4 ms·

What Time Feels Like When You’re Improvising

31 points by dnetesn 8y ago

throwaway8879 8y ago
Sometimes, when in soloing over some changes, it can feel like a short time has passed only to look at the recording and find out that it's been recording for well over 10 minutes. The opposite can happen too. It's also a little bit different when you're improvising on top of other musicians improvising in a jam setting. Without sounding too eeky like Rupert Sheldrake, I have to say that once in a while, it seems like the "flow states" of all the improvising musicians in a room sort of sync up and beautiful things can happen. It's absolutely wonderful seeing this with extremely proficient improvisers like Pat Martino in his Live at Yoshi's record. Or Allan Holdsworth in All Night Wrong. A single musicians flow state is great, but a bunch of flow states together is magical.
maceurt 8y ago
Whenever I sit down at the piano and just improvise over chords or just make up stuff, time goes by way faster than when I sit down and practice a piece of music. Though, time also goes way faster when I am sight reading new pieces than when I am practicing, so I am not sure if it just because I hate practicing a specific piece and time is slower when I hate doing something or what.
sizzzzlerz 8y ago
Not being tremendously skilled at improv at the piano, I can't speak to experiences there but simply sitting down practicing or playing pieces or learning new ones, can be quite absorbing. On occasion, two hours can pass in what feels like 15 minutes.
RickJWagner 8y ago
Time just flies by when I'm noodling around on my banjo. Oddly, my wife tells me it seems like I was playing forever, even if it just took a few minutes. Weird....
AndrewOMartin 8y ago
The documentary Being In the World (2010) talks around similar issues, and the implications for how we conceive of the mind and intelligence. It includes contributions from a number of performers but, most importantly for this crowd, also Hubert Dreyfus. Dreyfus's account of AI is the most interesting and well developed critiques I've encountered, and it's nice to see him giving his positive account of mind, rather than his negative account of AI.

31 points by dnetesn 8y ago

Sometimes, when in soloing over some changes, it can feel like a short time has passed only to look at the recording and find out that it's been recording for well over 10 minutes. The opposite can happen too. It's also a little bit different when you're improvising on top of other musicians improvising in a jam setting. Without sounding too eeky like Rupert Sheldrake, I have to say that once in a while, it seems like the "flow states" of all the improvising musicians in a room sort of sync up and beautiful things can happen. It's absolutely wonderful seeing this with extremely proficient improvisers like Pat Martino in his Live at Yoshi's record. Or Allan Holdsworth in All Night Wrong. A single musicians flow state is great, but a bunch of flow states together is magical.

maceurt 8y ago

Whenever I sit down at the piano and just improvise over chords or just make up stuff, time goes by way faster than when I sit down and practice a piece of music. Though, time also goes way faster when I am sight reading new pieces than when I am practicing, so I am not sure if it just because I hate practicing a specific piece and time is slower when I hate doing something or what.

sizzzzlerz 8y ago

Not being tremendously skilled at improv at the piano, I can't speak to experiences there but simply sitting down practicing or playing pieces or learning new ones, can be quite absorbing. On occasion, two hours can pass in what feels like 15 minutes.

RickJWagner 8y ago

Time just flies by when I'm noodling around on my banjo. Oddly, my wife tells me it seems like I was playing forever, even if it just took a few minutes. Weird....

AndrewOMartin 8y ago

The documentary Being In the World (2010) talks around similar issues, and the implications for how we conceive of the mind and intelligence. It includes contributions from a number of performers but, most importantly for this crowd, also Hubert Dreyfus. Dreyfus's account of AI is the most interesting and well developed critiques I've encountered, and it's nice to see him giving his positive account of mind, rather than his negative account of AI.