The Inner Soul

Excerpt from an upcoming book by Kjell Fagéus © KF

kjell@fageusmusic.com  

The Inner Song
Challenges of Musicians and music teachers

Reflection and training

 Dedication, open free courageous minds and visionary musical ideas create magic. Magic that goes beyond our attempts to master and control the instrument and the music. Our art and challenges as musicians and as artists are to accomplish knowledge and skill, plus it allows us to let go into a musical Flow. This is done through a self-directed focus, a strong vision and an emotional espressive inner song.

 Content:

Artistic Mental Training (AMT)

Artistic Mental Coaching (AMC)

Reflection and basic training

Stories to promote knowledge

 "Everything was simple and obvious; it had been an amazing concert! The musicians and the audience had been transcended into another world and had forgotten about time and space, during the two hours the concert had lasted. What joy - let us try to create this every time we have a concert! "

Magical moments

Musicians, audience; we can all remember occasions when everything worked well and easy; a conversation with friends, a meeting at work, sports performance or a concert. Musicians have been through moments where making music felt joyful, easy and effortless; while there has been access to the sublime in music, dedication and expressiveness. The music has a quality of tenderness, plasticity and drama. Each tone follows another in the most natural way of phrasing and rich, emotionally loaded pauses.

As listeners, we have been inspired and affected by the musician's stage performance where there was directness, a presence and an authenticity of expression. Magical moments that have been difficult to subsequently put into words, but for all who were present was a highly emotional and spiritual experience. Even if the audience is hushed, you can see the enjoyment and emotion in each face. You can actually feel the electricity of the emotion.

Presence and passion

A paradoxical presence occurs with seemingly conflicting parameters, calm, relaxation, openness, trust and co-energy and drama. Performers' movements feel natural and in harmony with the music. In the moment, the musicians' phrasing cannot be any other way, even if a thousand other possibilities have been opened. The interaction works without prompting and they all trust in their own rhythm, phrasing and sense of musical spontaneity. All of the performers take in everything that surrounds them without judging, just observing. Everything has been prepared very carefully both physically and mentally. The mind has become like a blank slate on which the emotions of the moment are ready to be written. From this state of readiness the musicians are ready to create beauty. This beauty is created through musical expressiveness and conveyed through the musicians' skill, passion and flow.

Suspension of Time
People crave this beauty, this magical moment, to be fulfilled and forget themselves and experience something higher. We live in the belief that it only occurs spontaneously, without our conscious influence but the training and coaching help creates this experience and a belief that we can help ourselves to conquer and expand the ability to initiate flow. It is a kind of deep universal human condition we have always had access to. We can learn from the children who easily have access to these qualities; spontaneity, curiosity, belief in himself and his ability to learn and be creative. As adults we can find these qualities within ourselves and liberate the potential that was blocked by negative experiences, and destructive expectations of ourselves and the environment.