One of the most valuable indicators of well-functioning coordination is eye movement. I have noticed for a long time now that there are different types of gaze in musicians.

The ‘well-trained’ musician of today often exhibits what I call blinkered attention, the result of years of too much effortful practice. The strain around the eyes is visible and often accompanied by laboured breathing. Caught by inward feelings and sensations, this musician is ‘concentrating’.

In the words of my Alexander teacher, the original meaning of concentration used to be: to relate a set of factors to a central point. It has been increasingly misused in our educational system to encourage the shutting out of everything else out to focus on a single thing. Concentration therefore as a useful aim has been corrupted for the purposes of achieving a goal quickly and unthinkingly.

The faculty of attention is our most precious asset as human beings. It enables us to bring to fruition our innate gifts and to communicate to our fellow beings. However I don’t remember being trained in this ability. It was taken for granted by my parents and all my teachers.

It was not until I began my training in the Alexander Technique that my impoverished ability to pay attention became apparent. I could not keep two thoughts in my mind simultaneously. And to stop thinking of something when asked by my teachers was even more of a challenge! It took many years of patient work and struggle to learn to maintain free and open attention while engaged in a simple activity like getting in and out of a chair. And even longer to be able to play the cello without ‘going inside’, shutting out the world around me.

Attention is like a muscle. It has to be exercised properly and over a long period of time, and in this way it begins to develop one’s ability to work productively. Attending to the world around oneself, while at the same time attending to oneself— truly seeing, listening, sensing, experiencing— is the beginning of a new relationship to life. It is not easy. There are ever more stimuli surrounding us and claiming our attention, taking us away from ourselves and our immediate surroundings. The natural is no longer the normal.

I encourage you to explore how you pay attention with a friend who can observe you while you play. Watch some of the old films of musicians like Casals, Feuermann and Heifetz and you might see another quality of attention, one which can begin to be yours with the right sort of work.