[TPIN] What does your brain do when you're playing?

[Dave Arndt]

It makes *perfect* sense.  I do my best improvising, when I'm not really
thinking at all - just concentrating on the music, the mood - and yes, maybe
that nice looking lady at the table off to the left of the band stand...

Somehow, this conversation has gotten me very much in the mood for my next
gig... <ggg>

That being said: I admit I ain't no Clifford Brown... But It's all relative,
eh?  ("Better"... Is *better*)

Bringing this conversation back to center: I really do believe it's a matter
of doing your "careful" thinking when you practice (where you do think about
every phrase, note, pitch, etc), and leaving that mode for performance mode
- where it's all about just letting the machine work, using the subconscious
"success" mechanism* that lies somehwere inside our head - to make music.
Sometimes, switching modes can be tough, but that's part of the challenge, I
guess.

- dave

*Psycho Cybernetics?

-----Original Message-----
From: tpin-bounces+darndt=oriongate.net at tpin.okcu.edu
[mailto:tpin-bounces+darndt=oriongate.net at tpin.okcu.edu] On Behalf Of Travis
Wilson
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 4:21 PM
To: 'Trumpet Players' International Network'
Subject: Re: [TPIN] What does your brain do when you're playing?

sorry to respond to something i wrote myself, but in reading it, i realized
something.
when i am "trying to improvise", focused inward, I am analytical. I am
rarely, just playing. I am thinking of chords, or melody, or something to
keep me focused on what "should work"

when i find that "cute lady", and am "flirting" with her, there is no
thought at all of what I am playing, in the sense of worrying about chords,
or turnarounds, or patterns. It is just a "conversation" that I let flow. So
that is maybe how I get out of an analytical mode, and just get in some
"zone".

does that make any sense???

Travis