This was a phone conversation around eight months ago:
Vesa: eyal, do you happen to play the viola?
Me: What are you talking about, I thought we were friends, how dare you imply…
Vesa: because if you do, we can play the concertante together.
Me: Of Course I can play the viola…
So I learned to play the Viola and flew to New Zealand.
Every time I go to New Zealand I come back rejuvenated. The country is beautiful, the people are just the nicest in the world but the best part of the trip is meeting my friend, Vesa-Matti Leppanen, who is the concert master of the NZ symphony orchestra. Every time we meet I learn something new (and not just how to play a new instrument).
This time I learned about the Bubble (or "the circle"); a technique Vesa uses on stage when playing solo, especially with orchestra. I have tried it myself and I wished I knew this years before, it is very effective.
The idea is that going on stage to play a concerto, with an orchestra behind you and hundreds of people in front of you can be a tad overwhelming…
In the rehearsal you find the space around you that you define as "mine" and create in imaginary circle. Inside the circle you are safe; nothing can come in, only come out. You play within the circle like playing inside your room, with your eyes fixed to the edge of the circle to stop them moving around the place (which can lead to all sorts of trouble).
There are three of those circles which increase in size. The smallest one is saved for those difficult passages and moments, the largest one is for the moments you want to include the audience and you can switch between them at will.
Thank you Vesa…
3 comments:
Thanks for your comments on my bubble...:) If you don't mind, I would like to elaborate on the 'circle' or 'bubble' idea a bit.
I think we all know the feeling when the concert day is coming closer and every morning you wake up, eat breakfast and start practicing...everything seems to be in standstill, you freak out just before the same difficult runs, there is not even a tiny bit of progress!?!? And I'm practicing and practicing...next morning, same thing...'Groundhog day', until the concert day...then you really freak out. Anyway, I was in this kind of situation, especially once when I was suppose to perform Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole. Just one and half weeks earlier I felt as above, actually I felt panicking, but didn't because we Finn's don't show our feelings. In fact, I texted (with my Nokia) to my cousin, who also is a violinist; 'I'm panicking'. He gave me the details of a certain Leo Berlin, former concertmaster of Stockholm Philharmonic orchestra (from 1961-90,what mental toughness?!!) and former Professor of the Royal Music Academy in the same city. Again, because I'm a shy Finn, my cousin organized a lesson for me. I travelled to Stockholm from Finland and had a 5 hour lesson from him just a week before the concert. That lesson saved my mental health and reputation as an ok violinist.
Prof. Berlin made me play the whole concerto, I was so nervous that I couldn't even tune my violin, after 3 minutes of desperate effort he said calmly that 'it must be the strings, are they old?'.. Yes they were old and I felt like an idiot even before playing a note.
Anyway, as I said, he made me play the whole piece. I did and did it badly. Lots of stupid mistakes and so on, during playing I remember thinking of cancelling the gig due to a 'mystery illness'. And what does that say about my concentration level...well there wasn't any focus or concentration.
After playing it through, I was waiting for a comment like 'wow, that was an impressive example of how not to play this piece' or ' so this is what you call a Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole?'. Instead, he said ' you can play every note of this piece, but you don't let yourself to do that'. I said: 'excuse me?'...I just wanted to hear it again. He didn't repeat it, but made me put the violin away and we had a half an hour chat about the piece itself. After the chat, I obviously felt calmer and the embarrassing red glow had disappeared from my face. Then we went through some technical stuff, he gave his ideas to some musical aspects,at the same time knowing that the concert was within a week.
Then for the rest of that 'lesson' we talked about concentration and nerves. He gave me the idea of the 'circles' or 'bubble'. I changed it to a bubble, to protect myself even further from 'evil' conductors and fellow musicians.
