When you’re in the midst of performing a hard piece of music you can’t worry about the next passage, you become absorbed into each note as it happens as you play it… making this one right now as beautiful as it can be, just this one , then the next, then another. Once it’s played it’s forgotten, NO regrets allowed! you can’t live in the past or the future when you preform a piece. If you do, your mind isn’t fully present in the current note and it isn’t as beautiful as it can be, it’s distracted…just played , just sounded.

When we preform we must learn to release our conscious worries, fears, failures, and live in the present moment, or better yet,  present,  single note. We must release ourselves from the audience, from judgement, and become completely absorbed in the note we are playing then leave it behind and give our full attention and soul to the new note we play. This is the essence of mindfulness. Just like walking meditation where you concentrate on just one step, the current step, kissing the earth with the souls of your feet, in music performance you concentrate on just this note kissing the souls of the audience and bringing the piece  to the emotional plane of existence.