How important is general memory as opposed to muscle memory?

[mhch]

I have a feeling there might be some research about this stuff, and hope someone chimes in with a link. The only thing I can recall is reading in several different places about the 21 day rule - if you practice something for 21 consecutive days and can play it perfectly, then it never really leaves you, i.e., it becomes embedded in deeper memory... I have found this to be true for myself, and is why I will practice something that I wish to keep in this way. I think I just need to refresh more...

Funny to read this when an excellent doctor friend of mine, specialized in prosthetics and treating handicaped people, just mentionned this 21 day rule to me telling me exactly "try practicing something for 21 days"...

I investigated the internet and apparently the source is in the preface to a 1960 book ‘Psycho-cybernetics’, Dr Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon turned psychologist who wrote: ‘It usually requires a minimum of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change in a mental image. Following plastic surgery it takes about 21 days for the average patient to get used to his new face. When an arm or leg is amputated the “phantom limb” persists for about 21 days. People must live in a new house for about three weeks before it begins to “seem like home”. These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.’ (pp xiii-xiv).

Research is quite active to identify what physico-chemical process are at work in the brain to establish new neural connections.

[emanresu]

not that simple. no brain = no play, muscles or not.

Sorry, I just simplified the statement there to make it sound cooler. Meant muscle memory in that scientific equation.

I often feel that when preparing something enough, then the musical/muscular/visual get kinda mixed up, become this one sticky bundle without clearly defined and separated sensations as "this is what i feel" "this is what i see" "this is what i do".. Know what I mean? Well, I wouldn't go to an important gig without the key elements of the performance practiced like that.

One peculiar example for this is when you look at the fretboard, at a note, and "see how it sounds". Not even looking and imagining the sound separately, but it sometimes feels as hearing the imaginary note with eyes themselves. Sounds crazy but have asked around, people have said remembering such pleasant brainfarts

[princeplanet]

Funny to read this when an excellent doctor friend of mine, specialized in prosthetics and treating handicaped people, just mentionned this 21 day rule to me telling me exactly "try practicing something for 21 days"...

I investigated the internet and apparently the source is in the preface to a 1960 book ‘Psycho-cybernetics’, Dr Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon turned psychologist who wrote: ‘It usually requires a minimum of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change in a mental image. Following plastic surgery it takes about 21 days for the average patient to get used to his new face. When an arm or leg is amputated the “phantom limb” persists for about 21 days. People must live in a new house for about three weeks before it begins to “seem like home”. These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.’ (pp xiii-xiv).

Research is quite active to identify what physico-chemical process are at work in the brain to establish new neural connections.

That's really interesting, cheers!

[christianm77]

I think having a good pitch memory and a reliable way of converting one's pitch sense to the instrument is the most important.

[John A.]

I have a feeling there might be some research about this stuff, and hope someone chimes in with a link. The only thing I can recall is reading in several different places about the 21 day rule - if you practice something for 21 consecutive days and can play it perfectly, then it never really leaves you, i.e., it becomes embedded in deeper memory... I have found this to be true for myself, and is why I will practice something that I wish to keep in this way. I think I just need to refresh more...

I dont see how one could test that 21 day rule. Nobody ever made it past 13 consecutive days of practicing the same thing without being killed by a neighbor, family member, or roommate.

John

[princeplanet]

I dont see how one could test that 21 day rule. Nobody ever made it past 13 consecutive days of practicing the same thing without being killed by a neighbor, family member, or roommate.

John

Yeah, tell me about it, I practice on a solid body, unplugged, and I still get death threats... from my wife!

[coolvinny]

I think it's all very grey and interrelated. I can sing a solo but not be able to play it. I can play parts of it and of course the faster the tempo then, depending on the line, the more my muscle memory plays a part in that...but as we all know sometimes we surprise ourselves and play brand new ideas with perfect time despite never having practiced that thing before. So maybe having a very clear physical memory of the thing can help execute something well, but then again maybe having a very clear mental/aural memory or projection of a thing allows it to be executed very well also (assuming one has the necessary chops to execute at that tempo).

The lines are blurry to me.

[pauln]

I recommend two books (you may read them online at the links below):

"On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music", Hermann Helmholtz; 1875.

"The Principles of Psychology", William James: 1890.

[princeplanet]

I recommend two books (you may read them online at the links below):

"On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music", Hermann Helmholtz; 1875.

"The Principles of Psychology", William James: 1890.

Studied from the Helmholtz book at university, and although certainly far from the last word, it remains an early bible for many aspects regarding the physiological nature of sound, as well as touching on the more difficult psychological- or perhaps even psychoacoustical- aspects. But not sure how this might pertain to "memory" per se...

I've not read the William James, so perhaps that has more to do with it?

[pauln]

I've not read the William James, so perhaps that has more to do with it?

Check the table of contents; the last chapter is memory, but most of the other chapters entertain it as well, as memory is important in so many other things.