Poseur to Composer

Photo by Nina Childish

Today I was in my home office when I heard some minor chords and an arpeggio from my keyboard in the other room. It sounded like some of the avant garde jazz I've been listening to lately. I rushed in to see my cat walking on the keys. My cat plays better than I do!

I'm trying to change that, so I've been practiced the So What intro with renewed diligence. I noticed how sluggish and inefficient my fingering is (on the part right after Bill Evan's opening chords). I see opportunities to "refactor" the fingering, to make that part flow smoother with less movement of the hand.

If you're unaware of what refactoring is, it's a programming term. It means to improve code by making it more readable and efficient.

Also practiced C Major scales: my max tempo for two hands descending is 82. Hope to earn that checkmark by tomorrow night.

Time bookstanding today: 30 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 5

Image by JazzMemes

I'm still interested in how my fingers easily play the scales when my mind is quiet and not thinking at all, even after a period of eight or more hours away from the piano.

Yesterday I suggested the reason might be because I make sure to perfectly rehearse the scales before I end a practice session. Doing this "preloads" my muscle memory with the exact fingering sequence. Then the next time I go to the piano, provided my mind is quiet and doesn't interfere, I should be able to (re)play that sequence.

So where exactly in the body does the information for the perfect fingering sequence get stored? The parasympathetic system? Some posit it may be in the spinal cord and not in the brain. It seems the information is stored and retrieved somewhere other than the mind.

Speaking of theories, I was reading about George Russell and the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization in The Making of Kind of Blue today. This theory of Jazz harmony made modal albums like Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme possible. I skimmed a copy of it and it's far outside my understand at present, but I hope in the not-too-distant future I'll be able to read and comprehend it.

Time bookstanding today: 40 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 6

This morning, while my mind was clear of yesterday's debris, I practice the C Major scale. I didn’t even think about it. I just let my fingers ascend the keys using muscle memory and crossed the 90 bpm threshold easily. Muscle memory seems to work best when the mind is not interfering, and when the fingers are "preloaded" with a recent and correct sequence.

I may be on to something, so let me unpack both parts of this last sentence.

To keep the mind from interfering, one either must be clear-headed (as in first thing in the morning) or mindful / fully present in the moment (an ability developed through regular meditation). An interesting study on Chinese Zen meditation and musical performance shows mindfulness cultivated by the ancient spiritual practice of Silent Illumination improves performance quality.

For the second part of my statement, I’m testing a theory here, so bear with me. For every practice session, I conclude by playing the sequence of keys perfectly, about three of four times. I’m "preloading" the cache of my muscle memory with the correct sequence. How long does this localized muscle memory last before going corrupt? I’m not sure. During sleep, the brain consolidates and organizes the previous day’s information, so that might be at least part of the reason I aced scales this morning. But does it work during the day while conscious? Can I "preload" the muscle memory of my fingers before work and be able to play that exact sequence after work, provided my mind doesn’t interfere?

In other words, does "preloading" (as I use the term) even exist? The hypothesis deserves experimentation.

The thing is, the longer I practice, the more frequently I make mistakes due to fatigue and low-grade anxiety, and the harder it is to conclude with 3-4 perfect sequences. There is a law of diminishing returns in effect, so knowing when to quit is important.

Speaking of quitting, it's late and I'm exhausted. Hope what I wrote makes a modicum of sense.

Time bookstanding today: 40 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 5