Comment by GarvielLoken | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GarvielLoken | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the goals of Judo. It combines rational thinking, "How does this throw work? Why did not my attempt work?" with the end goal of not needing the thinking in practice. No Mind. It's what allows any musician or performance artist, race car driver, to be effective; Because they need to operate creatively at speeds that are faster then rational thinking. And this in our field is of course known as "being in the flow".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushin_(mental_state) "Once mushin is attained through the practice or study of martial arts (although it can be accomplished through other arts or practices that refine the mind and body), the objective is to then attain this same level of complete awareness in other aspects of the practitioner's life. "

http://budobum.blogspot.com/2015/02/states-of-mind-mushin.ht...

Consciously playing music seems nearly impossible to me. There's a whole world of physical technique that can be baffling.

I recently went through some deep study of my guitar picking technique. My playing nearly fell apart while I was doing it. Thinking about the angle at which the pick strikes the strings is really painful.

Such things seem like the same discipline needs to be applied except instead of practicing the music, you practice thinking about the music.

Specifically, thinking after the fact. If you play a chord, what do you remember about the angle the pick strikes the strings. Play it again, what do you notice afterwards. etc.

I have a strong hunch that its as much about developing the introspective ability/bridge to the skill as it is about bridging the write/edit flow gap (ie in writing its said to be better to write without reading, then edit in a separate session).

Yes, that's conscious practice. I do that a lot. Conscious practice to repetition to unconscious playing. Physical technique can be carefully studied in practice, in order to not think about it at all during performance - you already know what you're doing, and why you're doing it. The mind can focus instead on the ideas and feelings you are trying to express.

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