[Menvi-discuss] Conscious Playing Versus Muscle Memory

[Marda]

When I took accompanying in college we had a book called "The Unashamed 
Accompanist".  One of its premises was that an accompanist goes alongside 
the soloist as an equal member of a team of two.  It's rather like in a 
chamber ensemble.  You listen to each other.Some singers use that thing 
about the accompanist just following the soloist as an excuse for not 
knowing proper rhythms and tempi.  When a composer writes a piece he's not 
just writing an accompaniment as window dressing for a soloist.  Of course 
the soloist is more dominant but both are responsible for accuracy of the 
music.  A good accompanist doesn't just follow a soloist.
Marda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bettie Downing" <bnbdowning70 at embarqmail.com>
To: "This is for discussing music and braille literacy" 
<menvi-discuss at menvi.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Conscious Playing Versus Muscle Memory



A good accompanist listens to the vocalist and follows him.  The
soloiist is responsible for setting the tempo.


On Apr 3, 2013, at 9:29 PM, Brandon Keith Biggs wrote:

> I wonder how good this is when one thinks too fast... I have the  hardest 
> time when singing with a live pianist because I'm never  able to link into 
> their rhythm and when I go to hear their rhythm,  they slow down because 
> it sounds like I'm slowing down... So I  wonder if this has something to 
> do with the speed we are processing.
> I know my piece implicitly, but have very little knowledge of the 
> pianist, and the pianist doesn't know the piece that much, but is  just 
> reacting with me.
> Thanks,
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message----- From: Chris Smart
> Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 1:26 PM
> To: blind-guitarist at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: midimag at midimag.org ; menvi-discuss at menvi.org
> Subject: [Menvi-discuss] Conscious Playing Versus Muscle Memory
>
> Hi folks.
>
> I just read the following from a book by Mac
> Santiago, called Beyond the Metronome.
> www.inchronicity.com
>
> "People basically execute movement in two
> different ways (or a combination of both). These
> are cognitive responses and reactive responses.
> The cognitive response is movement that you
> consciously set in motion by telling yourself to
> perform an act. Most of the time this happens
> when executing an action for the first time. With
> cognitive response the actual signal from brain
> to muscle moves at about three meters per second
> or from head to hand in about a third of a second
> (10 11 km/hour). This is why practicing slowly at
> first helps you to learn any movement or music
> correctly, and eliminates poor or inaccurate motor responses.
>
> Now as you learn the movement and your muscles
> begin to take over (some call this “muscle
> memory”), what is actually happening is that the
> signal from your brain to your muscle becomes
> quicker, or reactive. At this point the signal is
> moving at about 70 100 meters a second, so about
> 1/100 of a second from head to hands (250 350
> km/hour). As you can see, the two responses are vastly different.
>
> With this information I believe that timekeeping
> can be viewed as an indication of how much the
> performance has become a reactive response. This
> is also a measure of how familiar one is with the
> music. The great jazz alto saxophonist Charlie
> Parker once said, “I want to be able to play as
> fast as I can think.” When one listens to Parker
> with the above science in mind, it’s apparent
> that he was, in fact, extremely reactive to every
> musical thought that came into his mind. The
> speed and clarity with which he played made it
> seem as though his mind and body were one and the same.
> This is the goal for all musicians—to unify
> thought and execution seamlessly."
>
> I've always observed that one can play something
> faster once one knows it inside and out, but it
> was fascinating to see actual numbers given.  A
> third of a second versus one one-hundredth of a
> second... That would have been good to learn
> years ago when I was starting out. :)
>
> Chris
>
> --------------------------------------------------
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