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I enjoy fall/autumn...
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mark indigo
Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007
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 RE: I enjoy fall/autumn... (in reply to Ricardo)
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quote:
For many many years I believed the same. Until, by chance, I had to play out doors one cold autumn night. My playing slowly deteriorated as the sun went down. Then, by a miracle, (or so it seemed) as my fingers turned completely numb, my playing resumed normal level.
I realized at that moment this thing is 100% psychological. Since then temperature does not affect my playing AT ALL. Seriously.
I don't think it's just psychological. This is what I think probably actually happens. I don't know for sure, so it's just a kind of theory:
Cold or colder temperatures inevitably cause some narrowing of blood vessels in the extremities, which is physical. This in turn affects the constant flow of sensory feedback from the nerve endings in the hands and fingers, giving the numbing sensation (this I guess is neurological?). We then interpret the change in sensory feedback, which is psychological, and respond to it. The numbness gets interpreted as we are not doing anything, or not doing enough, and we tend to put in more effort to compensate for this feeling. This creates tension and stiffness in the hands, and the danger of strain.
I would not be surprised that someone of your level of playing ability (which necessitates being highly co-ordinated) is able to adjust to changing conditions and do what is necessary to maintain the same level of playing.
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Date Oct. 21 2013 12:51:39
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Ricardo
Posts: 14819
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: I enjoy fall/autumn... (in reply to mark indigo)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mark indigo
quote:
For many many years I believed the same. Until, by chance, I had to play out doors one cold autumn night. My playing slowly deteriorated as the sun went down. Then, by a miracle, (or so it seemed) as my fingers turned completely numb, my playing resumed normal level.
I realized at that moment this thing is 100% psychological. Since then temperature does not affect my playing AT ALL. Seriously.
I don't think it's just psychological. This is what I think probably actually happens. I don't know for sure, so it's just a kind of theory:
Cold or colder temperatures inevitably cause some narrowing of blood vessels in the extremities, which is physical. This in turn affects the constant flow of sensory feedback from the nerve endings in the hands and fingers, giving the numbing sensation (this I guess is neurological?). We then interpret the change in sensory feedback, which is psychological, and respond to it. The numbness gets interpreted as we are not doing anything, or not doing enough, and we tend to put in more effort to compensate for this feeling. This creates tension and stiffness in the hands, and the danger of strain.
I would not be surprised that someone of your level of playing ability (which necessitates being highly co-ordinated) is able to adjust to changing conditions and do what is necessary to maintain the same level of playing.
Well, that's what I mean anyway. Of course the physical feeling of being cold is real. But the psychological part is that we unnecessarily believe that the feeling of being cold is going to slow down or otherwise prevent us playing our best. I personally learned to ignore the physical feeling of "cold hands" and my playing needs no adjustment, I can just play as on a warm sunny day. For sure the sensory feedback or feeling of touching the strings is different in different temperatures, physically. But we trick ourselves into thinking that warm hands will function better.
_____________________________
CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com
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Date Oct. 21 2013 13:48:44
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n85ae
Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006
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RE: I enjoy fall/autumn... (in reply to tri7/5)
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I would agree with this, here in the Chicago area it get's cold, and as soon as the
furnace season starts it's noticeable. We have a sauna (Finnish kind), and after
I use the sauna I feel totally normal, and fingers are fine. It's not just the few
degrees air temp, it's things like the floor soaking heat out of your feet, etc.
so I think your body goes into a state change regarding the blood flow to the
extremities, etc. That's just a guess though.
quote:
Interesting... for me it doesn't matter that the heat it on, which it is, or whatever I just never feel the same as summer and those few degrees seem to make all the difference. I'm not even one of those cold natured people who have to have heat blasting all the time or anything in fact it's quite the opposite. Perhaps physiologically some are also more susceptible to temp changes when it comes to joints and quick twitch muscle memory, myself being more sensitive to this.
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Date Oct. 21 2013 14:10:57
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Ricardo
Posts: 14819
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: I enjoy fall/autumn... (in reply to guitarbuddha)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: guitarbuddha
I cant help but assume I would also be judged on sensitivity no matter how impressive I think my other parts are.
D.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
quote:
ORIGINAL: guitarbuddha
Do you think that having completely numb fingers would affect the quality of your love making or would that be at its normal level too ?
If a phenomena has a psychological component then must that component be '100%' ?
D.
Probably not, it would be at normal level. Anyway, I dont' know about YOU but when making love, my "quality of love making" is not normally judged based on my finger tips, but other body parts. 
Don't get me wrong. The IDEAL performance situation where the performer is 100% comfy and will do his or her best, remains. The guitar, the room temp, the person's temp, what they ate, how well rehearsed they are, the height of the chair, the lighting, the monitoring, the mic placement, etc etc....all I am saying is the idea that ONE Of those things might be off, the performance need not be affected so badly. And this cold fingers thing is WAY worse than it needs to be, relatively speaking.
Someone told me PDL needs to have warm soup, and wear a plastic bag on his right hand (in addition to have Vaseline on the side of the guitar for finger tips, and smoke weed...or else his playing will be guaranteed to be off!) in order to feel secure before performance time. He only admitted that the vaseline is psychological, but I think it is ALL psychological.
Now "warming up" when playing I think is important, but it is a term that is NOT directly related to the temp outside. For example, I don't recommend, on the hottest day of summer, to kick your playing off from the start with some Alegrias at 170bpm with tons of difficult picados and such. No matter the temperature, one should start to build from slower easy pieces or tempos. It is even nicer for the audience IMO.
_____________________________
CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com
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Date Oct. 21 2013 14:37:52
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