The Zone

Man, I was practicing bass, but at first I wasn’t THAT much in the mood. I just played some slap bass lines. The practice was getting nowhere. I was just messing around with no productive stuff whatsoever. But after 30 minutes of messing around, messing, slapping, tapping anything, I came in THE ZONE.

The zone is the most productive peek a musician can ever have. Something cough me and I was completely into my bass playing. So I stayed in this zone for about 1 hour and a half practicing my solo bass sets, coming up with crazy ideas, improving my solo bass set list. Man I was happy. After I quit the zone, I stopped playing because in the one hour and a half, I felt like I did 10 hours of intense bass practice.

I always try to get that “zone”. I don’t know how to get it. It’s mysterious. Sometimes I have it before I start playing. Sometimes I get it after 2 hours of practicing, bope. It’s weird. It’s something I can’t control.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 14:52 and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Same here man. Could spend ten seconds with whatever instrument in my hand and have a new song minutes later, or being completely sloppy for an hour until something clicks and everything comes together.

    Not too bad when someones just practicing but it's caught up with me in my current studio sessions a couple of times, which sucked. An hour playing sloppy there is an hour wasted.

    I think it has something to do with thinking too much, not trusting yourself, not trusting the music, because as J_Masterbassist put it, when one 'lets go', instinct or muscle memory or providence kicks in and everything sounds golden.

    It's trying to find the balance between head and heart, I think.
  • I think all musicians have this experience every once in a while.

    For me, it happens at times when I'm really just thinking about something else. It's as if I'm playing at a sub-conscious level but then always when I realize how unbelievably good I'm playing, I start playing even worse than normal.

    So to me, the key is to let go. No one has to think about hitting the right notes when they whistle or hum do they? No, they just do it. I think this is why weed and other drugs sometimes help musicians out. It allows them to let go. Of course you'd have to deal with the side effects if you go that route. Your choice.

    That's why I try to play the bass whenever I watch TV. That way my main focus is on the screen so I'm thinking less about what I'm doing. I think it helps sometimes but its no sure thing.
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