thought process

6x9base13

What's your thought process (or lack there of, it's all good) when playing ?

I'm a play golf and when I step to hit the ball I have one or two thoughts which focus me during the swing. What's your "swing thought" when playing a song? I'm still at the "get these fingers there in the right time" stage of thinking, but I understand there is a bigger whole which I need to ingrain as a wholistic thought pattern.

Are you thinking, this finger to that fret, note sequences, whole compositions at a time ? Are you focused on the physical movements or do the fingers do their thin while you think of the music form a theoretical perspective ?

Thanks for your input.

guitarboy2828

Hmm.. If you watch guys like Guthrie you realize you can't think when you're playing, otherwise it sounds to "boxy" or scaley.. It tends to then turn into a up and down a scale..

I used to think of what is the next note that'll fit into my pentatonic scale, or what mode will work now and what notes are in it.. Then, i purposely started playing blues, because blues is all about feeling it. Sure, there are blue's scales and all that.. But thats not what blues are about, its about how you can make a note sounds great at that point and using bends, slides, hammer on's, vibrato..

So, now, when i'm improv'ing I'm just jamming, sometimes i hit wrong notes, which personally, i'm okay with, because it's in my bedroom.. This way, i become a lot freer to play what sounds good to me and what I think fits a track, not what scale i'm in or any of that.. I have a separate time where I practice scales up and down, along one string and back along that string, knowing the notes, knowing what that scale sounds like, etc.

Not sure if I answered anything, but that's what i do! ?

DonovanB

I sing in my head

evolucian

I'm thinkig of whats for supper... or the next cup of coffee if I'm running low...

IOW... typical musician... test pattern and "doooooooooooooo"

Jack-Flash-Jr

Yep, test pattern here too... if I think i end up in the wrong place.

[deleted]

Whatever it is, it's taking up way more RAM than it ever used to, because I've developed a Guitar Face recently. I only really started to notice it when 1) I got dry-mouth while playing, because my frikken jaw was going slack, and 2) other musicians started laughing at rehearsals.

Usually, if I think about anything I can remember, it's to do with my hands and how relaxed they are, or my shoulders and how relaxed they are. Without monitoring, they can become tense, so I need to babysit them.

evolucian

Stratisfear wrote: Whatever it is, it's taking up way more RAM than it ever used to, because I've developed a Guitar Face recently. I only really started to notice it when 1) I got dry-mouth while playing, because my frikken jaw was going slack, and 2) other musicians started laughing at rehearsals.

Usually, if I think about anything I can remember, it's to do with my hands and how relaxed they are, or my shoulders and how relaxed they are. Without monitoring, they can become tense, so I need to babysit them.

Lol... is that similar to a drummers look? If you add in the drool... then my sympathies bro... Hug?

[deleted]

evolucian wrote: Lol... is that similar to a drummers look?

I said "I have developed a Guitar Face", not "I am a Cro-Magnon throwback".

evolucian

Its like drug addiction... starts on one thing and gets worse...

And here i thought i could have someone to relate to... sigh... I'll be the only drooling notre dame tard on the forum then... sigh, sniff... *hugs self*

[deleted]

I'll be the only drooling notre dame tard on the forum then... sigh, sniff... *hugs self*

Don't worry, I pout when I play, almost as bad.

I guess when you first start you're thinking about which fingers move to which frets and so on, then you think about timing and dynamics and as you develop you can interpret what you're playing more.

I go through stages of what I think about. At one point when I would inadvertently imagine stories to go along with what I was playing. It was quite fun, and also helps with creating a mood in a piece. It was kind of like dreaming.

Now I've kind of gone full circle and I'm more fussy about the technical aspects. I experiment with what kind of thoughts help my playing. At the moment I focus mainly on my left had and imagine the shapes that I'm putting down on the fret board and their possibilities. At the moment it's the driving force of the song, far more than the right hand.

It's very imaginative compared to how I usually thought of a song as a linear progression, even when I imagined "stories". Now I'm thinking of it as a ball that distorts depending on what notes I play.

