Don’t Think About it!

Hi, I’m Vi Wickam, and here’s another myTalentForge.com Quick Tip!

You don’t have any time to think when you’re playing your instrument.

Now, that may seem counterintuitive to you… but when you’re playing, it should be a subconscious process most of the time.

When you think you get out of time, when you think in your conscious mind, you’re worrying about what’s not going on in the present moment- you’re thinking about coming next or what you just did… Not being in the moment and being present to what’s going on.

I had a football coach when I was in junior high say, “There’s no time for thinking in football. If you think, you just got your head knocked off!”

Now the risk when you’re fiddle or playing piano, or any other instrument, is not so quite as great as getting your head knocked off, but your risk is falling down on the job.

You’ve fallen out of time, you’ve fallen out of synch with your instrument or with the people you’re playing with.

There’s no time for thinking in music, there’s only time for being present and being in the music.

And that’s your Quick Tip for today – see you next week!