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Music: What do you see?

#22
At practice, sometimes I see nothing at all. I'm not focused on any one thing, just kind of staring off into space, not even realizing I'm doing it until it's been going on for sometime. I see with my ears, making sure everything is fitting together, listening to how the riffs work, taking notes if we need to change something, etc.

On stage I can identify three main states of being:
One, I see the crowd, notice individual's faces, make eye contact, notice my friends, notice my guitarist laughing because he just farted on my side of the stage then walked back over to his... it's a comfortable state akin to omnipresence, aware of everything that's going on yet totally into the music and unable to play a wrong note if I tried. This usually happens at packed shows when feelings are high and things are going smoothly, but when we're playing earlier on the bill.

Two, the 'zone' state described in earlier posts, but with a little bit of state one mixed in. Very rarely do I ever lose myself completely in the music. This usually happens again when everything is going well, but when we're on last and closing the bill.

State Three occurs when we're on first or second at like 8:00 and there is less than a dozen people in the bar. It's almost akin to an uncomfortable 'I'm being watched' feeling, and I usually feel just like getting off stage as soon as possible. Is it weird that I feel more comfortable infront of 100 people than 10?
 
#24
PBass101 said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory

I knew there was a logical explanation somewhere. :p If you practice the same motions again and again and again, you're bound to eventually be able to repeat those motions without conciously concentrating on them.

Sorry folks, but music and groove only exist so far as our bodies use certain tools to create it. There is nothing transcendental about "the vibe", nice as though it sounds.
Click to expand...

Sorry with all due respect it is not Muscle Memory. Scratching an itch without a thought is Muscle Memory.

What is being mentioned here is above that - I honestly believe it is tapping into the Music as Lesh and others have stated. The Magic is when the whole band is in the zone (for lack of a better term) and doing this together.

It is an amazing thing - and I think some of the best groups - overtime have learned how to get there with greater frequency or more often than not. You've seen performances like this I am sure - the energy is present and you are touched by it as well.

I believe - because in my band with 10 years of playing together we have had those moments it is the BEST!
 
#25
PBass101 said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory

I knew there was a logical explanation somewhere. :p If you practice the same motions again and again and again, you're bound to eventually be able to repeat those motions without conciously concentrating on them.

Sorry folks, but music and groove only exist so far as our bodies use certain tools to create it. There is nothing transcendental about "the vibe", nice as though it sounds.
Click to expand...

M0ses said:
Sometimes, when the band is really jamming, we telepathically communicate to do unplanned fancy stuff. Like the keyboardist and I changing between different backgrounds during a guitar solo, or the entire band stopping simultaneously, leaving this huge gap of silence - without saying a thing or even looking at each other. Stuff that we never talked about doing or anything.

Those are the best nights of my life.
Click to expand...

YES! you have been there!
 
#26
Honk'n_down-low said:
Sorry with all due respect it is not Muscle Memory. Scratching an itch without a thought is Muscle Memory.

What is being mentioned here is above that - I honestly believe it is tapping into the Music as Lesh and others have stated. The Magic is when the whole band is in the zone (for lack of a better term) and doing this together.
Click to expand...

I totally agree that it is tapping into the music.
To me the music is more like a language telling a story in a way that doesn't involve words (rather than a visual thing). New as I am at be bass, I know that "place" from playing the piano when I was younger. With the bass, if it is music I know how to play, then I never feel like I am "playing" the bass. It is more like it was my voice coming out of me. I tried the guitar before I took up the bass and it is totally different to me. I feel like the guitar is a musical instrument that I am playing. I relate to the bass in an entirely different way, like I have the role of the bass part in the music....if any of this makes sense. I know it is kind of wierd, but it is really how it seems for me.:hiding:

On the other hand, since I'm new at bass, most of the time I am trying to learn new things and it seems so hard to have to constantly "think" what I'm doing in that case.
 
#27
Basshappi said:
^^This^^

There is a part in "Rising Low" in which they are interviewing Otiel Burbridge and he is talking about the 'trance state' that happens when we surrender to the groove. He stated that when you get into "the zone" the music will play itself. In another section they are interviewing Phil Lesh and he comments that we do not create the music, it already exsists and we are permited to channel it if we can get ourselves out of way and simply let it flow.

Dispite the rather mystical, Jedi tone to these statements, I believe in these viewpoints because I have experienced it myself. It dosen't always happen, but when it does and especially when the entire band is in that "place" it is the most extaordinary experience possible as a musician.
Click to expand...

To give a reply to the question 'what do you see' when a state like that happens. If I end up in a 'trance state' like described in the quote above I see colours. Fields and lines of colour, big dots and smaller particles changing colour and shape, moving through the room, over the strings and instruments. Flowing from one to another, getting together in the center of sound and fusing, an amazing sight.
The colours vary, most of them are in the spectrum, some are combinations of colours in the spectrum.
Then again, I've had my share of mushrooms and acid.:hyper:
 
#28
Wow, no other people w. synesthesia here? It's usually pretty common w. musicians...

I "see" colors, which are affected by timbre/instrumentation (it's usually affected by tones).

P.S. How do you all play while on acid!? I find it impossible... there's just too much going on!
 
#30
Basshappi said:
^^This^^

There is a part in "Rising Low" in which they are interviewing Otiel Burbridge and he is talking about the 'trance state' that happens when we surrender to the groove. He stated that when you get into "the zone" the music will play itself. In another section they are interviewing Phil Lesh and he comments that we do not create the music, it already exsists and we are permited to channel it if we can get ourselves out of way and simply let it flow.

