Are You In the Zone or Zoning Out? - PHH 076

Welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness, the Harp Mastery Podcast. My name is Ann Sullivan, and I'm a harpist, teacher, and founder of Harp Mastery. I'm all about creating more harp happiness in the world by helping harp players like you play the music they want the way they want. But as a harpist who nearly flunked out of one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, the although later not only graduated, but I went on to teach there, I know from personal experience that learning the harp is way harder than it looks. Here, each week on the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast, I show you how to solve the challenges of practicing and playing the harp. Whether it's about making your fingers behave or learning music faster, or getting your piece's performance ready, or just learning to enjoy your playing every day. Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's get started.

Welcome to the show. So what's the big deal about being in the Zone, and how do you get there? You might have heard the zone described as total focus, as losing your sense of time and space, of being completely absorbed in what you're doing. People use phrases like being able to perform with total concentration or losing all awareness of oneself. It's also called a state of flow. Now, from these descriptions, you might think being in the zone is the world's best antidote to nerves. And in some ways it might be. But the secret to getting in the zone, whether you're performing or practicing, is really a matter of balance. It's not magic, and it's not a trip into the matrix. You don't need a secret mantra or to try to shut your mind away from your playing. Being in the zone is being fully present and involved. Sometimes musicians try to find the zone by attempting to play on autopilot. You know what I mean? It's the idea that if you could just let your mind float as freely in performance as it does in practice, you would play with the same level of accuracy and expression and relaxation. That's a dangerous game to play, because the moment the unexpected happens, the moment you play the wrong string or the pedal makes a noise or the lady in the front row coughs, you are jolted back into consciousness. And that's almost never a smooth transition. The Zone isn't about abdication. It's about awareness. It's not paranormal. It's possible in the right conditions. Even better, it's possible to practice creating the right conditions so that you can find your way into the Zone anytime you want. Well, almost. On today's show, we'll talk about the factors that Comprise the zone, experience the balance you need to create and the practice strategies you can use to find the focus and the flow that you've been wondering about. I promise you this is going to be enlightening and it's going to be a fun discussion. Now we are talking about focus, because that's what the Zone is all about. And should you need an extra aid to help you focus in your practice, I'd love to recommend my Spark Practice Journal. We have a new edition out, it's been out for a little while now and it's bigger, it's easier to read, it's really lovely. But the. The key to the Spark Practice Journal system is that it helps you create the focus, knowing what you want to do at any point in your practice journey, whether it's day to day or week to week, or month to month. But it helps. Helps you create goals, helps you keep those goals in front of you, and that's where the focus is. So if you're looking for a quick and easy tool to add more focus to your practice, I highly recommend the Spark Practice Journal. We have it print editions and we also have it as a PDF download, so you can get started with it right away. So with that being said, I would like to move on to our discussion of being in the Zone. Before we can start talking about how to get into the Zone, I think we have to discuss a little bit about what the Zone means. Well, being in the zone or having a state of flow was something that was first defined by Hungarian American psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. And he describes it as a state of heightened focus and blissful immersion. Doesn't that sound wonderful? It really does. No wonder we all want to get there as performers. And he describes the experience something like this. There's this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity. You know exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other. Sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger. Wow, that's incredible. No wonder this is something that we aspire to. No wonder this is something that we think, okay, yeah, I would not feel nervous if I were in the Zone, if I were in a state of flow. But let's dive into the specifics, the specific characteristics of a state of flow as described and enumerated by Dr. Csikszentmihalyi. So the first one is an intense and focused concentration on the present moment. This is very different from what we often do in our practice or Performance where we're often thinking about that tricky spot that's coming up ahead or regretting something we just played. Being in the present moment is part of a state of flow. So is merging of action and awareness. Wow. Action and awareness. Knowing what you're doing as you're doing it. All right. Third factor of flow, a loss of reflective self consciousness. When you think about that, that's huge for us as people who play music for others. When we're self conscious, when we're worried about how we're doing something, how people are going to perceive what we're doing something, or worried about our own lack of worthiness in some regard, we are not going to be anywhere near a state of flow. So that loss of reflective self consciousness is a biggie. The fourth factor that is part of the flow experience, a sense of personal control or agency over the activity. Do we feel in charge of what we are doing? Do we feel like we're beset by outside influences? Or do we feel like we know what we're doing and we can get in there and go ahead and do it and we're in charge of what happens? Hmm. Okay. Number five. Another part of the flow experience. A distortion of temporal experience. Okay, fancy way of saying you lose all track of time. Now, I'm guessing that this has happened to you often in practice, where you get so absorbed in what you're doing and what you're working on that the time just flies by and you lose track of it. This can happen in performance too. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. But that losing track of time is definitely part of being, being in the zone. And the sixth flow factor is the experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding. This is also called the autotelic experience. But this is about how rewarding you feel what you're doing is to you intrinsically rewarding. I think often we feel that way about our practice. I think we forget to feel that way about our playing when we're playing for other people. Now, these are the factors that are part of the experience of flow. These aren't the things that we seek to create. There are other factors that are creating the flow experience, but this is what flow feels like. And it's that very specific definition. Right. I'll just run through the six again. The intense concentration on the present merging of action and awareness, the loss of self consciousness, the sense of control over the activity, losing track of time, and the experience of the activity as being intrinsically rewarding. Okay, so this is what we. What it's going to feel like when we get there. So how do we get there? Let's take a look at that.