Keira-WitherKay

i watch the audience........ i seldom think about what i'm playing ..... but very aware of what i'm playing ......down to last nuance and note.......

i tend to feel what i'm doing to the extreme........ but doing my kinda music i have to........ cos it's all improvised and feel based,

but watching the audience is like my que's , i can see when i get them excited and i see when their attention is waning so i use that to gauge the "feel" of the show....... and any good show runs a rollercoaster of taking the audience up and then bringing em down again ..cos the bringing down makes the next high sound even more exciting ..." light and shade " is what i call it ...... but i need to watch the audience cos different shows have totally differnt feels depending on how people react so i'm aware /present 100% of the time

however when i played in shows and in cover bands ... i would do just what evolucion said ... "close my eyes and think of england" cos that music/show is so rehearsed and everything comes at prescribed time/place in show so no ways you can mess it up if you follow the script ..... so a no brainer in that situation.... but i do find that no challenge and boring as hell........ thats why i shifted to improv scene where one has to be present or the wheels fall off.........

i knew older muso's who played with me in show bands back in my youth , who would know the show so well they had a magazine on the music stand and read it during the show.... ? i saw that and swore i'd never reach that stage ....... i almost did tho..... but the jazz and the live improv scene saved me .......phew

Seventhson

I tend to think about all sorts of stuff. I never think of what I am playing if I do I mess up and get lost in the song. For me the best results I get is when I zone out?

aja

I think to myself: "Am I holding the guitar the right way around?"

Once I have that covered I try not to think too hard. Playing guitar is my relaxing period of the day

aja

Keira WitherKay wrote: i knew older muso's who played with me in show bands back in my youth , who would know the show so well they had a magazine on the music stand and read it during the show.... ? i saw that and swore i'd never reach that stage ....... i almost did tho..... but the jazz and the live improv scene saved me .......phew

Wow. And I bet you it wasn't a porn mag but probably financial mail hehe. That is madness...

ryanguit

i try to imagine what the drummers next fill is going to be. if i get it close enough rhythmwise then we have a phrase and that results in a "i know you did that" look from him... good fun that. keeps him on his toes knowing i'm trying to figure him out so naturally the fills get more crazy and i'm forced to resign to "dude have you lost the plot its not a drum solo" haha good times. oh thats only if the groove is that dull or im bored... generally i dont think much...

i (don't) think... therefore i (don't) am...

AlanRatcliffe

I don't think, I listen intently to myself playing, but I don't think about what I'm playing. Recently I got pulled into an impromptu performance at a local place (was handed a steel string too, which always scares me and makes me focus) and apparently a drunken woman was hanging round my neck for half of it - I know nothing about it. Now, I'd like to say that due to my raffish charm and awesum playing I'm used to wimmin draping themselves all over me while I play, but it's not true - I was just too focussed on listening to (and agonising over) what I was playing.

My favourite headspace is when I can relax and work with/around the rhythm and not worry too much about note choice. The first Graemestock I had a quiet but great jam with Willem (the drummer) after most people had left. Me with Strat into Vox and him with a cajon and a pair of sticks. We were playing around with rhythms, dynamics and accents and it was one of the best jams I've had in a long time.

Warren

I have finally begun to develop a true guitar face ? Fear not evo...you are not alone.

I find this especially true when I use my wah pedal, I can't help but mouth the Woooooowwws and wwwaaaaAAAAhhhs as I'm playing. Apparently it's hilarious ?

Part of it is that I'm finally starting to relax more when I play, the way I do when I'm at home. Suddenly I feel a bit looser and more fluid, and I don't stuff up quite so much. I'm now trying to cultivate that feeling, that sense of floating in nothingness (kinda like a martial arts mentality) so that when I perform, I'm just going on feel. I find as soon as I actually start thinking too much, my playing clogs up...

@Alan
You certainly can dish the 'net slang with the best of them. ? I believe you have spent too much time on t3h f0r|_|ms...

evolucian

Dear Diary...

things have changed... now that i play nylon, i have to really focus on my picking hand. And then i have to focus on cheshire cat grin... hmmm, cheshire cat grin with lotsa drool coming out left side, should be awesome... drifts o....

.... this is clearly gonna take some work... hmmmm

Grant-Tregellas

Yeah, totally agree: "Watch the audience"

Seriously it solves all sorts of problems:

Nerves (if you still have any left)
Self consciousness
Hand injuries (from being tense)

and it make being onstage more fun.

We've all done many a live concert before big crowds when you realised that you were staring at
my guitar for half and hour and then looked up at the crowd and began enjoying
yourself for the first time.

The time to concentrate is when you learn or practice the material.

And improvisation is something that should be practiced, although that seems like
a contradiction in terms.

When you play you just do the best you can, with what naturally comes out.
We all have good nights when we are totally "in the zone" and some nights
where we can fight our way out of a paper bag...

If you start "trying" to play...you're lost.

Like the golf analogy, those guys hit 1000 golf balls a day. Then they
go on the tee and just do the best they can.

Actually golf is the closest sport to music. It's so similar, look at Tiger Woods,
all the chops in the world, now he can't place in the Top 10 anymore.

His mind is "out the zone", but he will be back.... 8)

Wizard

he will be back ...