I practice while watching Netflix. I can binge on the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt while getting myou stuff together. This has gotten me to the point that I can play full gigs while watching football on the bar televisions.
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Playing Without Looking
- Thread starter Neveragain55
- Start date
Read music.
Then, learn to watch the music and the (imaginary) conductor at the same time.
Glancing at the neck once in a while when doing large position shifts is OK.
Learning to read music is a great skill and will prevent you from watching your fingers.
Then, learn to watch the music and the (imaginary) conductor at the same time.
Glancing at the neck once in a while when doing large position shifts is OK.
Learning to read music is a great skill and will prevent you from watching your fingers.
There is nothing wrong with looking at the neck as long as it doesn't interfere with your playing, such as you are unable to sight read or maintaineye contact with the other players. With particularly complicated fingerings and position shifts I still stare at the fingerboard.
Ironically I spend more time looking at the bass guitar neck then I do at the upright neck, because looking at a blank fingerboard actually interferes with intonation and muscle memory.
If looking limits you to playing what you can see instead of what you can hear, then that is bad.
Ironically I spend more time looking at the bass guitar neck then I do at the upright neck, because looking at a blank fingerboard actually interferes with intonation and muscle memory.
If looking limits you to playing what you can see instead of what you can hear, then that is bad.
There is a dynamic here you may not be aware of. I often close my eyes even when playing live. The reason is processing capacity. Your braing has to deal with a lot of sensory input. If you can reduce the level of input, you reduce the attention required to monitor the inputs. By closing your eyes, your brain can ignore visual input and leave more for auditory input. Believe me, it does work.
You might not like what helped me with this - retire the ring finger on your fretting hand. Sounds strange I know, but my instructor insisted and I'm getting used to it. Your ring finger uses the same tendon as your pinky (I think), but (without stretching which leads to tension/stress, which repeated leads to RSI) your pinky is better placed to grab those frets your ring finger would cover.
To back up my statement, try this: put your palm on the table, and one-at-a-time try to point at the ceiling by lifting each finger up from the table-top.
To back up my statement, try this: put your palm on the table, and one-at-a-time try to point at the ceiling by lifting each finger up from the table-top.
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IMO, figure out your hand positions. Then leave your hand there. If your runs require you to check back every two seconds to avoid making an error, then you need to rearrange where you're playing the notes to get it into a tight spot on your finger board, or play the hell out of it so that you know exactly where your hand is going.
Go ahead and take a glance to re-position when your hand position moves, but this shouldn't have to happen much unless you're going all crazy with the solos.
Go ahead and take a glance to re-position when your hand position moves, but this shouldn't have to happen much unless you're going all crazy with the solos.
I'm all for not using the ring finger on an upright and 1/2 position on a BG, but because I learned on BG over 40 years ago, 1 finger per fret, I have no problem playing without looking.
I'd like to see an anatomy book to illustrate your tendon theory---- my fingers work very independently (maybe from training).
With my palm on the table, I can lift any finger at will.
I could be wrong about the tendon, just what I was led to believe. I know I'm not alone in being unable to lift the ring finger off the table though, and that lack of dexterity compared to the pinky made his instruction make sense. Overall though it's really just about avoiding unnecessary stretching.
How does not looking at the neck by choice, and not being able to see the neck, stop a person from playing?
Blind fold or eyes closed help you concentrate better, they do not really enable other senses, so the idea sounds good but in reality is a smoke screen.
Making a concious choice to concentrate is what is needed, not an option where you do not have to concentrate.
Let me be clear, distractions that take your eye of the page are because you have not been focused on the job of playing.
So it maybe in a bar, on a stage, in a studio, it could be movement within your peripheral vision that causes you to stop playing or miss a beat.
When you read you read the page in front of you, you listen to not only what you are playing, but what those around are playing, and you also watch the conductor or MD.....you cannot develop such skills with your eyes closed or a wearing a blindfold, because the choice to leave the page is not an option, the choice to look at the conductor is not an option.
I know you "you can choose to open your eyes"...but if you have ever been in live performances you know the lighting is a factor, in a pit it can be dark and shadow cast, on a stage it can be so bright that it can dazzle you. In either of those situation closing your eyes means your pupils are not accustomed to the lighting conditions and that will give you problems if you are not used to the constant light source around you.
Again, it is simple, just put the music in front of you and read, use your ears and let your fingers work it out without visual help.
It takes practice, but most of all it takes concentration to make the choice not to look.
I find with new pupils two things are common, they either lose the place on the instrument or the page.
