Awareness Practice

Over the past few months of practicing and teaching I’ve found a couple of simple ways to avoid endgaining while practicing. 

Here a break-down of the first process:

  1. Sing an exercise or a phrase or note of your music

  2. If you are perfectly happy with the result, continue singing and enjoy the ride

  3. If you are not perfectly happy with the result choose a specific action of a specific part of your body to observe at a specific point in time.
    For example: Observe the movement of the lower ribs during inhalation

  4. State your observation to yourself.
    “I observe that my lower ribs expand all around when I inhale.”

  5. Repeat and ask yourself if you notice a quality to the movement. Is it smooth or jerky, automatic or forced, etc.

  6. State your observation to yourself.
    “I observe that the quality of movement is smooth and a bit forced.” 

  7. This may be a new piece of information about your breathing that you want to explore so you continue the observation game until you are satisfied and you sing again using the new information you found.

  8. Continue the practice with as many parts of your body as you like.

I have noticed that people are often seduced by the sound they make and it requires a real commitment to the task in order to stay with observation of choice.  If we give in to the seduction it can be much harder not to try to produce a result (endgaining) which will invariably end in disappointment and frustration. 


PracticeSusan Nanceendgaining