There are also three preconditions for the state of flow. And these are the things that are necessary for you to be able to get to that state of flow.

Now, so what I'm. What I want you to understand here is that this, you know, being in the zone isn't magic, right? It's something that you can actually learn to do. It doesn't mean that you're going to be successful at it every time. And it's not going to be that magic, magic pill that's going to, you know, evaporate all your nerves. What it is going to do when you can work at getting to that state of flow, what you're going to experience is what? More control over what you're doing, A sense of ease, a sense of confidence about what it is that you are doing at that moment. And in that sense, your fear and your self consciousness and your nerves, all those things will subside because you won't have time for them. Okay, so what are these preconditions? Well, here we go.

The first and perhaps the most important is what they call the Goldilocks principle. It's a perceived balance between the difficulty of what you're working on and the skills that you have being adequate to meet that challenge. So in other words, the task that you're engaged in can't be too difficult, right? It, you don't want to feel panicky about it, but it can't be too easy either because then you'll be bored. You have to have the skills or feel that you have the skills in order to achieve it. But if it's too easy, it's not going to involve you enough. It's not going to engross you enough. And that focus that you need isn't going to be there because you're going to be bored.

So it's really, it's such an interesting balance. And that's why they called it the Goldilocks principle, right? Not too hot, not too cold. So when we strike that balance.

We can find that state of flow he had. There's an interesting thing that he observed in a class of artists he was teaching at, doing his graduate research, I believe, at the University of Chicago. And he would watch painters in their studios and he was fascinated by how easily they forgot everything else that they were doing while they were working. But what was even more interesting to him was that he was really surprised. What happened when they finished Whatever painting they were working on, they'd finish it, and then instead of enjoying it, they would just put it against the wall and start a new painting. They weren't really interested in that finished painting. And so he realized that what was absorbing, what was interesting to them, what they were really after, wasn't the finished work itself, but the experience that they had of being completely immersed and completely absorbed in the act of creating the painting. So the finished painting had very little interest for them. As musicians, we have a slight edge on our painter friends in that every time we play, we are involved in the act of creation. So anytime we play, whether it's for ourselves or for somebody else, we are creating something anew. And it gives us that opportunity to really focus and be absorbed in that moment of creation, that moment of playing. But as Dr. Csikszentmihalyi points out, if the task is too challenging for us, then we won't be able to focus on it. We have to believe that we have the skills we need to meet that challenge.

But if it's too easy for us, at the same time, it won't hold our attention. Okay, so there's the first precondition, the first requisite for getting into that state of flow. The second one is that we need clear goals. All right, I can just hear you saying, oh, no, not the goals thing again. But here's the plan. When you know what you want to achieve, then you can focus your attention on taking the action you need to achieve it.

