Visualizing music?

[Hipbone]

I heard of a study a while back that split a study group of basketball players into 2 groups. 1 group practiced free throws intensively, the other did visualization exercises. Both groups improved their free throws about the same amount.

The point: I used to play harmonica a lot but I have neglected it since I picked up the whistle 2 yrs ago. I have probably played harmonica less than 1 hr/ month for the last year. Instead, I've been practicing penny whistle very hard - at LEAST an hour/nite often 3 - 4 h on weekends. In the past, if I laid down my harmonica for a day or 2, I could tell it when I picked it back up (Sometimes a little lay off is good is even for you). But putting it down for a day or 2 is one thing; 2 years of neglect is quite another. So the other nite I decided to blow the harmonica some - dreading how I would sound. I got out a classical piece that I had been working on a year ago. When I last worked on it, I had most of it down but had been struggling with a couple passages . When I tried again on Friday, I picked up just about where I left off. I tried other stuff too and I had fallen off very little - mostly just stamina-wise.

2 possibilities:

1) Playing the penny whistle as hard as I have has been a form of visualization that has transferred to the harmonica and kept my harmonica skills from degrading. In some ways the 2 instruments aren't that different. Both are diatonic and you play modally and bend notes on both. You don't suck on the penny whistle (OK, maybe I do suck on the penny whistle, but that's not what I mean) but they have some similarities.

OR,

2) I was never worth doo doo on the harmonica and so I can't get much worse at it.

Realizing that 2) may be exactly correct, I was wondering if there might be something to that visualization stuff (which has always sounded like a load of crap to me).

Any similar experiences?

Pat

[Sandy Jasper]

Pat

I'll step up to bat on this one! I play a variety of instraments. Each time I learn a new instrament or progress on one, my overall abilities as a musician improves.

I used to be in an R&B band. When the gigs began to thin out for that band, I became quite busy playing Celtic. When the R&B band would come together after not playing for a month all the other guys were rusty and me, my fingers were all over the place. I would look at them like they belonged to someone else! I was playing stuff I never played before and doing it well!

I think the brain is like a foggy valley. The more music we play, the more fog burns off and soon we begin to see more detail in our surroundings and are better able to navigate through the hidden roads and trails. We are more confident and see possibilities that before were not available to us!

As I progress as a musician on any instrament, my goal is to be able to get what is in my heart and soul out into the instrament. When I am struggling with the mechanics of the instrament it is like there is something between me and the music. As I get better at controlling the instrament, It becomes less of a block and I become one with the music. Each time you progress closer to this point with one instrament, you get closer with another!

S.J.

[chattiekathy]

This is so true.

In June of this year I started to get serious about playing my whistle when I received my beloved Parkhurst D as a gift.

I only play 2 instruments. The Hammer Dulcimer and the whistle. I have been learning to play the dulcimer for about a year and a half. I didn't feel that I was progressing very fast. I was learning to read music at that time also but as any Hammer Dulcimist will tell you, you can't very well read music and play at the same time. Now, If I want to learn a tune, I learn it on the whistle first and by jove, I can play it on the dulcimer! I just visualize the notes and my fingers, and it translates into hammers and strings! It just amazes me that everytime I learn a new whistle tune, I have also learned a new dulcimer tune! What a wonderful world this is!

[hillfolk22]

I think visualizing for me falls in the same category as lilting.

It is really a good learning tool.
Better than site reading.
The only problem at times... is if the tune closely resembles another, I have a tendancy to shift tunes. Oh how embarrassing!

Laura

[BillG]

I believe strongly in visualization. I used to coach both soccer and tennis at the high school varsity level and read the book "Inner Tennis" - nothning to do with tennis but all to do with visualization. I began to use it with my players by having them visualize a side kick, for example, or a beautifully executed service Ace. The kids did lots of HA HAs at first but I kept pushing and it began to take hold. When I was training to be a communication watch stander for the Coast Guard, I would visualize cases playing both the distressed vessel and the watch stander responding. I did this for almost every possible senario and it began to come almost naturally when actually responding to a case - did great on the Board, too.

I continued it with my music - also play/played various instruments (looking for the perfect one?) and it works there too. Mostly I try to visualize THAT sound on THAT note, THAT accent on --and so on . . . . . .

BillG

[Cees]

On 2002-09-30 15:47, Hipbone wrote:
Any similar experiences?
Pat

Something similar happened to me just last week. Check out this thread:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... forum=1&24

[Isilwen]

I think visualization techniques also have something to do with muscle-memory.

I have very good memorization/visualization skills and a high muscle-memory retention rate.

Meaning:

I can memorize many many pages of music in a minimum amount of time, be able to copy them down from memory, and no matter how little I practice, I can still pick up the instrument and play just as good as I did when I stopped. (ex. I haven't played the piano in probably two years, and just recently I took it up again. I was able to remember most of the 3-4 page pieces I'd memorized before I quit, and play them with about 85% - 90% accuracy- cold turkey.)

So, I think memorization and muscle-memory have a LOT in common with visualization.