It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

[Patashu]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

the really bad mental blocks, though...when I was making my LWIV edit (it's the odipack2 one) and tweaking it I played it what must have been dozens and dozens of times, I -always- missed the yellow jump in that opening burst. Every single time except for one. I had absolutely no clue why, I just never hit it.

That's a mental block

[TC_Halogen]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

You perform a skill commited to muscle memory better when not consciously thinking about it, because then you start to overanalyze it (How am I doing this? Is this the right way? Could I do it better if I...) and the processing required or the need to verify that you're doing this unconscious skill correctly makes you start to falter.

This is also how mental blocks form, as you mentioned. You may be comprehending a pattern really well while you are not in complete focus, but once you make a mistake, fixing it sometimes becomes a hassle.

Let's think about a complicated pattern. You were able to do it, but a later, easier part of the same song catches you off-guard and you miss.

So you replay the song, and you hit that complicated pattern. Lo and behold, you missed on a pattern that you used to be able to hit. You try it again, and sub-consciously, after a while, you will have a lock as to how to do a certain pattern--sometimes leading to you doing the wrong pattern.

I could even give a visual of this, because it's the reason why I can't AAA Across Rooftops now:


After playing it so much for a tournament, and struggling with a part way later in a song, when I had realized that I was focusing really hard, I could not hit this pattern. Then, the pattern that I embedded in my mind, was the WRONG pattern, and I would do it even when I wasn't paying attention. Basically, the arrows that are blurred in that picture are the arrows I'm most likely to miss, or not hit with perfect timing due to the mental block.

TL;DR: Mis-interpretation of a later pattern results in the wrong memorization of another difficult pattern.

[cedolad]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

That's well put Halogen. I said that, and you added the details.

[Zybanthia]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

Mis-interpretation of a later pattern results in the wrong memorization of another difficult pattern.

This is sort of what I said in another thread, except I thought it might be about what you are doing... and I could be right by your definition.

You do realize what a "mental block" is, right? You're just misunderstanding the way you're hitting a certain pattern. It's not that you don't know what it's doing... you actually probably do know, and you're just doing it wrong. It's pretty simple to get rid of it - analyze what YOU are doing at that part. Often times you really do know what is going on there, and for some reason, you're just doing it wrong.

Either that or I don't really understand the whole mental block thing, seeing how I don't get them.

This is what I was pretty sure it was at the time, but I started to doubt the definition, haha. The reason for that is that this doesn't really happen to me to the point of not being able to fix it. Once you're able to define a problem like this, taking care of it when it arises is no big deal because you understand it. So I don't see how anyone that knows what a mental block is can actually *get* mental blocks.

Really nice example though Halogen. I like the screenshot.

[funmonkey54]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

I always play like this.
I usually take the time to think through my day or something like that.

[coraleaterlinda]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

if im just trying to fc a song, i can sometimes play better while not paying attention. but i have to pay attention to AAA.

[kirjautunut]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

lol this is funny thing, i play without paying attention at all too.

[WTFBrandon]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

Me too

[musicdemon]

Re: It seems I play better when I'm not paying attention

It probably has to do with your mind matching up rhythms to patterns naturally. Sometimes intense concentration is more of a hindrance than a benefit. I've always had to concentrate to AAA, though, because it tends to wear down my attention span a lot quicker than playing while relaxed. Just have fun with it