I think for us, in playing, the clear goals are not the same as, you know, when we have practice goals. Right. If you have a goal in your practice, while it's an important goal and it's very focused, it doesn't feel quite so critical. Right. Goals and performance are a little bit different goals. In practice, you know that you're going to work at something and you're going. You have a focus for your action, and that's where it can be extremely absorbing. The goals we have in performance are very different. And I think that when we put our focus on the wrong kinds of goals and performance, we set ourselves up for, well, definitely not being in the zone, but I think we set up. Set ourselves up for failure. If you're setting yourself up, for instance, to I'm not going to play this wrong note, or I, you know, I need to play all the notes right. If you want to look at it a different way, I think that that's not a goal that's going to serve our performance really well. I think that we need higher level goals, musical goals, and we can talk about that a little bit more in just a moment. But those clear goals allow us to focus. When we know what we want to do, we can focus on doing it. That simple. The third precondition for a state of flow is clear, unambiguous feedback. Okay, this is that. That one thing that's like, all right, well, you know, I played the right note, I played a wrong note. Yeah, that's clear feedback. But the idea here with feedback is that it helps you adapt to any changing demands and adjust what you're doing to maintain that flow state. And I think that for us in performance, the feedback isn't about what we're doing right or what we've done wrong. I think it's mostly the fact that the music is happening and that as we continue to play and we meet the demands of the moment.

We have the sense that the music is flowing because we hear it flow at the same time. I don't think it has so much to do with right and wrong here as the fact that we hear the music in our head, we hear the music come out of our fingers, and that that's where the feedback is. And of course, it can be the sort of thing where, oh, okay, I heard the music in my head, my finger played something else. It means that I need to move my hand. My hand's in the wrong place. So there can be feedback instantaneously that way that is helpful and.

Not a critiquing kind of a moment. That's where we get instantly out of the zone because we bring ourselves back into the equation. I know that I just said a moment ago that we often seem to experience that sense of getting lost in what we're doing, that sense of timelessness in our practice.

But I think we sometimes experience something a little bit different from really being in the zone. I think that we certainly get absorbed and we get focused in what we're doing. But we have limits as human beings. We have limits to our focus and our attention, and some days are better than others when it comes to being able to focus. So I think a lot of the time we end up drifting into sort of an autopilot state when we're practicing where we're doing something, but we're not necessarily aware of what we're doing. That isn't necessarily a state of flow. I think that loss of awareness can be part of a state of flow, but I think often it's just a little bit of zoning out rather than really being in the zone. We're sort of doing something, especially if we're involved in something that's a lot of repetition. We sort of do it without necessarily truly focusing on what we're doing. So that's a state of attention, that particular state. That is not something we want to replicate in performance. I think people misunderstand this all the time. They think, if only I could just be that relaxed and that easy when I were playing in performance. And they were. They try to do is. They try to distance themselves from their playing. They figure that, okay, if it works when they're practicing to sort of, you know, be totally just thinking about something else and they're playing, and, you know, it's probably happened to you, right? You play that piece through in your little practice space, and it's like, wow, this is really, really great. And then you take it to your lesson and it all falls apart. Well, there are some specific things that might be happening in any given piece that account for that, but a lot of it is that we're just staying out of our own way and letting our minds go someplace else when we practice, and we can't bring that same state of mind to performance, and we really don't want to. I don't think it's a good idea to teach yourself to send your mind elsewhere when you're playing for someone, whether it's in a lesson or, you know, for anybody else. Because when you do, as I mentioned earlier, you know, you can have a rude awakening when you all of a sudden are shocked back into consciousness, just, you know, maybe you played a wrong note. Whatever. You're brought back to the present, and you're not sure where you are. You can't find your place on the music, or you can't remember where it was you were playing. And there's this big lurch. We don't want that. What we want is to be in that state of total immersion where you're so involved in what you're doing that a mistake doesn't throw you off. It just is part of that feedback that you get to respond to. That's the difference. I think being in the zone is not being on autopilot. It's not, as I mentioned before, it's not abdicating responsibility for what you're doing. It's taking charge, what you're doing at every moment. It's focus on what you're doing, not taking your focus away from what you're doing. And that's very different. The British pianist Stephen Huff has a wonderful turn of phrase to describe the difference between the way one should practice and the mindset or attitude that you need for performing. He says that you should be a bohemian on stage and a perfectionist. And in the practice room, right? We're talking about that really careful, meticulous discipline as you practice and then letting that go on stage, letting go of those details to take on this, this wonderful different Persona, different attitude, different viewpoint, different focus as you start to play for somebody. I think that that's a very difficult transition for most of us to make when we're training ourselves for all of our practice hours to focus on those nitty gritty details and those small things and getting everything correct. It becomes such a habit, such a mindset habit, that it's very difficult to transition to a totally different mindset where those things are no longer our main focus, but our focus is on the other overall performance where you let go of those things. That bohemian attitude that Stephen Hough talks about, you let go of those things and you find the music, find the focus in the big picture instead. But this is that paradox of the flow state, right? So that all those hours of meticulous practice come together once you get to that flow state, whether you're performing or playing or just playing in your own room at home is exactly the same. The music appears, sounds like it's effortless, sounds like it's almost created right on the spot, like you're composing it while you're playing it. And it can feel that way as well. But all of that is coming from this place where you've put in all that practice time. And why is this working to get you to that state of flow? Because you've met the challenge, right? So that the piece of music that you're playing has enough challenge to interest you, but not so much that you know you can't be in charge of it and can't meet that challenge. So your practice should be preparing you not to have that performance be just easy peasy, but to have that performance be within your control, within your grasp, as long as you focus enough to make it happen.

