Newsletter 2/2003

The Metronome
By Kevin Roberts

Several months ago we began to use a metronome in our movements class, which had been suggested to us by our mentor. She had told me that our rhythm was not right, and I was unable to find what she meant. We were working on the six Obligatories.

Soon after we began working this way, I began to have a strange sensation. It was like being in the twilight zone or something; I was sure the metronome was speeding up and slowing down. The more I focused my attention on it, the stronger I became convinced! It was only after stopping the movement that I began to grasp what was happening. We all had gotten so used to speeding up during certain parts of the movement (we were doing ‘Counting’) and slowing down during other parts that it sounded, and felt, wrong to us to have a constant speed. Even our pianist had become completely used to these phenomena, and felt natural accommodating our deviation. This was interesting to most of the people in class, and particularly fascinating to me.

We began the slow and difficult process of using the metronome constantly in class, both with and without the piano, to train ourselves out of our ‘bad habits.’ The results were very interesting; some people who had musical training, and who had really learned to hate the metronome, began to like it. It was clear to all of us that this metronome was a help; indeed it had become our teacher. Movements like the First Obligatory had a new precision to them, and we began to experience a totally new ‘moving together.’ Each of us grew together as a group, and I know that I personally had an entirely new experience of movements.

For some time I began to ponder this. Why did we speed up and slow down? Why was it not obvious to us? What strange power were we under? When associating in this way, it began to think in me; the law of seven says there are places of speeding up and slowing down. We were, in fact, reacting naturally, or ‘law-conformably.’ Then I thought: given this naturalness of speeding up and slowing down, what were we trying to accomplish by using a constant tempo? Again I was consumed by a gnawing question.

Suddenly it came to me. We practice the movements as a part of our Work. The aim of Work is to be able to ‘do.’ To ‘do’ we must connect to ‘God,’ which is within us, and which is called ‘real I.’ In the Purgatory chapter, it is stated that the Absolute lived with the law of seven before it was changed, when all of its Stopinders were evenly spaced, that is, when it was natural for an even tempo. So when we practice movements, we are attempting to ‘do’ by manifesting at an even tempo! We were connecting to God.

Practice of the movements demands a surplus of attention; attention beyond the moving of arms and legs, even beyond inner work. If we practice the movements in an even tempo, they can never become mechanical, because the even tempo is not natural for us in our ordinary state, it will always take effort and attention to sustain. I have found that this changing of tempos occurs whether I try to stop it or not; the only way to be sure is to use the metronome, to ‘submit my will’ to the metronome.

Certainly we are just beginning in this experiment. Here are some comments from class members:
Leah: I don't think either Kevin or the students in the class have had enough experience with metronomes to be able to use them helpfully much in class - YET. Times I was there we set the metronome and soon it was clicking away and we were going at our own speed ignoring it. This really grated on me after several years of music practice with metronomes. Though I guess both the fact that we couldn't stay with it and the fact that it grated on me are both something significant already.
If we continue to practice with it I would offer that we should try something very simple, without multiple body parts, and not speedy - not slow, just not faster than we can do. It should not be used to challenge us to keep up until we can actually listen and work with it which is a skill in itself. If we pay for that skill by working simply and easily for a time then that skill will allow us to use it to pay for something more.
Anya: I usually experience ambivalence at the prospect of using the metronome... it has been one of my best, and most painful, teachers for decades in my piano practice and for the past decade in movements practice. I remember more than once almost succumbing to the totally nonsensical belief that the metronome had some kind of mischievous genie in it that purposely made it slow down and speed up when I was playing classical music or even the movements music . . .
However, there have been more times in the last few years where I could actually relax into the metronome's beat: I could trust it to contain my energies evenly... it was as though my fingers tapping the keys (or my gestures in the movements) were actually making the tap-tap sounds of the metronome...nice moments--wish there were more of them!!

So I share our experience (and my subjective realization) with you. Give it a try!

KSR 12/24/02

Kevin Roberts
http://austinbnb.com
http://somaZen.com
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(512) 451-4121