Intuition vs Thinking

[Richard Prowse]

Originally Posted by Nick Hart

As far as physically playing, your intuition and muscle memory comes first. Playing should become second nature, and a good ****ogy to this is walking up steps. If you are just walking up them and not thinking you're fine, but as soon as you start concentrating on doing it and worry about hitting each step, you fall.

Well... is it really that difficult to walk up steps when you think about it? I know what you're trying to say. I'm really talking about our ability to remember pitches. Someone with absolute pitch can obviously remember pitches really quickly... or perhaps this person just hears the colours straight away. When I was young(er) I played in the Wellington Youth Orchestra (violin). I was pretty impressionistic at this time and felt privileged to be in this orchestra... I think I was really sucking in the whole experience! Now. at 55, I still vividly remember the sound of the A440 on the grand piano that the oboe tuned to. This makes me think that my 'channels' were really open at this time and that the 'A' was burnt into my memory... I always seem to get the 'A' sound in my head when I think of that grand piano (I can still see it sitting in the rehearsal room that the NZSO also used at this time). The only time I get it wrong is either when my intellect butts in or when I try to impress someone. I feel that, if I can listen 'honestly', I can always hear that note.