The Musician's Way Blog

When you confront a technical challenge in your music making, does a voice within you ever say, “Try harder”?

I get the impression that many rising musicians believe that trying harder will result in greater precision.

But I advocate a reverse strategy: withdrawing effort.

For example, consider what typically happens in a group rehearsal when a leader tells musicians to, “Try harder.” Don’t the musicians tense up?

I think so. Because that instruction implies that the performers can’t handle the music, so they should just hunker down and push. Similarly, in solo practice, ‘trying harder’ is probably a futile move.

In contrast, when we practice deeply and grasp the inner workings of our music (see Part I of my book The Musician’s Way), we can trust ourselves and execute without forcing.

Then, as we reduce effort, a magical thing happens: we connect spiritually with a composition and our creativity can soar.

So an inspired group leader will encourage musicians to play or sing with ease by offering instructions such as, “Release your shoulders, lighten your touch, feel the pulse, trust your technique.” The opposite of trying harder.

Likewise, when working alone, we need to draw on strategies that ensure optimal ease.

The effort meter concept
To help musicians minimize effort in their practice, I employ an imaginary meter that measures effort on a scale from zero to ten. Zero represents inactivity; ten signifies maximum effort. Our goal is to play or sing with the least possible effort, even when executing intricate music.

Such an effort meter might look like the example above.

As we play or sing, our effort readings will fluctuate, but our aim is to keep them predominantly in the green zone with occasional forays into the yellow and orange zones.

We want to stay out of the red zone, because when our effort reading climbs toward 10, we’re approaching our edge, and breakdown could ensue.

Using an effort meter
To try out the effort meter in your practice, play or sing a scale or an excerpt from a piece, and rate your output of effort, noting your level of mental and physical tension.

Then, ask yourself what things you could do to execute the passage with less effort such that the meter would be dialed down about one notch.

For instance, if you’re an instrumentalist, could you apply less pressure with your hands, free up your shoulders, and feel ahead more vividly? If you’re singing, could you release tension in your throat, hear the pitches precisely in your mind, articulate the text more crisply, and breathe more freely?

Whatever your musical specialty, pinpoint ways in which you could expend less mental and physical energy.

After deciding on some effort-reducing tactics, execute the passage again, and then assign another effort rating:

• If the reading dropped, you’re moving in a desirable direction – see if you can dial it down even further.
• If the reading stayed the same or increased, explore alternate strategies.
• If you can’t figure out how you might get your effort meter into the green zone when practicing and performing, opt for simpler material and seek help from a teacher.

Less effort = better music making
Reducing effort is essential to both creativity and injury prevention.

For one thing, it liberates the mental bandwidth we need to be spontaneous and connect with our listeners and coperformers.

At the same time, through easing muscle tension, we minimize strain and fatigue. (See ”The benefits of accessible music.”)

Keep in mind that dialing down the effort meter involves targeting, not ceasing our efforts. It entails using ourselves wisely, not unconsciously, and directing our music making with awareness.

Therefore, our ability to minimize effort hinges on our knowledge of how easeful execution can be accomplished on our instrument as well as our skillfulness with the deep learning strategies spelled out in The Musician’s Way.

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What strategies do you use to trim effort in practice and performance? I invite you to experiment with the effort meter concept and then let me know how it works for you.

© 2009 Gerald Klickstein