Division of Attention (12th February 2009)

Practice without a guitar, so file these notes under a separate heading.

25 minutes.

Relax, come back to myself and to the physical surroundings. Sense my feet on the floor, sense the hands placed on the legs.

Metronome at 76.

1st pattern: FEET tap quarter notes with the metronome:

Left Right Right.

Relax into this and integrate into the body.

Add the 2nd pattern: HANDS clap the on the legs in the double speed - eighth notes:

Left Right Right.

Relax into this. Direct the attention to the patterns, sense the feet and hands.

Once this is becoming established/automatic, move on and reverse the hands pattern:

Right Left Left.

It's a struggle, and several times I stop, and begin again.

Finally work on alternating between two patterns of the hands: LRR & RLL, 4 bars of 3 each and this repeated 3 times. The feet carry on with the same pattern.

It's a challenge and few times while I'm nearly there, usually in the last few bars everything collapses. Once even the very last foot tap is Left instead of Right, hilarious. It's all due to thinking too much about it. Almost like an end-gaining, according to my current understanding of Alexander's idea.

At one point walk around the room, to let go, begin again. Finally got it.

Comments: it was an opportunity to observe my reactions to 'failure' and also how the thinking interferes with the activity. The failures were due to the unncessary mind activity.