This is how it works:
Firstly, when you perform in front of 2000+ people, you're not seeing faces. Unless you decide to focus on one particular person, you only see a mass of people. And they are all staring at you... But they are there to enjoy (refer to Eyal's elements) your playing, not judge. The thought of that sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't. But your eyes are really important aspect of how you feel when you play and with your eyes you can either distract yourself from focusing on the music, or help to concentrate and feel confident. I give you an example; when you walk on stage to perform a piece, regardless of the importance of the occasion, what do you do first? You make contact with the audience, you thank them about the fact that they have come to share some amazing music with you. In your mind though you might think the following; 'I can't believe that 'he' came to the concert' or 'what's the first note of the piece'...?? and so on. Your mind plays games with you. That's why already then your eyes either help you to focus or to do the opposite.
So, to prepare the 'bubble', make sure that you're able to check the stage before a performance. Check where you're going to stand, if you're performing with an orchestra, make sure that you have enough floor space for your 'circle' or 'bubble'. Last thing before leaving the stage after a reherasal or a bubble preparation, stand (exactly where you're going to perform) and look around the hall, basically photographing it into your mind, then imagine the audience there, to make sure that when you walk on the stage to perform the piece, your mind knows how everything will look. This all is simply to eliminate any feelings of suprise that might distract you.
There are three circles (or bubbles) which you can use when you perform.
1.The first one is the smallest one, it's right around you, for example from the conductor's podium to the concertmaster's music stand and from the edge of the stage to the music stand of the 2nd violin principal (I hope you got the picture). In other words, you separate yourself from everything else. This bubble is for the moments when you're playing the most difficult parts of your piece or concerto, it's also good as a starting point for any performance, to make sure that you're fully focused on the music itself.
How do you visualize the bubble or circle? With your eyes. Your eyes should never leave the edge of the circle. In fact, try once to stare (somewhere around 1.30-2pm or so, if the violin is 12pm) at the edge of the circle, for me that would be the edge of the stage or corner of a practice room. If you really focus at one point (with your eyes) when you play, it helps you to concentrate and play better.
2.The second circle is little bigger, it includes you and couple first desks of the strings, the conductor and couple rows of the audience. It's still very focused circle and is inclined to go back to the smallest one. It is for the moments when you don't have to be so worried about the technical aspect of the music, but the music still requires you to be really focused. Let's think about an example from Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole. The first movement....Performance. Short introduction from the orchestra, then you; 'A octaves'... smallest 'bubble' of course, then after your introduction comes the long Tutti passage, then two 16th notes runs, smallest circle (or bubble)again, then the first melodic passage, which is not easy but a lot easier than the the previous runs, so that you can play in the second bubble or a circle, in other words you can open up a bit, you'll feel great anyway because you just nailed the difficult beginning of the concerto!
3.As you already know the 3rd circle is the biggest one. It's for the moments when you can feel very confident and you enjoy the music almost as a member of the audience. Two examples; Tutti passages of any concertos, unless they are short, obviously you don't want to lose your focus during a short Tutti passage. But let's say the beginning of the Beethoven's violin concerto; enjoy the introduction, it's long and it'll really get you in the mood, so interact with the orchestra, include them into your performance. Then slowly before the difficult octave beginning of the solo part, you move to your own smallest circle or bubble and start playing, focused from your eyes to toes, feeling confident and relaxed. The biggest bubble can also be used when performing the beautiful slow movements, like the Lalo's 4th movement. But be careful though, the 3rd circle allows your eyes to scan way further than the other two, be aware that your eyes really can make you forget the music and focus on completely outmusical things.
This circle idea really works, it gives you an invisible shield and helps you to feel confident and focused. Remember always that a big part of this all is the preparation of the circle before the performance itself.
By the way, Eyal can actually play viola, it's not just a myth. It was quite funny when we first rehearsed the Concertante with the orchestra, he didn't know about my 'bubble'. He basically thought that I had decided to kill him after the rehearsal. However, later when the orchestra got the idea of how we want to play the piece and I felt more confident about my playing, I sometimes let him be included in my bubble. Invitation only though.
Eyal, Thanks for the great January!
Vesa-Matti Leppanen
now THAT'S a comment
:)
Loved the circles theory- will talk with my students about .
Also will practice that on my next solo concert:)
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