Thursday, November 03, 2005

Ding Slurp

OK psychology fans: remember Pavlov and the dogs.

Quick summary: Pavlov serves food and rings a bell. Dogs salivate over the food. Eventually, he rings the bell without any food present but the dogs salivate anyway. I believe this is called a conditioned response.

Stimulus: bell

Response: salivation

This theory is sometimes called the "Ding-Slurp" theory.

Think about a tricky passage..








All too easily you can end up with:

Stimulus: Music

Response: Tension

Tension bad, very bad.

How to turn this around? Try looking at the tricky passage but play it in a simple, lyrical style (slow, smooth, totally relaxed). The key is to look at the notes as you play in a relaxed style. You are trying to build this..

Stimulus: Music

Response: Relaxation

It might work. At least it's worth a try.