The Musician's Muscle Memory
Get the basics in place without error, and then you can add all the glorious creativity and interpretation.
Again from Memory Craft. The first and final quotes are from professional musicians.
"Practice is creating muscle memory. Your body remembers how to play it. With a new piece you just read the notes and play it. You’re not going for beauty of tone or articulations like accents, staccato or legato. Neither are you going to be focusing on dynamic control like crescendo or decrescendo, because that takes great control. You need to learn the notes, the pictures. Is your finger in the right place? Is it in the tune? . . ."
The musician's description of muscle memory reminded me of my own preparation for card tricks. I have used magic routines in public talks on science and deception and continue to love the art form. When learning a new card routine, I first get the moves right. Once they are committed to memory, I can start playing with the patter and getting the rhythm perfected. My favourite routine involves quite complex manipulations of only three cards. If I need to stop and think about where each of the cards is at any stage of the routine, I will lose the flow and mess it up completely. The rhythm of my hand movements and the story I'm telling are now so closely aligned that the right cards always turn up at the right time. The movements are in muscle memory.
I expect that many readers will recognise the same process within their own areas of expertise. Get the basics in place without error, and then you can add all the glorious creativity and interpretation.
And let's not forget about dance!
"When teaching dance, it is important to offer just a couple of chunks and weave them together before you add the next chunk. Then you focus on the transition. The interpretation comes later. Once you know the dance, then you can add self-expression. Techniques, drills and exercises—you can't get very far into the dance without first focusing on the foundations, otherwise the dance will be jerky and mechanical, not smooth and fluid. You can see it in the faces of the dancers without a firm foundation. They don't look comfortable."
