their proper order.

Each element needs to be understood and mastered individually. The playing pose assumes that each element is mastered to the current level and that the role of each is known in relation to the whole. The playing pose becomes, initially, a target for practice. After that is achieved, it becomes a single target comprising its compound actions that are done instantaneously. Practicing the playing pose actually means speeding up the process of mentally listing and physically enabling each element one-by-one until the pose can be achieved swiftly.

The actual elements are subject to change for a variety of reasons. As the depth of technical understanding develops, more aspects of technique become subjects for inclusion. As weaker practices becomes clear, they need to be addressed in the pose. Conversely, some aspects become proceduralised and no longer require direct attention. So, although the concept of the pose retains its integrity, its internal constituents undergo alteration.

For now, the imperative is to create the first working model of the Playing Pose. That'll be the subject of the next note.