• From: Ohio
  • Registered: 2006-10-02
  • Posts: 230

Topic: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

okay here's a scenario:

you've been practicing stairway to heaven for about two hours and just cant seem to get a couple parts down smooth.  so you practice for another hour before you finally realize you are going nowhere and put the guitar down for the day.

                      ***

the next day you're bored and pick up the guitar.  you decide to try stairway again, and its perfect (well pretty close)

has this ever happened to anyone else? its crazy and almost makes me mad! makes me feel like that three prior hours of practice ws worthless! does anyone knows why this just suddenly happens?

If you spend your life judging people, how will you ever have time to love them ♥
  • Registered: 2007-02-02
  • Posts: 30

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

this has happened to me too. im not sure why you are able to play it perfectly but im sure all the practice you did the previous day helped and you were improving, even if you didnt notice.


<img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_smile.gif" border=0 alt="Smile">

12345abcd3

  • From: Starkville, Mississippi USA
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,069

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

Yes!  There is a wonderful magic to practicing - if playing becomes a daily discipline, then you will make progress every day.  Your brain and muscles need the regular exercise.


Each daily practice session should have some goals and each session is an opportunity to 'do better'.  The 'just clicks' won't ever happen unless you are striving for progress.  The best thing I ever learned from music teachers was how to practice - strive for perfection and have fun doing it.


Pablo Cassals (a cellist) put it this way - 'If I don't practice for one day, I can hear it.  If I don't practice for two days, my wife can hear it.  If I don't practice for three days, then everyone can hear it!'.

"That darn Pythagorean Comma thing keeps messing me up!"
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma[/url]

James McCormick's Website

  • From: Montreal
  • Registered: 2007-03-16
  • Posts: 312

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

This is so typical. Musicians don't go to "Practice" they go to a REPITITION. Musicians must repeat so that what they are playing is almost automatic. Pratice creates a motorskill that your brain is comfotable with. My son is a drummer and every time he learns a new beat he plays it very slowly so that his brain can learn <b>without</b> too many mistakes. It is the same with any instrument. Start slowly and give yourself time to learn. <b>If you try to play to fast you will teach yourself the same mistakes over and over.</b>


Now when you go back to play a song that you struggled with. Your brain remembers what happened the last time you played. Also you will probably be brought back to the MOOD that you were in when you last played. So, after working through something difficult finish with something you are good at. I always try to finish on a positive note.


Repitition should be a pleasure as it allows you to explore and learn. It takes time but, hey, we all age at the same rate. Soon another year of practice will have past and the only thing that is certain is that, either we took the time to learn and we are that much better for it, or we are only a year older and still stagnating. The choice is up to us. Personally I would prefer to start slowly and by the time the year has past I have progressed.


Good luck and enjoy the process! <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_lol.gif" border=0 alt="Laughing">

I may be goin' to hell in a bucket babe
  • From: Ontario
  • Registered: 2006-11-16
  • Posts: 46

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

well said

I couldn't agree more !

  • From: North Wales
  • Registered: 2007-01-04
  • Posts: 68

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

i had it about a month ago when i started playing tears in heaven by clapton i was absolutely awfull at first but after i practiced for a few hours i sat it down and said id come back to it the next day as soon as i picked it up again i could allready hear myself playing it better with the timing and hitting almost every string correctly im still not perfect but i can play the song without thinking so much on what im doing and it just sort of comes naturally in the end.


Royston N Wales

  • Registered: 2007-03-20
  • Posts: 5

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

It happens to me all the time. I'll fight with something for 2 weeks and then it will just happen. I can't explain it.

  • From: Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 338

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

And as Mr Casals says it can go the other way too.


Took a trip to London a few weeks ago - no guitar - and when I return - suddenly I'm missing the A string.

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understandin' ."    Elvis Costello

alansheeran's Website

  • From: Almancil, Algarve, Portugal
  • Registered: 2006-09-02
  • Posts: 6,205

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

I think sometimes, after you have been trying hard and getting no where and you leave it, that your subconscious works while you are sleeping or whatever and irons out the problems so that next time you try 'EUREKA' - it works. So the prior practice is not worthless, that is what set the gears in motion.


Roger

"Do, or do not; there is no try"

Roger Guppy's Website

  • From: Renfrewshire, Scotland
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 1,359

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

It's all about "muscle memory".

It's like hearing a song you love but haven't heard for maybe 20 years. You still know ALL the words.

Repeat the finger movements often enough and the muscles in your hand "remember" the shapes to move into. While resting, the "memory" is still being filed away. Forever! <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_eek.gif" border=0 alt="Shocked">

Is anything really made up of zeros and ones??

alvee33's Website

  • alimcg
  • Junior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-04-19
  • Posts: 1

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

yo - it;s the same as juggling - and it is about sleep specifically - the motor neuron pathways you have been trying to build up by practicing get hardwired in when your sleeping hence you then all of a sudden feel that your better at..

  • From: Murphysboro Il
  • Registered: 2007-02-10
  • Posts: 292

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

YES!!!!

That happened actually just today. I was working on the Day Tripper riff and for a couple of days my fingers were so stupid, then today they just danced away. Glad to hear it worked out for you!!!!! <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_biggrin.gif" border=0 alt="Very Happy">

                                 - Mike

"Nobody paints by ear so why would I play guitar by sight?" hmm
  • From: Cardiff
  • Registered: 2006-04-26
  • Posts: 66

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

hehehe ... happened to me the other day with one of the scales I was working on!  Spent ages going through it really slowly again and again making loads of mistakes (even at snail pace!), went away and did something else for a bit and come back to it and played it perfectly (well, near enough to satisfy my despair!!)  <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_mad.gif" border=0 alt="Mad"> 


Something else that is also really true(and what I try and do quite often now) is to have a go at something difficult for at least half an hour before you go to bed so its the last thing on your mind before sleeping ... when you get up the next day and have a go, it 'usually' clicks a lot faster!  Give it a try!!


Take it easy!!


Chris

  • garp
  • Junior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-01-28
  • Posts: 1

Re: ...all of a sudden it just clicks!

The reason this happens is because as you practice the same thing over and over again you start to focus your mind on why you cannot play this chord or note correctly. You end up trying hard to position your fingers in a certian way to reach a chord or note that you probably already know well.  If you can try this experiment what i am trying to explain might become more clear.  Walk up and down the stairs without thinking what you are doing, then walk up and down the stairs thinking about every move you make.  You will find that you movements in the first instance are smooth and in the second instance sticarto,  Once you have trained your body(fingers) it knows what to do, so two hous of stairway to heaven one night pays off the next day when you let you fingers do the talking.

Spooky but it works.

Garp

The Inner Game for musicians