Not thinking much about what you're playing

[Muffled Tom]

Anyone else feel this is when most of your best playing arises? Like when you don't really deliberately think too much about what you're doing?
I mean you think about your intention and groove, but the actual fills and everything just come out from the soul?

PS This is pretty cliché isn't it... =/

[ZildjianMan1023]

Anyone else feel this is when most of your best playing arises? Like when you don't really deliberately think too much about what you're doing?
I mean you think about your intention and groove, but the actual fills and everything just come out from the soul?

PS This is pretty cliché isn't it... =/

word brotha..


ill be playing.. and sitting.. and do some amazing stuff.. and ill say to myself how that happened.. or how come i couldnt do that before


and all of it happened.. ironically while i wasnt thinking..


must be bonham playing through us or the great mr rich

[svkelleher10]

I can't focus on what i want to do when i do fills, so i just improvise every fill i do without concentrating. From doing this, i've managed to memorize alot of really cool fills. Yeah, i wouldn't say i think when i'm coming up with stuff.

[Jivi]

I practice so I don't have to think about things I learn and let them roll out

[rmandelbaum]

This is my take on it:

"Practice is for thinking, playing is for feeling"

When I practice I analyze everything about what I am doing, time technique etc..
When I gig I try to focus on the song and nothing else, I have to admit the occasional cute dancer can be distracting ;-) I just trust that all that practice time will pay off at gig time.

[fourstringdrums]

This is a concept that Billy Ward calls "Practice Playing", where you don't think about what you're going to play and just let whatever comes out...come out. Then you try and take what you just played and duplicate it by what you just heard. Eventually you add more on to it and build it up. It helps you to improvise unconsciously but at the same time learn from it and be able to reproduce it when you want.

[foursticks]

"Practice is for thinking, playing is for feeling"

Too true. Though I have to say you do still have to be listening to the music still, so there is a slight element of thinking or rather concentration if you will.

All the times I've tried to think about what I'm going to play its always turned out rubbish and I end up thinking too much about the music and ended up taking away rather than adding to it.

Just feel the groove, follow it and you'll be alright.

[aydee]

My best moments always feel like an out of body experience. Like its not me, but a different guy inside of me playing...

[frank0072]

when I am totally 'into' a song I sometimes do a fill that surprises myself. Then I stop the music and try to do the same fill like 20 times in a row and when I feel like I have it down I continue playing to the song and try to incorporate the fill again.