do you ever feel in "the moment"?

it's funny, because i never really realize what the moment is unless i've played or practiced recently. but all musicians, serious ones anyway, know what the euphoric moment is. it's when you're stuck in a practice room for two hours and, although you might not feel like practicing, you just get to a point where the music is just flowing, without thinking of anything else but the music you're studying. and it's great, this is the time when i feel practicing helps the most, because i can then think back to this time and remember that is how i want it to be played.

and then when you're performing, whether it's in a rock gig, a jazz gig, or you're on stage with an orchestra. you've practiced hours and hours for this moment, and now you're here to show off what you've learned. this is when i like to close my eyes (i tend to memorize portions of the music at points) and just push the air and let the music speak for me. it can be emotional at times too...

sorry if this sounds confusing to anyone, it's just the only way i can personally describe "the moment"... discuss...

 

^YO...man you hit it right on the dot. I know what you mean in a practicing situation...I've never performed....your mind is definetly in the right place.

 

I disagree that serious musicians have all felt it: either serious musicians have already felt it; or, at some point soon, are going to.
It's the moment that everything that was previously platitudes actually mean something. You hear so many people talk about "living in the present" and being "fully there" or "being yourself" and in that you moment you think:

"Ah! So that's what they were talking about."

Blessings

Sebbi

 

Happens all the time when me and the boys is rehearsing and jamming. Pity we never capture it on tape.

 

I'm like that all the time... I hit something tonight while play "Got You On My Mind" performed by Eric Clapton... I was playing that, and reptile, a bunch of other stuff on My Martin and it hit me... I was like "wow... this sounds good"... it was a euphoric moment.

 

yeah man you did hit it exactly on the head. like sometimes while im jammin with the band, i will just get lost in the music, and not realize that i am still playing, and just like become hypnotised or somethin. its pretty nuts.

 

Serious musician - someone who plays for the muse and/or for the group.

Yes, miami, it happens a bunch. When you start a song or a riff and take it 'out', playing off each other, until you realize your arms, fingers are tired or sore and you then realize that you've been playing for twenty minutes. Or when each single thing hits squarely at the same time and tears well up in your eyes because it just feels so good. And you look up and see the same look on everyone else's face. That's why I'm luvn drumn.:sunglasse

 

i don't get the moment when i practice. but when i find myself standing in a room with a few other musicians and i realize that "something" just happened, that for a little while the only thing that existed was each second at a time, wow.
i think mike gordon describes it best:
"You can't manufacture inspirato. That would be wrong. It arises from a stillness, a quietude. And the heart and the soul mingle and, oh man, they do the dance."

 

yea man i was jamming out good eariler today...i'm so happy cuz i was in a rut.

 

oh my god, that "moment" where everything just fits right into place, there is total purity in what you are doing...that is the REASON i play music man. its such a powerful thing!i like to refer to it as being in "the zone" - when you play and you can do no wrong. playing music is a drug, and i am an addict.

 

I am in marching band at school. Our band is very small and the school does not have alot of money. We still manage to score higher than 200-300 peice bands. Talent is good, but it wont take you all the way. You have to work to be great.

 

i LOVE that moment *i'm new at guitar so i haven't experienced it alot* when you know that everything was just where it was supposed to be..it's kinda cool, cuz i dont realize it when it's happening, but afterwards, when i'm like "whoa....."... i dunno, it's kinda neat...something else cool i heard, if any of yall listen to widespread panic, their guitarist Michael Houser was unbelievable...just his style, and perfection was amazing..anyways, i read that he didnt' know any scales at all, that he just went where the music and the feeling took him...pretty awesome!

 

I'm the same way... I *think* I know pentatonic Em scales... but other than that, I play scales by ear without even thinking about what I'm playing because it just sounds right to my ear and flows... haha, I've been playing Eric Johnson's Desert Rose just by watching his hands and hearing it. Though, I play a few chord shapes a little differently and when he switches to a clean tone, I do a barre instead.

 

i think the best feeling is when your playing in a band and your totally relaxed out not even thinking about anything and just simply improvising of each other while playing

 

Sometimes that "moment" is the only thing that gets me through the day. People always rag on me for being a practice junkie, but it's the thing I do best. There's days where I play sweetly and beatutiful on a day that has just that, and on others I pound my cello into the ground because of the decaying world around me. (How terribly emo of me, I feel tainted)