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.
