Back to basics!
I am a firm believer in the importance of going back to the beginning every once in a while. When you have reached a certain level of mastery, it is often useful to go back to an earlier exercise and apply your improved technique to its execution. Many disciplines realize this is important, and include such drills as part of their preparation. Singers begin every lesson or rehearsal with vocal exercises. Instrumentalists always play their scales -- at least "run through them quickly" -- at the beginning of a practice session. And of course athletes warm up before any game or competition.
But getting back to basics involves more than rote repetition of a set of exercises, useful as that may be for limbering up the fingers or calf muscles. It requires a more mindful way of doing something that has become foundational to your practice. A way to see what you have learned, and what you need to revisit in order to understand how you do what you do and why.
Oh, now I get it!
A couple of my adult acting students, upon finishing their intermediate level class this spring, said they were thinking about enrolling in the beginning class again. They said they would now be able to really understand the value of those first lessons.
That is the dilemma for those of us who teach or coach adults. Our students and clients come to us with lots of life experience and a certain knowledge base. But they also have a reluctance to move outside well-established comfort zones -- even if they have enrolled in a class or called a consultant to help them do just that! And so they often tune out the initial training for a discipline or practice. Later on they realize the need for that beginning instruction. Some of them double-back and pick it up then. Progress is usually much faster after that.
Riding the learning curve
At various times of our lives we are so open to new things that new ways of seeing and being in the world take root almost instantly. When we are that receptive we learn faster. Other times. . . not so much. We are defensive, or we think we know it all already: Hey, if kids are such good actors, how hard can it be?
We can rediscover our creative receptivity by returning to a more elementary form of what we are currently doing. Playing a song from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Taking a batting clinic to analyze the swing. Singing that uncomplicated tune that sounds so pure and simple -- and is so hard to do without relying on tricks or "style."
It sometimes takes courage to get back to basics, embrace the fundamentals, and find out what is really foundational to your current practice or level of skill. But it is well worth it.
Tips you can use! It's OK to say "I don't know"
In the information age you can't be expected to know everything at any given second. If you make something up, chances are someone else in the room will have Googled the real answer by the time you've finished.
Don't stick your neck out
Tip your chin down to avoid showing off that unsightly expanse of flesh when you video chat. You may decide you don't need that chin implant after all. And your voice will sound less strained.
Wear sunblock
Always, but especially in the summer. Just running around between appointments exposes your skin to lots of harmful rays. To keep those pesky wrinkles at bay, at least use a good facial moisturizer with SPF 30. And reapply!
