Does this ever happen to you?

beatsMcGee

Pioneer Member
Ive noticed that every once in a while for what could be anywhere from 1 day-2 weeks+ I can have trouble doing something that I do flawlessly and easily for litterally hours on end everyday.

Whenever you do something so much that it becomes engrained in your muscles and brain so that you dont have to think about it, sometimes it can be hard to actually know what youre technically doing. Its sort of like when someone tries to describe how to play quick doubles effortlessly on the kick and they end up saying "you'll know, cause it will just feel right."

Its almost as if I "temporarily" forget my muscle memory/technique at which point I start to over think the issue, and this usually makes it worse. Inevitablly it will pass and all will be right in the world. Does this happened to others and how do you deal with it? and what do you call it, because I know this has a name lol.

this happens to me with my right foot, and I have a strong right with really really good technique (not trying to toot my own horn, ive worked on it for years lol)
 
I've found over-thinking to be my worst enemy...
 
Its almost as if I "temporarily" forget my muscle memory/technique at which point I start to over think the issue, and this usually makes it worse.

You just identified it right there. IMO you were consciously trying to transcribe what you were doing by noticing it. The technical term I believe is "overthinking" lol. But I totally understand why you are trying to break it down, nothing wrong with that, at practice.

Getting the flow going and keeping it going.....conscious thought disrupts that like every time.

Flow flow flow. Drummers have to flow. It feels so good when it flows, I chase that feeling every gig, every rehearsal.

I know I'm in trouble when I think..."oh here comes my favorite part"....because I am setting it up in my mind beforehand. Yea that usually doesn't work out too good for me. I am sacrificing the present for the future, which isn't here yet, and it usually makes the future worse, so I have to not set these things up in my mind. I've learned to adopt the unconscious attitude of..."I'll get there when I get there". It always works out better that way at the gig for me. Learning to turn off conscious thought is extremely useful.

Like I said, breaking it down at your personal practice is great. But at the gig?

No worries. Be happy.
 
Yes.

All the time. I can read and write music, but there are tons of things that I might play that I don't really think about what it is, and if I do, it gets mucked up.

A long time ago I was this prog band. There was a little section where I doubled what the guitar player was playing. A year later, I decided to figure out exactly what was going on in that section. It as in 17/32. Uh, forget it, there is no counting that. Just feel it and move on.
If it had been given to me on sheet music, where I had to think about it, it probably would have taken me years to figure out.

But the whole point of practice is to be able to execute the ideas without thinking about to much.
 
It is easier to feel it than to think it. Bo put up these exercises a few weeks back, triplets with the accents moved around. I had a heckuva time with the one where the middle triplet is accented. Now I play this figure all the time at gigs, but to count it out loud and play it to a metronome, I don't do that when I play it live. So it was really hard to get it into my brain like that. But once it got in, I have it even better than before.
 
It is easier to feel it than to think it. Bo put up these exercises a few weeks back, triplets with the accents moved around. I had a heckuva time with the one where the middle triplet is accented. Now I play this figure all the time at gigs, but to count it out loud and play it to a metronome, I don't do that when I play it live. So it was really hard to get it into my brain like that. But once it got in, I have it even better than before.

I remember Bozzio saying take a simple pattern, like the standard jazz ride, that we all learned.

Now displace by a 8th note.

Physically, it's the same motion. Nothing changes in what the fingers/wrist/arms are doing.
But mentally? It's incredibly difficult to play (I certainly can't do it).

It's funny how the brain works like that.
 
Yes, it does. And it is almost always my right foot that throws me. Or throne height. I'll sit down to play and it will feel like gnomes have adjusted my pedal for maximum discomfort and tweaked with the throne enough to give me a backache.

I think the CAUSE is that your body is in a little different adjustment sometimes, so things really do feel different. And then your mind kicks in and overthinks it, totally screwing you up.

At least for me, that's the case. The key is to relax as much as you can and not go chasing after technique changes or adjustments to your kit, because all will return to normal eventually.
 
I remember Bozzio saying take a simple pattern, like the standard jazz ride, that we all learned.

Now displace by a 8th note.

Physically, it's the same motion. Nothing changes in what the fingers/wrist/arms are doing.
But mentally? It's incredibly difficult to play (I certainly can't do it).

It's funny how the brain works like that.

Yea real funny. Ha ha lol. Totally relate to what you siad. Stuff like that throws me, and quick. Physically it is the same motion. Mentally it's like a Rubik's cube.
 
Yeah, I've always heard the idea is to practice, learn, apply and practice some more so when you are on the gig you can forget about all that and just put out the music that you're feeling.
 
take a simple pattern, like the standard jazz ride, that we all learned.

Now displace by a 8th note.

that is a beautiful way to turn the pattern around

occasionally starting the pattern on the + of 1 and continuing it displaced gives a really nice falling back kind of feel and is a really nice option to mix in

it is really not as difficult as it seems once you try it a few times......it's quite natural actually
 
I'm inconsistent and changeable with all things all the time so this is just another for me. There is no pattern simple enough for me not to screw up when my brain goes to lunch.

Funny thing, T Bozzio's displaced beat. There's no way I can play those kinds of displaced patterns until I can "hear" it and make sense of it. Listen to enough music and you'll have heard oodles of different configurations and variations in common time. Every pattern becomes easier once you recognise it.
 
I remember Bozzio saying take a simple pattern, like the standard jazz ride, that we all learned.

Now displace by a 8th note.

Physically, it's the same motion. Nothing changes in what the fingers/wrist/arms are doing.
But mentally? It's incredibly difficult to play (I certainly can't do it).

It's funny how the brain works like that.

Reminds me of something brother said, who does latin music for a living.
He says there are whole songs where the pulse that you hear listening
to the song is actually on the offbeat. He said unless you played it,
from written out music, you would never know.
 
well at least I know im not alone!!! I know it will pass, I just hate when it happens. I think too much
 
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