muscle memory

[No1skewenjack]

I've had a few lessons and in my last lesson I was asked to learn some 12 bar blues. I learnt them off by heart and thought my fingering was correct but my teacher corrected me and showed me the correct fingering then I tried to play the riff with the new fingering and I really strugled but could play with it before. My teacher said I've got muscle memory that why I strugled. Is muscle memory good or bad?

[Higgie]

[quote name='No1skewenjack' post='796638' date='Apr 5 2010, 03:06 PM']I've had a few lessons and in my last lesson I was asked to learn some 12 bar blues. I learnt them off by heart and thought my fingering was correct but my teacher corrected me and showed me the correct fingering then I tried to play the riff with the new fingering and I really strugled but could play with it before. My teacher said I've got muscle memory that why I strugled. Is muscle memory good or bad?[/quote]

It's awesome if you learn it the right way in the first place!

[chris_b]

Muscle memory is good, as long as it's remembering the right stuff. I think your teacher might be saying that you just need a bit more flexibility, which comes from experience, so you can change what you play and how you play it more easily.

[No1skewenjack]

[quote name='Higgie' post='796640' date='Apr 5 2010, 03:09 PM']It's awesome if you learn it the right way in the first place! [/quote]


touche

[thisnameistaken]

Muscle memory is unavoidable so whether it's good or bad is pretty irrelevant. But I'd vote for "good", generally.

If you're inexperienced then of course you'll have trouble playing something in a way that you haven't rehearsed, that's normal and I'm sure your teacher is aware that it's normal. Don't worry about it.

[Ancient Mariner]

Muscle memory is essential - without it you would have to think about where you put your finger every time you wanted to fret a new note. It is what allows us to play what we want without having to create the movement step by step.

[RhysP]

Muscle memory is just the term given to the way muscles get used to performing repetitive tasks.
It's also this that can make it tricky to learn to do something in a different way.

It ain't good or bad, it just is.

[Lord Sausage]

muscle memory is a fallacy. You don't have any muscles in your fingers, its just bones and tendons. Its all in your head i'm afraid. You just need to free your mind!

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Lord Sausage' post='796798' date='Apr 5 2010, 06:20 PM']You don't have any muscles in your fingers,[/quote]

Peanuts, outside, now.

[Marvin]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='796903' date='Apr 5 2010, 08:19 PM']Peanuts, outside, now.[/quote]

Apparently there are no muscles in your fingers, I'm afraid it is all tendons etc.

However, I didn't realise how much muscle memory can effect you until I had a physio appointment a few weeks back.
20 years ago I damaged my knee to the extent I couldn't use it for about 3 weeks. Because in that time the muscles weren't used properly, and subsequently after an operation to repair the damage, they had 'forgotten' how to work as they should. This was not aided by my complete neglect of the initial physio I should have done.
The physio a few weeks back made me do an exercise where I could feel the difference between my knees, it was very strange.

So it's not good or bad, it just is.

[deathpanda]

As someone has already stated, you can't avoid having muscle memory. It's all about learning it properly in the first place, practicing slowly to a metronome and getting it impaled into your brain, as that's essentially where the "muscle" memory is.

*edit* maybe you can avoid having muscle memory, but I'm pretty sure that would mean having a stroke or some kind of disease.

Edited April 5, 2010 by deathpanda

[davidmpires]

Muscle memory can be good but it's worth to know the fretboard well just so you can switch the fingering or the place where you are playing the riff on the fly. Sometimes I use muscle memory when changing the key of a song to suit the singer. Since I already know the "shape" of the riff it's easier to move about on the fly.

[Bilbo]

I agree that muscle memory is an essential part of your playing but the emphasis, here, is on the 'part'.

When you are playing complex lines, you need to be able to think about what you are playing and execute the lines you intend to play. If you are playing massive chunks based on muscle memory, you will fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. A lot of soloists can fall into the trap of relying on their own mm cliches and just start flapping around to create the illusion that there is something going on (I am a world champion in this - ). I guess the secret is to have muscle memory that is very detailed. Its like you memory for words; you do not need to say 'plasticine' very often to remember it but it doesn't jump out in the middle of sentences unless you plasticine, sorry, intend it to. If your muscle memory is linked to you mental processes, it can serve you very well indeed. If not, it can lead you up a blind alley very quickly. So its is important to have muscle memory that is full to the brim with options.

For me, one of the most difficult aspects of being an improvising musician is getting your mind sharp enough to be able to think and execute ideas in real time. It is far easier to get your fingers to do the work for you but this is untimately self defeating as it quickly turns you into a boring player.

[mcgraham]

Great post as always Bilbo. It's very easy to fall back on stock licks or things you've practiced to death. I have stock etudes that I use for different instruments that help me warm up and keep various elements of my technique in shape, but after warming up/etudes I try to consciously play something different/fresh each time I practice, and create exercises that balance out deficiencies in my technique.

Also, I quite like spending an hour (where possible) before a gig/rehearsal warming up/'etuding' and generally widdling to my hearts content to make sure that I serve the music when I'm actually playing with others.