I personally have found that the performances that I feel so totally prepared for are often the ones where I'm just not. I describe it as on edge enough. I'm just not sharply focused enough to really do my best. And it's not that they're bad performances possibly, it's just that they're not as interesting or as exciting or really perhaps even as just artistic and as polished as I'd like them to be. They Come across okay. But I feel like, you know, I didn't quite get the ball through the hoop. You know, it's like, ah, almost there, but just not quite. But when I'm not feeling, I can't describe it as feeling unprepared, but when I know that I need to be on my game to get this performance really where I want it to be, I do get so absorbed in what I'm doing that I can absolutely bring that final edge to it, enjoy what I'm performing, and get to that state of being in the zone. So I think the challenge is real. I think needing that challenge is real. And I think when we tend to, we want to feel totally ready so that something feels easy for us. I think we're missing some of the point that we need to be called to do our best, and yet we need to be prepared enough that we know we can do our best. Interesting dichotomy. I realize that hard place to be, but there are things that you can do in your practice that will help you start practicing getting to that place. And I'm not talking about practicing the notes. What I'm talking about is actually shifting your focus even during your practice, especially during your practice, shifting your focus from the notes and that nitty gritty detail to shift it to things that are more a part of the way you want to play a piece of music rather than just practice it. Now, as you're doing your repetitions, as you're doing your practice, yes, you're focusing on the notes and the rhythms and the fingering, but. But also focus on the musical details, the music that you want to create with those notes, and then work on whatever notes or fingering or anything you need to work on in order to create the music. So, for instance, what am I suggesting? Well, one of the things that you might focus on while you're practicing is the way the strings feel on your fingers.