Dispite the rather mystical, Jedi tone to these statements, I believe in these viewpoints because I have experienced it myself. It dosen't always happen, but when it does and especially when the entire band is in that "place" it is the most extaordinary experience possible as a musician.
Click to expand...

+1000 :bassist:
 
#33
Honk'n_down-low said:
What is being mentioned here is above that - I honestly believe it is tapping into the Music as Lesh and others have stated. The Magic is when the whole band is in the zone (for lack of a better term) and doing this together
Click to expand...

I'm sure some people learn to subconsciously read each other when they've been making the same music together for years on end, kind of like how twins can be sometimes. I don't know exactly what it is, but I wouldn't call it magic.

And anbody who ends up seeing unexplicable colors in a trance state either has some measurable neurological condition or is a drug abuser. :)

My drummer - a professionally jazz-trained musician and one of the most talented people I know - and I can hook into a groove together pretty well. My band is a trio and we do alot of Cream-style improv sections where we all just try to play off of each other. Sometimes I have to concentrate on what he's doing; sometimes it feels, like you've described, as though the music is being channeled through me rather than being played by me. But I think that's mostly the result of us knowing, conciously or subconciously, what the other guy is going to do at a given point because of experience of having played together for so long and knowing what the other guy is capable of. Lots of eye contact and it's more like we're having a conversation with our instruments than tripping out on some mystical state of being, or whatever.

The drummer from the John Entwistle Band said that he and John "knew" each other from a musical perspective so well that they could anticipate each other's mistakes, and offset them before they ever happened. I don't think that's the result of anything "magical", rather they were just ****ing amazing musicians.
 
#34
When practicing by myself (playing along to songs), I kinda see the staff like the drummer in the OP's post does...

In a band setting, that doesn't work anymore, which kinda bums me out. I just had to learn how to handle that...

And synesthesia... I actually DO associate sounds with colors, but sadly, I don't when playing myself. :\

Like, when I hear something in phrygian, I see black. When I hear a Fender P with Flats, I see purple (especially when listening to Jamerson). Brown when there's heavy muting and staccato going on (drums are always brown). Green when I hear an old school prog rock keyboard solo, lol... that's what I remember off the top of my head.
 
#36
I've been "in the zone" a couple of times very very clearly, watching myself play instead of playing--- it was AMAZING... and it wasnt muscle memmory because i was imporvising...

I would love to find a way to get like that more often, I dont know how to get there, meditation, weed, I've tried a couple of things, but i just cant get that state of mind by will...

Do anyone here know what Im talking about and how to get there or how to make it happen more often?
 
#37
I'm usually Thinking " Nice Bristols" or "When's The Next Break?" or " when are the drugs going to take effect?" or "I hope I don't have to poop really bad in the middle of the set."

I often think "Jeez I'm not getting paid enough to play Sweet Home Alabama again!"
 
#38
While part of it may be muscle memory, that's not the entirety of being 'in the zone,' IMO. It's not just the fingers finding the right places to be without thinking about it too much, it's also 'feeling' the music as it progresses And I mean more than just the anticipation / planning ahead as to what is in the next measure. Mind, I don't 'see' the music as in the OP, not even visualizing the staff / score. Yeah, I know, hard to describe, and I'll admit I didn't start getting these experiences of being 'in the zone' until I DID start to get the muscle memory going. But I can sorta 'feel' the 'flow' of the music, and even a few times realized ahead of time where I could play a few leading notes, etc. instead of straight arpeggios, and have them work out properly, without having to work them out in my head and practice them ahead of time. Sorry, suspect this isn't making a lot of sense...
 
#39
PBass101


And anbody who ends up seeing unexplicable colors in a trance state either has some measurable neurological condition or is a drug abuser.
Click to expand...
That's as subtle as saying 'anyone who needs more than a drink a day is an alcoholic'.
I remember seeing colors from my childhood, for example at moments when my granddad gave me a listen to his hornplaying.
Nashrakh said:
And synesthesia... I actually DO associate sounds with colors, but sadly, I don't when playing myself. :\

Like, when I hear something in phrygian, I see black. When I hear a Fender P with Flats, I see purple (especially when listening to Jamerson). Brown when there's heavy muting and staccato going on (drums are always brown). Green when I hear an old school prog rock keyboard solo, lol... that's what I remember off the top of my head.
Click to expand...
To give you some details about the colors, depending on how the bass is tuned strings tend to light up in white, violetish white, green, purple, and blue. Dots are often green or red, bigger color fields can be black, brownish/greenish, violet/pinkish, purplebrownish/yellowy. Lines are often green or a bright violet, sometime pure bright white or greyish white. Bigger fields can also turn to golden yellow or orange, orange/green.
It's not an instrument by itself that produces colors, it's the vibrations that turn into color.
 
#40
JoZac21 said:
Wow, no other people w. synesthesia here? It's usually pretty common w. musicians...

I "see" colors, which are affected by timbre/instrumentation (it's usually affected by tones).

P.S. How do you all play while on acid!? I find it impossible... there's just too much going on!
Click to expand...
I do but not that way around, I can hear colours, especially if they're moving. I quite often taste colours or patterns too, some of them can be quite intricate, such as Welsh Black Beef tastes like the Harlequin pattern (Black and white diamonds with golden edges).
 

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