How much do you 'think' about what you're playing?

The other day I remembered someone telling me he thought: 'Hendrix was a technically excellent player, but he never had to think about it.' This person seemed to think it was a dissadvantage that Hendrix did a lot of playing without thinking - do you agree?

This idea could apply to any guitarist - I've always thought that the more you think about music the more mechanical and leaden it becomes. If you're constantly thinking about what notes to play or what picking to do, you often get so heavily into that that you don't really feel the music or give it any dynamics, and worse, you're not listening to the other musicians around you and adapting you're playing, you're only listening to yourself.

Once I've learnt whatever I'm playing and can do things without thinking, then I give my best performance. Sure, I still have to be alert and using my brain (especially if I go wrong) but when I reach 'unconcious playing' status it feels like i'm flying away with the music and its amazing when that happens.

Anyone get the same thing?

it depends, i think about the next part of the song, but if i'm a 25 note run or something, i don't think about the next note.

Theres is three stages of learning. First is cognitive in which u see what needs to be done and peice it toghether slowly which can take anywhere from hours and days. The second stage is the associative stage in which you think about playing and constently use FEEDBACK to correctmistakes and this can overall take months to years. The its the autonomic phase in which you have become highly skilled and dont have to think about what you are doing....an example of this is walking. You dont think about walking, u just recall from your long term memory and follow with the procedure. This is what happens with professional, it is as easy as walking is to us. The upside of this is that as a person u can only have a certain amount of stimulus processed at once. Automation allows u to chunk stimulus togher by recalling through your long term memory. example is this, an illeterat see "t h e" as three letters, while a literate person sees it as "the" which is one-third the time in processing. The end result is you have much more time to do what you wish like sing or run around or notice people in the crowd while playing the guitar. Now that said when you begin to think about your actions you revert from autonomious (if you have reached this stage) back to cognitive taking much more time and more chances for mistake. A great example of this would be to ask your buddy next time if he breaths in or out during a golf swing...then he begins to think about it takeing away from his ohter aspects of performance and thus making a worst shot. Keep in mind i have taking half year courses on this material so this response does not do any justice however your are 100% right chacron, but the trick is u must be in the autonomous stage before you can do multiple task or atleast multiple task efficently.

Nice analogy Polera!
Although there's a continuous range of mental efforts I put into my playing I think I can divide this spectrum into three sections:

1) Not thinking at all, shredding off some lick I've practiced inside out.
2) Relaxed intuitive playing along to something of a style and manner I'm familiar with and
3) Hearing the notes in my head and trying desparately to make them happen on the fretboard.

Probably 1 is the most flash, 2 sounds the best and 3 sounds awful but I wish I could spend more time in this stage of mental effort but I don't have much inspiration these days.
I think I need to spend more time "thinking" music to myself. Most of the music I think to myself is other peoples but lots of it used to be my own or form little bridging sections between bits of other peoples music. I don't know if anyone else has found this but the more effort I put into thinking about the tone of what I'm thinking (or even on what instrument it happens on) the more likely it is to tail out or loose volume. I also find that first thing in the morning when I'm in a sleepy headstate is better for this sort of thing. I used to smoke cannabis for this purpose but I'm sure it's not worth the bad health effects the loss of memory and coordination.
As for excercising your mental ear try this:
listen to some unfamiliar music and try and repeat its phrases in your head a bar or so behind taking in everything as it happens. It can be easy or bloody impossible depending on the music. One other thing:
any ideas why it might be that I find it easier to hear classical music in my head than rock music even though I'm a rock guitarist? Could it be simply 'cause my father played so much classical music to me when I was a child?

thanks, its good to know i wrote for so long and it was read! cheers!

i've thought of this also...i did some studies on the human brain, blah blah blah, and that the reason music kinda sucks when you think too much is because your using your right side of your brain, instead of your left. (right giving you analyzing skills, etc, left giving you creativity). I've also found that if i'm playing by my self, i get more angry then if im jamming with people. this is probably just do to a state of mind thing, but who knows?

wooooo!! what the asd!@! is 3/sacred geometry theorum?

Triangles are SPECIAL, three points is the minimum number you need in two dimensions to produce a shape where the ratios of the sides are not discrete numbers and can go on for ever. Thanks to three life can never repeat itself.

Hail the sacred triangle. Thank you oh high priest!

(don't get me on about spirals)

But seriously what asd!@! is 3/sacred geometry theorum?

Originally posted by Polera
thanks, its good to know i wrote for so long and it was read! cheers!