Yes they look away to look at their hands and when they look back they have lost the place on the page.
So reading helps develop a sense of time and tempo moving because when you look away you do not come back to the spot you looked away from, you come back to the spot where the music has now moved to......you feel the time that has passed and go to it in the page.
So in reading we develop a multitude of playing skills that help with listening, watching, reading, concentration, rhythm, tempo etc....not of which you will develop so deep if you are blindfolded, in the dark, or have your eyes closed.
Do not confuse those that close their eyes when they play as citation, rather see it as they choose to close their eyes because they have developed all the other skills i have mentioned to a degree that whether eyes open or closed is not an issue...its just another skill.
Unfortunatly reading is a leap of faith, only in doing it will a player realise the many benifits of what it offers, and again to the OP if you have to read you cannot be looking at your instrument....problem solved....us SN or charts but learning to concentate is the first part, block out distraction, focus on the job at hand and the rest will fall into place.
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I do a fair amount of singing and front my band- not looking at my neck helps me to project confidence and engage with the listeners/dancers.
It also helps to stand straighter and play with more physical ease.
Being a narcissist- I guess all of those years of playing in front of the mirror finally paid off!
It also helps to stand straighter and play with more physical ease.
Being a narcissist- I guess all of those years of playing in front of the mirror finally paid off!
Oh, I like chording too.
But this instrument just doesn't sound any good to me.
(disclosure: I'm an Anatomy prof by profession) The ring finger and pinkie indeed have totally separate tendons, both for the flexors and the extensors. On the flexor side, those tendons are connected into the same muscle bellies along with the tendons of the other fingers. How it works then is that different parts of the muscle contract to move the fingers independently. The ring finger and pinkie tend to be be wired in the nervous system to work together more so than the the other two fingers, so for most people its harder to flex the ring or index finger withour fexing the other. Training does make this easier.
For the average person, true; however, I think a well practiced bassist can do that pretty easily. It is a matter of training and practice.
I tend to look over now and then, even while singing. But typically its just a quick check to make sure I'm all good haha
Most of this is nonsense, not using the ring finger will not make any difference in developing RSI, it does help relieve over stretching, and putting your hand on a table an lifting the fingers all depends on the development of extensor muscle groups in the forearm, and the flexibility of the finger joints, which again means nothing of you have not developed or practiced the skill.
But i am interested in how not using your ring finger helped you?
I hate to be the Jeff Berlin in the room, but why worry about this?
Instead of spending effort and time working on playing without looking - spend that time practicing something musically useful. The playing without looking thing is a hang-up people worry too much about. If you spend the evening staring at the bass instead of interacting with the band and the audience it is a problem, otherwise it's a part of playing.
Would you attempt to do carpentry without looking?
Do you Drive without ever checking the gauges?
Do you make love exclusively in the dark so that you are focusing only on the physical feelings?
Why would you deny yourself the ability to check your position if it makes you more confident in your position and thus able to play with less stress and thus play BETTER?
I can generally play a lot of songs without looking too much, but I find that I get distracted and start concentrating on other things, and the forget what I am doing, lol. I think I have low level ADD. Definitely have some dyslexia going on, so I tend to flub up somewhere in each set.
Anyway, I had to practice this so as part of my stage presence, I am engaging the audience as well as other band members. Start out by picking easy parts of a song and pretending you are looking out into an audience or something like that.
Anyway, I had to practice this so as part of my stage presence, I am engaging the audience as well as other band members. Start out by picking easy parts of a song and pretending you are looking out into an audience or something like that.
DiabolusInMusic
Functionless Art is Merely Tolerated Vandalism
+1. This is the pro trick right here. If you cannot see your own eyes in the mirror, the audience isn't looking at your face.
I too suffer from ******** ring finger syndrome (RRFS). I actually use my ring finger and pinky together (ring finger on top of pinky) as if it were one finger. My instructor acts like he has never seen such a thing and is really trying to get me to be four fingered. I've only been playing about 8 months and went 58 years before that without doing anything that required independent movement of the ring finger on my left hand.
I do exercises and if I force myself, I can play with all fingers but it sounds really bad. I'm hoping that continuing the exercises will eventually make me use my fingers correctly because I really don't want to go back to square one.
However, I suspect this may always be a limitation for me.
I don't get any fret buzz anymore - the pinky is in the correct place by itself (comfortably resting) 2 frets up from my index, so it's perfect to hit the fifth or octave (without looking of course, the point of the thread). As soon as I retired my ring finger I was able to play without looking and not get any buzzing or other awful noises from a misplaced finger.
