PianEasy

In the book “A Mind For Numbers”, Barbara Oakley explores the theme of focus and release.  The terminology she chooses distinguishes “focussed” attention from “diffuse” attention.  Focussed attention she describes as that of being absorbed at the grind stone, hunched over the laptop, mental spot-light on the current problem under the microscope, concentrating, racking brain for correct answer or clue to right direction.  

Diffuse attention she describes as that which often heralds the light bulb moment that we often experience as soon as we let the spotlight of focus move away, say to a walk in nature.  It’s while distracted by something absorbing like a good hike, that so often the light-bulb moment we’d been seeking appears, as though the brain’s underlying processes somehow necessitates these two branches to optimise overall performance.  This chimes very much with my own experience at the piano – this sense of working on a sequence that’s challenging and proving tricky and for a time it just won’t click, then one morning out of nowhere, brain and fingers just seem to cave, “well go on then” they seem to say, then coming over all Mary Poppins, “if we must we must”.  Having experienced this so many times, I now know and expect that this will happen given enough patience and tenacity, or enough committed plate-spinning to put it even more simply.  The paradox of course is that someone unaware of this phenomenon is liable to give up when they feel they’ve discovered a persistent and solid seeming ceiling, but these ceilings that so blight the path represent almost always a form of mirage.  Simply keep returning is all you need do and the dead-end you thought you were up against eventually evaporates.  Remember platform 9 & 3/4s from Harry Potter?  It’s a little like that, approach confidently, take a good long run-up and believe, and you’ll find the wall evaporates, and you come through the other side to find the Hogwart’s Muscle Memory Express magically awaiting.   And if anything this is an improvement on the Harry Potter version because there’s no Voldemort and crew to contend with outside of a stretched analogy for your self-doubt.

On retreat we will run at the metaphorical magic wall in strategic bursts – we don’t want to repeatedly knock ourselves unconscious after all.  This strategy translates simply as short bursts of attentive practice.  These sessions will be balanced by a combination of related activities like The Scales & Chords Theory Course, as well as other general workshops/seminars/discussions.  Also crucially, a series of complementary activities (and here sleep counts as an activity!  Result) are programmed/recommended/suggested that aim to restore and refresh concentration and encourage sparks of creativity and inspiration — in this category choose from yoga, walks in nature, light exercise, conversation, meditation and concentration practices, siestas, chess, ice-baths or simply a coffee in the sun.

The schedule is devised with flexible evenings so that you can lean into as much intensity as you wish as your energies ebb & flow.  Below is a guideline daily schedule, from 16:00 each day the choice is yours as to whether you’d like to immerse further or whether you’d prefer to slow it down and reset for tomorrow.  A midweek half day to explore the area is also an option, where hiring bikes to explore the cycle paths, longer hikes, swims in nearby rivers and lakes, or mooching around the medieval square are all possible adventures amongst many others.