See think play to auto feel play

[jshane]

Jon Z---If you mean an actual physiologically identifiable brain-change, I have no idea. On the other hand, if you define the term more loosely, then I'd say yes, and in a practical sense it seems self evident. Almost anyone can whistle a tune, and almost everyone can hum a tune. There is no reason one can do either of these, except that we have an absurdly huge amount of time invested in making sounds with our mouths, based on what we want to produce (language, for example). We have built a (looser definition) neural connection between "brain-note" and "expressed-note". Why wouldn't adding mandolin playing on top of that take advantage of an existing (looser definition) neural connection?

If you, or anyone else, finds experimental evidence for (or against) the actual development of a neural path, I'd be interested.

[jonfranzis]

Time. sorry about that. The longer you play, the easier it gets to move past the "thinking" and into making music. There really aren't any shortcuts. On the other hand, you can experiment with something entirely different. There are some genres -- classical isn't one -- where you don't read while you play. You probably can do some of this in a rudimentary form -- close your eyes and play Happy Birthday or Mary Had a Little Lamb or some favorite Christmas carol on your mandolin. for some genres -- say, Irish Traditional, Old Time or Bluegrass -- where you learn the tunes/songs by ear instead of by reading them, that's the preferred technique. It still takes time to learn this way and the roadblocks are different albeit they're still there -- but it may allow you to think about music a different way and expand your understanding. Being able to learn a tune/song by ear and being able to sight read are both excellent skills and worth cultivating even if you never move out of the genre you prefer.

Thanks for the comments. Will try this out.

[B381]

"Thinking" is getting in the way of "playing". Personally, I believe that trying to think music isnt really possible. Thinking is a useful tool to LEARN a technique or a particular passage, or to figure out an approach to fingering, or to study a musical theory or harmony structure.

My dad always told me when I couldn't figure something out to "get my brain out of the way and make it happen".

Live for those "a-ha" moments....