Wandering mind when practicing some things, mind chatter.

hollywoodrox

It’s mainly the things that you can play well up to speed , but are trying to refine 
  Suddenly a dream you had last night pops into your conscious , or some other distraction, a conversation you had , something somebody said , or I must mention this to the guys on the fretboard and wandering what the reply will be.

bloody annoying , have read about it a week or two ago ,it says as long as you notice you are doing it and try to focus more it will get better , meditation may help etc.

anyone else have this . It’s not too bad when you’re flying along at the edge of your ability sometimes as you’re focused on trying not to crash . It’s worse on less challenging stuff  and you sort of go into autopilot while the old brain chatters away .

fastonebaz

My dream last night was that some people from my old work went round to my parents house for a meeting and someone went for a shit but after flushing the toilet overflowed flooding the bathroom and leaving a giant foot long turd floating around the floor and iwas frantically trying to cleaning all up with nothing but a mop.

I don't know what it means but I'd had band practice that night which went exceedingly well so I don't think that was linked.

Actually just realised this is off topic.  Doh.  Carry on.

Onpar

In a word 'mindfullness'. Helps you stay present. 

What you are describing isn't you consciously thinking. Instead thinking is happening to you.

You will be in a state of 'no mind' when you play at your best.

If I'm playing a gig and I'm in the moment everything is perfect. However, if I make a mistake and dwell on it suddenly I'm thinking too much about the past mistake and future possibility of mistakes. Stay present and in the moment.

I would recommend the book 'the power of now' 

Roland

When playing music our minds can enter a state called “flow” as it focuses on what it needs to do for the performance, and cuts out other thoughts. So we become more aware of things like timing, tone, timbre, touch, muscle movement etc, and less on non-contributory thoughts.

Odd thoughts, such as remembering dreams, can arise at any time, in any mind state. They’re just more noticeable when they disrupt the flow state because they are less likely to be crowded out. Distractions are also more likely when the playing doesn’t require your full attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#Challenges_to_maintaining_flow

Different people have written about how to deal with extraneous thoughts. I guess it’s a personal thing. The way which works for me is what Buddhists do when meditating: acknowledge that the thought exists, and park it on a shelf as not relevant at this time.

hollywoodrox

fastonebaz said:

My dream last night was that some people from my old work went round to my parents house for a meeting and someone went for a shit but after flushing the toilet overflowed flooding the bathroom and leaving a giant foot long turd floating around the floor and iwas frantically trying to cleaning all up with nothing but a mop.

I don't know what it means but I'd had band practice that night which went exceedingly well so I don't think that was linked.

Actually just realised this is off topic.  Doh.  Carry on.

Good one  I dreamed I went to look at buying a jeep/van  when I got there Slash was there and recommended this tiny little van  it was only a little wider than myself and looked 40s or 50s  uitilitarian ,I would just be able to squeeze in , I was led to believe it was only £85 so thought can’t go wrong, but it turned out to be £299, still quite a nice thing though .

hollywoodrox

Onpar said:

In a word 'mindfullness'. Helps you stay present. 

What you are describing isn't you consciously thinking. Instead thinking is happening to you.

You will be in a state of 'no mind' when you play at your best.

If I'm playing a gig and I'm in the moment everything is perfect. However, if I make a mistake and dwell on it suddenly I'm thinking too much about the past mistake and future possibility of mistakes. Stay present and in the moment.

I would recommend the book 'the power of now' 

Thank you I will look it up , I grasp what you mean ,just read something like that idea. 

hollywoodrox

Thank you, that is very good , some real gems suggested here ,thanks for the link 
  I’m familiar with the flow state ,have read about it and heard about it in self hypnosis tapes etc 
  It’s a desirable state, like when you finish something and quite a bit of time has passed but you’ve not noticed it

Roland said:

When playing music our minds can enter a state called “flow” as it focuses on what it needs to do for the performance, and cuts out other thoughts. So we become more aware of things like timing, tone, timbre, touch, muscle movement etc, and less on non-contributory thoughts.

Odd thoughts, such as remembering dreams, can arise at any time, in any mind state. They’re just more noticeable when they disrupt the flow state because they are less likely to be crowded out. Distractions are also more likely when the playing doesn’t require your full attention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#Challenges_to_maintaining_flow

Different people have written about how to deal with extraneous thoughts. I guess it’s a personal thing. The way which works for me is what Buddhists do when meditating: acknowledge that the thought exists, and park it on a shelf as not relevant at this time.

pmbomb

take a look at some meditation, I use Headspace.

in essence, thoughts are like traffic. you can't stop it but you can choose to step to the side of the road and let it pass instead of playing in it.

fretmeister

You can help stop this by using an app that generates random things to play.

Then you have to read what's on the page rather than go into autopilot. Forces you to concentrate.

I have a load of old double bass and trombone sight reading exam test examples for this. In just about every key and time signature.

hollywoodrox

fretmeister said:

You can help stop this by using an app that generates random things to play.

Then you have to read what's on the page rather than go into autopilot. Forces you to concentrate.

I have a load of old double bass and trombone sight reading exam test examples for this. In just about every key and time signature.

But I’m specifically learning solos for songs/technique and need to devote my time to them 
I’m working through this though , I’ve got a few books, one suggested here and am learning to be less bothered by the chatter as long as I still focus on what I’m playing 

I’ve recently this week had the week off of my regular strict practice schedule And just been learning bits of songs exercises I’ve been meaning to get to . I had a late night and it screwed my routine. Will be back to normal Wednesday .

am seeing good results from my regular practice routines though , and getting comfortable with these solos has given me more self confidence to try other things that I thought I’d never be able to do .

thanks guys for all your help you’re all wonderful people 

mburekenge

Do you find this happens with other activities too?

You may want to look online for an ADHD test. Lots of 'chatter' is a symptom of inattentive ADHD, may be worth investigating.

I was diagnosed at 40... it was life changing to know why I had struggled so much.

DavidRees

the anterior cingulate is that part of your brain which allows you to focus better and avoid distractions - mindfulness practitioners believe that it can be developed to function more efficiently -

I have the feeling I was born without one ...

hollywoodrox

mburekenge said:

Do you find this happens with other activities too?

You may want to look online for an ADHD test. Lots of 'chatter' is a symptom of inattentive ADHD, may be worth investigating.

I was diagnosed at 40... it was life changing to know why I had struggled so much.

I just took a test but was way clear , I often used to sit editing in photoshop for hours and like being still and solitary , the few times I did attend school I was able to focus on lessons no problem .  Only strange thing I have ever had was , when I was deeply  concentrating on things I could hear a conversation between two extremely southern black ladies , not enough to make out what they were saying most of the time, but like they were downstairs or some distance away.
probably schizophrenic , an odd thing though for sure