Turning your music group’s performances on fire
Bad performance chemistry seems unfixable, but modern research shows us how to light up any group
After 17 years playing professionally full time with the Chiara String Quartet, and many, many student chamber groups, and festival short term ensembles, I have experienced the gamut of performance chemistry. Some groups rehearse well but it feels like a wet paper towel in concert. Some groups just click in performance, and it’s tremendously exciting. What makes the difference between the two experiences?
I used to believe that chemistry is a given, that it is intrinsic to the combination of the individuals in the group. As it turns out, some exciting new research into the human brain provides hope that a group with bad performance chemistry can fix it!
In the late 1990s, a study of Monkeys was conducted in Italy. The monkeys were wired up to measure which specific parts of the brain fired when reaching for food. The researchers observed that the same portion of the brains fired when researchers reached for the food. This was unexpected, because up to this moment, it was thought that the neurons used for senses such as sight were in a separate part of the brain from the neurons used to perform actions.
In other words, the monkeys have neurons that cause the monkey to experience the act of reaching for food when simply observing someone else doing it. Subsequent research shows that these neurons, nicknamed “mirror neurons” also exist in humans, and they are all over the brain.
This article (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510904/) from the NIH is mostly decipherable for a non-scientist, and summarizes the current state of mirror neuron research. Mirror neurons can be used to explain contagious yawns, and some postulate they can even explain empathy.
When I first learned of mirror neurons at the eve of 2017, I was very excited to try some experiments with the student groups I work with. Basically, I suspected that if mirror neurons are the mechanism by which we feel physical connection to others simply by observing them, this could be used to strengthen a group’s chemistry.
To test the theory, I had to make a few assumptions. First, I assumed that humans have mirror neurons that fire when observing the subtle signs of another’s emotions as they manifest physically. Next, I assumed that this is active whether we are conscious of it or not. Finally, I assumed that visualizing or imagining someone else’s part would result in subtle visible cues to that other person. I tested this idea in masterclasses with college music majors, coachings with college and high school musicians, but not with beginners. Groups ranged in size from a trio to an Octet. I tested it with groups that had great chemistry and groups that had abysmal chemistry. Ability levels varied widely both in terms of technical skill and concentration/attention span.
Here is what I have learned.
When every member of a chamber music group is actively “playing” the parts of the other members of the group, this creates fantastic group chemistry. It is not enough to simply listen or even to imagine the music. Individuals must imagine their own personal ideal version of the other member’s parts, as if they were wholly responsible for both creating the sound and the physical sensation of playing the music on the instrument. Most students are able to do this with minimal effort, and the effects are dramatic.
Groups suddenly found they were able to fix intractable ensemble differences, intonation improved without additional focus on pitch, and musical phrasing was more obvious to the members. The students described feeling more connected in most cases, but even when they didn’t feel a difference personally, the difference was still audible. Most exciting for me as a teacher, the groups retained this improved chemistry in future coachings, and in all cases, the groups easily continued this improvement into the performance. Over the years, I have grown accustomed to a degradation of quality from student groups when they perform, but when they were actively playing one another’s parts, this deficit disappears.
The most fascinating experiment I tried was at Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts, where I have been faculty along with the rest of the Chiara Quartet since 2004. I was coaching a group of mostly younger high school students, and without telling them why, I had the cellist sit outside the group, and I sat in his seat, without a cello. Then I had them play 3 times. The first time, I ignored the group, and stared out the window. The second time, I actively played the group’s parts in my mind but sat as still as I could. The last time, I actively played their parts and also moved, actively sending my thoughts about what I hoped it would sound and feel like to play their parts to them. The whole time, I did not have an instrument in my hands and was just sitting in the cellist’s chair.
When asked, the group did not notice a difference on the 2nd time, but the cellist, sitting outside, said it sounded “a little more intense.” The third time, there was a dramatic difference and they all played better and all noticed the difference in their own playing.
After I explained what was going on, I had them all try it, and it drastically improved their ensemble, and most notably their music-making. The group found their voice, and we were able to do remarkably advanced music-making instead of just trudging through the usual ensemble and intonation issues.
This could explain the difference between a great orchestral conductor and someone standing up there and moving their arms. When a musician has a strong mental image of the sound and physicality of what it is to play an instrument, it triggers mirror neurons. I have had this experience with the great conductor Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood Music Center when I was a student there in 1998. The instant he started conducting, I somehow knew what he wanted me to play, how he wanted me to play, and I felt the whole orchestra come to life in a way I hadn’t yet experienced. The same experience often occurs in my quartet, which is one important reason we have kept at this for so many years. This is also probably why playing by heart has been so effective for the Chiara Quartet, it forces us to really learn each other’s parts and then we give them back to each other.
Like all neurons, mirror neurons can be trained. If you practice someone else’s part, even on your instrument, you will be much better able to connect with them. In your group, if you are struggling to connect in performance, have everyone read this article, then try practicing where you have pairs of players. One person plays their part, the other person notices what it is like to play. Then do it again, and have the passive player actively imagine how they would like the other person to play, and do a duet with the active player. Swap roles, then try to play a duet with yourself (you play your part, and imagine playing the other person’s part as if it were a duet inside you). If you both do this at the same time, it seems to flip a switch and engage mirroring. There are other techniques that have worked. One student was finally able to connect after singing the pitches and rhythms of the other instrument while playing her own part, another student found the connection by following the score and physically miming bow changes while the other student played. As there is no research to pull on here for specific ways to enhance the connection through mirror neurons, be creative!
Please report back in the comments, I’d love to hear your experiences with this. If you get stuck, I am available for short Skype coachings to Kickstart the journey.
For those of you struggling with the actual rehearsing chemistry, this is a different ballgame, and the next article I plan to publish addresses a complex and fulfilling solution the Chiara Quartet has been using and refining for nearly the past 3 years. Stay tuned…
It’s an exciting time to be a musician, and this chemistry-enhancing technique makes it even more so!
