Magnify Your Intentions
Put very simply, the strength and quality of your intentions are what determine the level of success you will enjoy on the violin. Of this, I am absolutely convinced.
To illustrate this critical point, let me share something very personal. It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing challenge that many of you know I’ve been dealing with.
A couple weeks ago, right after finishing the live performances of volumes 3 and 4 of the Kreutzer etudes, I was alarmed by a rapid worsening of the ‘focal dystonia’ afflicting my left hand.
As most of you know, I had hitherto been quite successful managing the condition with the techniques I teach in my instructional courses.
Suddenly, nothing I did seemed to arrest the downward spiral.
Whereas before it was mostly a matter of controlling the moments of the fingers, now I was having great difficulty lifting the 2nd and 3rd fingers at all.
In any case, I managed to stay ‘up and running’ to the point of finishing the DVD instructional material. Then the slide seemed to become free-fall as we traveled to Arizona and Washington for Tania’s concerts.
Well, yesterday something incredible took place. In fact, I would say it was only a cat’s whisker from being a bona fide miracle.
I’m serious.
I had come to the point of thinking my playing career was over. An hour into a nightmare of a practice session found me contemplating the calls I would make to the concert presenters to whom I’m committed by signed contract. It’s not a place I’d want anybody in this world to be.
Well, as tears literally welled in my eyes, my resolve to ‘punch through’ the wall before me suddenly became ferocious.
No, I didn’t just throw myself at the violin.
I willed my brain to create razor sharp images of how I wanted my fingers to behave.
I breathed in and out like a dragon in heat.
I barked out my counts like a Roman oar master shouting strokes to rowing slaves in the middle of battle.
I also bounced back and forth from Paganini to Kreutzer to Mendelssohn Concerto (I’m scheduled to perform it at the Vermont Mozart Festival) relentlessly searching for the key to unlock my neural pathways.
Suddenly something seemed to release. I felt strength return to my left arm. Control rushed into fingers of my left hand. How I played the 24th Caprice a few weeks ago at our friend’s home wouldn’t have held a candle to the clarity and velocity bursting forth from my Storioni.
Tania and Clara were in an adjacent room as all of this went down.
After the session I walked in to join them.
Tania said, ‘Something happened in there.’
‘Yep,’ I said, ‘I think I just experienced the closest thing to a miracle that I have ever felt’.
And I meant it.
I’m sharing this with you today to open your eyes to possibilities.
Focal dystonia results in the ‘smearing’ of neural maps in the brain that control movement. Seemingly it all takes place beyond the reach of the conscious mind – unwanted muscles fire, wanted muscles don’t fire, chaos rules the roost. Or does it.
What I learned yesterday, and brought forward to today’s practice, is that focus, combined with visualization, combined with energy, creates intention. Throw your very survival behind those three ingredients and your intention will blast through any blockage in front of it.
I am playing the violin with my conscious mind now. It’s like the person that learns to walk again after a stroke. The adult learner must use very different neural pathways than does a child.
But while we yet have breath they do exist and we can find them.
All the best,
Clayton Haslop
P.S. Seats are still available for both masterclasses. As I’ve said before, what you will learn there may go far beyond your violin playing. You can rest assured, however, that your playing will rise to a whole new level that you may have thought beyond your wildest dreams. Today’s email should set you straight on that account.
P.P.S. If the cost of accommodations is a concern to you, please know that there are affordable options just outside the grounds of the Biltmore Estate. Now come, get on board.
