Has anyone experienced this…. I’m practicing a riff with a metronome and have it down cold (can play it on time, at speed, etc). I then try and integrate it into the music using Moises and my fingers just flail. Feels like my brain short circuits .
Can’t figure out what or why. I’m trying the song slower and if I slow way way down and intensely focus can get it.
I am trying to use fingering Josh recommends, although my fingers naturally want to do something else (having the left and right hand use the same finger when moving in a direction). I figure I need to work to get my brain to be comfortable with the alternating plucking hand while the left hand frets as needed.
It’s driving me nuts. Any similar experiences. Ideas on how to fix…?
I think you found your own answer. Slow it down, even if it’s excruciatingly slow. Go through the motions and your brain will start to reenforce these pathways. Get adequate sleep. You should start to notice it getting easier, and you can start slowly ratcheting the speed up.
Here’s really weird thing… I can play it at speed with the music in the background, if I’m playing out of sync with the music!! Then I try and sync it and my fingers just flub.
I’ll slow way down. The sleep idea is good. I feel like this is a performance anxiety thing… but it’s just me. Maybe I think I’ll boo myself
I’ve 100% been there with this with “Boogie Oogie Oogie" during the course. But yeah slow down, sleep, and taking a break to play something else are going to be helpful. In order to avoid reinforcing the wrong muscle memory it’s not worth powering through. Usually with some space and time for your brain to catch up things will settle into place.
This happens to me as well at times. My theory is that when you are playing it out of sync (or without any backing track), you’re only thinking about playing it and can relax a bit and let it flow. When you go to play it with the music at the right time–especially if it is something you’ve struggled with–you tense up, put a bunch of subconscious pressure on yourself, and lose that flow. Your brain is almost trying to fail.
I read a book about the science of sleep a while back. Bottom line, is whatever you learn as a pattern gets reinforced in your brain when you sleep.
So SLOWLY working through the fingering, pattern, rhythm correctly etc is essential to store that in the new memories you are creating. Sleep strengthens those neural pathways.
Learn it correctly and tomorrow (or the day after) you can just play it and the speed comes with repetition.
The band added Blitzkrieg Bop on Thursday to our setlist for tomorrows gig.
I sat down with a piece of blank paper and wrote out the chord structure, played it though at 50% then 75% speed for about an hour and went to bed.
Came back from work today and I can now play it at full speed from memory. That’s not a brag, just saying that learning it slowly and sleeping on it really works.
This happens to me still.
The band/music is monumentally distracting.
If it’s taking all your focus and attention to play you part, and you have to focus on your part and dedicate to your part, adding in a ton of other elements (all of which are mixed louder) it can be trainwreck city.
I agree with the suggestions above.
Play slow, and try and slow down the recording. Give yourself more time to pull your attention back from all the other chaos going on in the song, and give yourself a bit of a learning curve for getting into the full band playalong.
I’ve found something similar, I’ll be playing along with a track or with others and I’ll mess up and start to panic a bit. I found staying calm, and restarting from the next measure to resync can make all the difference.
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