 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2005-02-08 22:10
I recently couldn't play for a while because of a rather nasty chest infection. ( It is difficult to play when you go into a coughing fit every time you blow the instrument). When I started practicing again, my embouchure, as I expected, was shot to pieces, but my technique (fingerwork) had actually improved!
Does anyone have any idea why this may have happened?
I think it might be because I knew I hadn't practiced and was being a lot easier on my self and was thus able to relax and let my fingers do what they were supposed to do.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-02-08 23:14
Exactly - Tension affects performance a lot. Your head can get in the way almost as much as your fingers and sometimes more.
At the big competitions (heck, any competition for that matter....) it is usually a matter of the head, not the fingers which makes or breaks players.
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Author: diz
Date: 2005-02-09 04:16
David - you're so knowledgeable on so many fronts, it's amazing.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-02-09 11:14
The brain is capable of continuing to practice/consolidate coordination skills even without the equipment in hand. Sports professioanls deliberately use this technique, but I've forgotten what they call it.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-02-09 12:25
well goshk Diz, thanks....................
you ready to respond to that teachers survey yet?
;)
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2005-02-09 14:00
I had a similar experience when I stopped playing for a year due to family situations and responsibilities. When I picked up again I was a much better player. It took a while to get my embouchure back where it had been, but everything else worked much better. I also found that I had an increased level of confidence that I didn't have before "laying off" for a bit.
I don't know that any teacher would recommend quitting for as long as I did, but I guess it's the relaxation factor, as David mentioned.
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Author: Dan Shusta
Date: 2005-02-09 16:19
Gordon (NZ),
I believe the proper term for what you are describing is called "artificial experience". This is where a person closes their eyes and "visualizes" the experience as if they were actually there.
Back in the 60's, there was a book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz in which he describes how the mind cannot really tell the difference between a vividly immagined experience and the real thing. They used equipment to measure brainwaves and found out that the vividly immagined experience produced the same brainwaves as the actual experience.
I've given what seems like hundreds of talks to large groups of people and have used this technique extensively.
Many years ago, I used to be a lineman for the raildroad. It was a harrowing job climbing those 70' poles. Today, when I sit back, close my eyes and mentally go through the motions of being on that pole at 70 feet, after just a few minutes my hands are soaking wet with persperation.
It works. (At least for me!)
(P.S. I just checked with <amazon.com> and this very book is still for sale. The new paperback price is $6.75 and used copies can be obtained for as little as $2.00. I highly recommend it.)
Post Edited (2005-02-09 18:54)
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-02-09 22:48
Sometimes, when my hands have nothing better to do, even when watching a movie, I find my fingers very lightly practising some fingerings against the palms of my hands My brain is involved only in a subconscious manner. The routine, for a couple of years, has been fingering triads, each one a semitone above the previous one, fast, without pause, on flute, over three octaves.. Or similar.
When after a couple of years I actually tried this on flute for the first time I was amazed at how well I could do it. Prior to this non-flute practice I would have found the exercise very slow and clumsy, with the mind in overdrive.
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Author: mkybrain
Date: 2005-02-09 23:13
heh, i often think of arpeggios in my head(it's a curse) and of course i naturally think of them in the clarinet fingerings. My ability to play arpeggios has increased a lot b/c of it. I also do the same with diminished chords, same effect. I don't do any hand movements though.
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Author: 3dogmom
Date: 2005-02-09 23:35
I used to study in my head. Somehow I just organized the information I had stuffed in there by getting away from it. Worked for me.
Sue
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2005-02-10 23:42
>>Sometimes, when my hands have nothing better to do, even when watching a movie, I find my fingers very lightly practising some fingerings against the palms of my hands My brain is involved only in a subconscious manner.
I do exactly the same thing!
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-02-13 23:45
wow! that is so amazing! all of the posts... this happened to me too. I felt badly because I hadn't practiced in about a week (for some that is not a prolonged period of time, but for me it is!) and I felt like my tongue had gotten faster than it had been previously. weird.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-02-14 10:35
Perhaps you gave your tongue more exercise by lots of talking during your normal practice time! :-)
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