Today I realized something at rehearsal. It’s a good thing, too, and is as follows: I can incorporate the Perlmanesque approach I’ve been working on as an ingredient in my playing, rather than the whole entree. Having worked fairly steadily for the past few days on being utterly loose, I noticed this feeling cropping up this morning even when I wasn’t focusing on doing it. I was trying to be relaxed in general, but the specific Perlman loosy-goosy-handed and -armed sensation is special, so I could tell when it arrived.

It’s more organic for me to continue on in my practicing with the semi-vague goal of simple non-tension, versus the somewhat idiosyncratic Itzhak way of doing things. I don’t feel obliged to suppress the other positive influences on the health of my playing, either. They can be all friends and share space inside me, I hope.

originally published on 8/8/07