That's the last thing you should worry about.The people who come here don't have a life anyway,now,do they?
Psychology is interesting.And it can help you understand people better,and now we all know how that is hard to come by.Understanding people,that is.
Like terrorists,for instance.They came here the other day,Mombasa,targeting "Israeli" interests.So they blow some Israeli-owned-and-frequently patroned hotel.How many Israelis do they kill?Three,I think.Plus the three suicide bombers.And 10 Kenyan traditional dancers.Most of whom never got past primary school,forget about helping Israel disenfranchise Palestinians.And then they spew some crap about the "christian-jewish" coalition.WTF is that about.
Hard to understand.Really hard.
If you think yyou're all that and really have beef with Israel,why don't you just get a Nuke and drop it on them.If you really got beef?If you really think you're all that.

I think these psychos start off with problems which damage their self esteme. Gradually they distance themselves from the original cause of their feelings of powerlessness until they forget what caused it. Next their subconscious anger (anger isn't a thought it's a mindstate) finds a conscious justification for its own escape and the consequences are ****ing awful. I think that people should be more aware of the power of their own subconscious to cloth itself in apparently rational thought and to justify its own often unrelated mechanism of release. Perhaps it hurts peoples egos too much to look in side and route out their true motivations. Some people are afraid to be cynical, perhaps they think it removes the possibility that they may be able to act in an idealistic and decent manner. So many taboos are placed round us, so many laws and rules bind our motivation. I'm sure some people loose trust in their abillity to think for themeselves. It's not (just) the law that does this but the guilt with which we restrict ourselves, scared that our own conscience alone cannot direct our actions. Too much guilt leads to denial, denial is rationalised until conscience is removed and guilt annulled and then the sin is repeated. Perhaps that's how it is with these people, so subconsciously so uncertain in their actions that they make their actions appear more justified to themselves by repeating them! It's so damn stupid.
Whilst I'm in this mindframe I must say I'm not happy to here that the U.S. wants to get the UK to look after its missiles. I've known some really great Americans but I just hate American foreign policy. Whatever the UN find in Iraq (like nothing for instance) you can bet the US'll go their 'cause there's oil. Half of the Senate lives off oil and guns when their not in power.
Rant over.

Originally posted by Incidents Happen
I've also found that if i'm playing by my self, i get more angry then if im jamming with people. this is probably just do to a state of mind thing, but who knows?

I get the same thing - if I go wrong with other people I just laugh and say 'hey, i ****ed up, lets have another take!' On my own it depends on my mood and how long I've been practicing the same thing.....if I cant get it after hours/months i get frustrated and ususally have to stop for a few hours. but playing with a recording is annoying as hell if you go wrong since it doesn't stop and adjust to your mistakes. And going wrong on stage.....thats the worst of all, but at least now if that happens I can get off stage after a set and think 'nevermind, there's next time coming up.'

You say making a mistake whilst playing to a recording is annoying. I totally agree and I've found a way to make life simpler, if that is, you have a four track and a pitch shifter pedal.
All you do is put the tape speed way up on your four track, record the solo you're after and then play it back on a slow speed using your pitch shifter to make the pitch nearly right (more than nearly right ain't possible on my own pedal) and use the tape speed for fine adjustment. You can always tune to the original recording.
Voila.. half speed recording.

Well, I've known plenty of good Americans and I'm not going to jump on the **** america bandwagon, besides you've got tons of cool guitarists! But seriously, if Britain had a bigger population I guess the same would have happened to us. The bigger the pile there is to climb onto the more heads people will be willing to stand on to get to the top. If countries had fewer heads to stand on perhaps the authorities would be more directly answerable to the big chiefs and the potential gain for doing so would be less (since it is related to the number of mugs you can sponge off) and the less head stamping would occur.
Actually you sound very like a friend I had at university with whom I had a massive fall out, they had an obnoxious tendency to assume pseudonyms and contact me as their own friends! Most of these people had similar politics/ interests etc, it was quite annoying to find they were shadow puppets used to spy upon me and delect my beliefs regarding some major accusations levelled at them by another friend of mine regarding some mysterious thefts. I have various other grudges with this sad individual and wish it to be clear that I shall examine new arrangements of their entrails with little provocation.

OK. I'd like to apologise to Pony One whose name I have dragged through some mud with accusations that I suspected him of a dubious past aquaintance. My accusation was not quite as out of the blue/off the wall as it might seem to everyone else but it's a bit complicated and I had my reasons. Suffice it to say that I am aware that Pony One registered far too long ago to be this person, I am sincerely am sorry and hope that no **** sticks!