Playing subconsciencely.....

[mwf]

Hi,

Does anyone have this, for want of a better word, 'problem' where you have learned notes for a piece of music and after a while, days or weeks, it just sinks in to your mind and you dont have to think about the notes you are playing, your fingers are playing the keys without you actually thinking what notes you are playing.

Is this dangerous? for example would it be wise in a concert to do this? It does not happen all the time, but after learning a piece the memory seems to dissapear but you can still somehow play the notes by not actually thinking about them. People must know what I am on about, I was just wondering if it is important to always perform with everything fresh in your mind and think about every single note you play. Or is it not wise to think about everything you play.

Cheers.

[abell88]

If you are talking about finger memory, it is notoriously unreliable and likely to desert you in performance!

[bernhard]

This is usually called “hand-memory”. It is not exactly dangerous, but it is limiting and often unreliable. Read more about it here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1867.msg14268.html#msg14268
(hand memory: reply #21)

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,7682.msg77042.html#msg77042
(hand independence: how to create a cue system and what is hand memory).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[perfect_pitch]

I don't see how it is dangerous... After hearing Mazeppa from a recording one or two times, I had half of the notes memorised already. Then it was just going to the piano and to play the correct fingering.

Saves me a LOT of time working on repertoire.    HE HE   

[Bob]

It's dangerous because if your mind goes -- freaking out, blanking -- your fingers play themselves, or do... anything!  You give up control.

I think another danger is that ultimately you don't learn how to control them.  And waste time if you lack other ways of organizing the music information.  Say you spend months working on three note chords and pound that into your fingers enough that you don't have to think.  It would be easy to understand what a triad is and play thinking about triads isn't of specific groups of three notes. 

I think finger memory can be the "glue" that fills in the cracks while performing.  If you blank, you're fingers can keep going until your mind comes back.

[lostinidlewonder]

There is nothing wrong with "automatic playing" it so long that you are closely listening to yourself play. This is what guides the automatic response to the hand and is what you train during your practice sessions. We use the fact that a particular hand posture queues a next position at the keyboard, and how the sound encourages where we should move at the keyboard and which notes we should control and support.

It is important to make particular outposts within the score, places where you are consciously aware of the exact notes you are to play. These serve as a saftey net if your automatic response is somewhat disrupted. You should make these outposts as the first note of every "movement group" in the score for complete mastery of the score.

We should know the first note of each "movement group" of notes that we play. "Movement groups", are points defining where the hand has to move and control a new set of notes with a different centre about a particular point at the keyboard. I think of it as phrasing within phrasing, without the intent of creating a phrasing in sound but rather in physical action. Of course at the end of a musical phrase the hands are lifted off the keyboard, but also there are points where the hand should lift within the actual phrase without effecting the sound but with the aim to create a relaxed point controlling a group of notes.

We memorise movement groups within a piece we learn and do it with one action of our hands. If the sense in the muscles in our hands and ears for each and every Group of notes in the score are not tested consistiently during practice sessions, we perhaps are not completely mastering the piece or working to reducing the % chance of making a mistake in peformance.

Be careful if you only know a movement group partially. Those who have a good ability  memorising group of notes with one action of the hand sometimes can be musically impatient. They are content with only controlling 90% of the movement and move straight away to the next part. This is fine so long there is an active plan to work on what is failing, but often the "I'll do it later" attitude sometimes leaves lots of holes in a piece and people are in the end unmotivated to go back and patch it up. Doing it straight away usually helps, it is slower but you know you can completely control it then.