THE MOST UNDISPUTED VALUABLE TOOL IN THE MIX

To all aspiring exceptional instrumentalist that have read my previous posts, this will be the ‘icing on the cake’ of the journey so far. In case you just bump unto this post, I advise you read PLAYING BY EAR and THE UNDENIABLE MISSING LINK. This will bring you full speed in the mix of things.

The Muscle Factor:

What on earth has the muscles have to do with becoming the instrumentalist of my dream? Like seriously? Just stick around with the reading if you can and find out.

I once read an article about a Maestro pianist that had to undergo brain surgery. The procedure requires that almost half his brain be completely removed to save his life. That’s a good thing right? The dilemma to the operation is the fear of what become of his musical prowess after the surgery, the doctors are concerned he might have memory loss and not be able to play any musical instrument ever again. Now that was a course for concern to the Maestro himself. To him there was only one option; as much as he wants to live, hence the need for the brain surgery, he sure would rather die than not being able play the piano for the rest of his life. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF IT WHERE YOU?

Well, he finally agreed to go through with the operation after all “life” they say “is all about risk taking”. And guess what? The fears everyone entertained were actually just that; FEARS! Everyone was surprised with how fast he recuperated from the surgery. The most amazing thing however happened when he tried playing the piano for the very first time after the operation, it was as though there was no lost time, and he was the maestro as usual. No one would know if not told that he was making this beautiful music with only half of his brain available. Unbelievable! Isn’t it? Well that’s what the doctors concluded.  And yes of course, this amazing and unbelievable event led to a research that resulted to what today we call MUSCLE MEMORY.

Simply put, muscle memory is the phenomenon that the muscles of the human body have an amazing ability to REMEMBER.  Huh? You heard me right! Now before you say this is not true and stop reading my very long gist, just take a deep breath and use your imagination a little. Are you still with me? YES? Imagine you have a nail that you want to nail on a wall or board, how would you go about it? SERIOUSLY? Yes! Just give it some thought. I assume you will position the nail and then holding unto the hammer you take a few practice swing by slowly bringing the hammer down to the head of the nail once or twice, guiding your hand and the hammer gently along the path you would want it to take when you swing fast and with force. Then after a few practice swings you will let it fly. You see your muscle remembers the path it took at the slow speed and have no difficulty repeating the movement necessary to take the path again and hit the nail on the head.  

Now back to playing any instrument. The same thing happens with your fingers, they have the amazing ability to remember the movement made during learning the instrument by practice. That was why the maestro pianist was able to still play skillfully despite the surgery that took half of his brain. Why? Well the memory to some extent is not in the brain but in the muscles. The key to muscle memory is slowing down what you want to learn so that the muscles are trained to remember the necessary movement repeatedly at a very slow speed. Once this is accomplished then you can repeat the movements fast just like the case of the hammer and nail.