Think about how relaxed you are. Focus on how your fingers feel, not how they're moving, not whether or not they played the right note. And it's not on your technique. It's about thinking about how they feel. Because when you're playing, this is a wonderful indicator for you, a wonderful feedback moment for how your piece is going, going, and how it's going to go as you. You know, if you're really tense, you need to be able to relax on the spot as you go, Right? So being in charge of how your fingers feel, noticing how your fingers and hands and arms and body feel is part of that feedback that you want for getting to the state of flow much more than just the notes. So think about how your fingers feel on the strings. Think about how relaxed you are, or perhaps think about the quality of your sound. This is also a feedback moment, right? That clear and unambiguous feedback, that instantaneous, oh, okay, I'm listening to my sound once again. It's taking your focus away from right and wrong, and it's bringing it to something that is immediate and something that you can control and something that's not judgmental. I think that's so important. When we only think in terms of right or wrong, we create self criticism. We create opportunities, if you want to look at it that way. We create moments that might lead us to negative self talk. We create those moments that are going to definitely take us away from the state that we want to be in. So you have to. In order to let go of those moments of criticism, you have to give yourself something that's less judgmental to think about. And our sound is one of those to think. Ooh, nice sound. Don't think in terms of good or bad once again, but think in terms of what kind of sound it is. Do you like it? What. What do you hear? Is it. Is it round, sharp, articulated, legato? You don't have to always be judging it. Just listen and then react. If you like, you can change it a little bit as you go. Don't stop and do it over. Just change it as you go.

I do think that being alive and thoughtful and cognizant of the overall feeling that you want the music to communicate, to think about the story, to think about the mood, to think about the imagery as you work and as you practice. I think that's important. Never neglect this in your practice. This is what we want. We want the music. The notes are part of that for sure.

But we can make the music. Your music's going to survive a wrong note or two. But if you're not thinking about what you want to create in that musical moment, you'll never be able to let go of the right and wrong. You'll never be able to let go of the awareness of your own.

Actions in terms of judging your actions.

We need to be able to let go of ourselves just a little bit. And thinking about serving the music and creating the music is where we really want to be. So add that to your list of potential things to focus on in your practice.

One of the things that's often recommended, which is interesting, is to think about remaining in the moment when you're playing. I think that's the hardest thing to do because the second you're reminding yourself to stay in the moment, you're out of the moment. That's just sort of one of those by definition kinds of things, right? The second that you have said, oh, get back in the moment, you are not in the moment. But with that in mind, I do think it's helpful to remind yourself about that from time to time. When you feel your focus slipping, bring it back. Now, you might find it helpful to have a phrase or a word or something that you do that when you feel your focus slipping, you can just say now or here or something that's very short, very simple. But something you always say that reminds you to come back and focus on what you're doing. Right? Then.

You might notice this and try it in your next practice session. When you go back and you do that passage again, are you really paying attention to it? And if you're not, how can you bring your focus back to it? The idea of bringing your focus back to what you're doing is a very powerful one and will help you keep your mind where you want it to be. Remember, it's all about being present in what you're doing, creating that moment, every moment, letting go of the self criticism so that you can just make the music. You want to lose yourself in the act of creation. And that's where the zone is.

It's not a mystery. It's all about focus. And I know you can do that. One final tidbit for you. There was a survey done in 2019 where researchers explored the flow experiences of elite musicians and top athletes and explored them with relation to the extent that these people felt satisfied with their lives. And they found that all of the dimensions of flow, whether they were the preconditions or the experiential elements of flow, were somewhat related to life satisfaction. But only the challenge versus skill balance. Right? That Goldilocks principle, that's the, you know, the ability to meet the challenge kind of thing. Only that challenge skill balance was a significant predictor for satisfaction with life. Interesting. Yes. I will leave you to think about that as we talk just a little bit and close our discussion today. Well, next week on the podcast we're going to be talking about the chord I like to describe as the left hand master chord. This chord always seems to come up in our discussions with my students and with the my heart mastery community. How to finger it, how to maneuver it, especially if it's a big stretch for you. And.

Frankly, once you've learned to master this chord, a lot of music will get easier for you. So we'll be talking about that left hand master chord next week and I'll be giving you my best tips and strategies for that. Also remember, if it's focus you're looking for in your practice, do try our Spark Practice Journal. It will help you focus on exactly what you want to be doing in your practice so that your practice feels very directed and not aimless or repetitive.

We want your practice to make progress for you, so the Spark Journal is a great tool for that.

So until next week, please remember every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Thank you for being here and I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp happiness every day. See you next time.