Pay attention, Mr. McGoo...

A place to discuss Playground's main curriculum, the Bootcamp.
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MiddleC
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2020 11:09 am

Pay attention, Mr. McGoo...

Post by MiddleC » Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:40 pm

One thing I have become very aware of: You must keep your mind on the music, read it, read ahead a bit if you can, DO NOT LET YOUR MIND WANDER!

I've been working on my first rookie song, the suggested one, Lean On Me. I am having difficulty keeping my mind focused. I can consistently get in the 90's, and have even hit 99% a couple times. But have yet to hit 100%.

What I find myself doing is playing along starting out concentrating on the music and timing. But, there are what they count as 113 measures in the song. (I think each bar is counted as a measure, whether it is solid or dashed). I'll find myself thinking about something, "When I master this, I'm going to ...", or, "I think I'll make a post in the forum about ...", or whatever. Next thing I know, I'm not sure where I'm at, thinkgin that I'm about to move into a different part of the tune, and then my hands can't work as fast as I recognize "Wait, that's not what I was about to play".

I think also the slow pace of the song, 71 beats (whih I think is just over half what the beat is when Bill Withers sings it) allows me to wander more.

It can be a pain striving for the perfect play, when at measure number 101 I make a mistake :o

I am having fun though.

FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Pay attention, Mr. McGoo...

Post by FlatPanda » Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:55 am

Oh wow, where should I start?

- When I'm playing and enjoying it too much and forget to start the next bar because I'm holding the chord and the last notes from the former bar too long?
- When I'm at last trying to play through a (for me) difficult piece (even if it's just a 30 seconds excerpt in a bootcamp lesson), and "Yeeees, now I'll get 100% because in the last part I've never made a mistake yet, and I'm through with the difficult middle" and then I hit the wrong key on the very last note?
- When I'm thinking about "oh this will be something nice, when I'm able to play it right, to show my significant other", and then I trail off and... what the heck am I even playing?
- When in a longer song (as you mentioned too) I forget in which phrase I'm in and start to play the wrong part of the song?

Playing anything to a 100% in PGS is a challenge. If you go even beyond that: so that it's good to listen to, because it's expressive and living... it is very, very, very difficult. Otherwise everybody would be a concert pianist ;)
Last edited by FlatPanda on Wed Nov 18, 2020 1:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

SJunior22
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2016 4:04 pm

Re: Pay attention, Mr. McGoo...

Post by SJunior22 » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:27 am

Hello there MiddleC!

I know what you're talking about. All of what you've described, was apart of my "struggle" to learning. The keyword in that last phrase being "was". How I figured it out was that I found myself overly obsessed with the "scoring everything 100%" - so that I would feel confident. Its another control mechanism of the ego. The reward system of "yay I got 100%, now the dopamine rains down".

It was all for not, until I found what made me score that 100% to begin with - and it had nothing to do with my ego.

I talked a little about it in my "how I overcome difficult songs/lessons" post. Bottomline is that once you comprehend "the why and what" you are playing (from the artist's/teacher's perspective), you will score 100% all the time without having to think about it. How you get the comprehension is up to you.

Here's my advice, listen to the song outside of playground (a zillion times over and over if need be). Do it while working on that classic car or something that doesnt involve practicing the piano. Pay attention to as much of each instrument and vocals in the song as you can. This is basically weightlifting for your "focus noodle" part of your brain. This exercise helps also subjugate the ego and release seeing learning as academic with the struggle of getting the perfect score.

Music is art and expression - its not logical (I'm sure you know). Tell the ol ego to take a seat in the other room for an hour or 2.

Hope this helps and maybe drove a chuckle or two out of ya. Keep on keepin' on!

jazzy123
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2020 7:51 pm

Re: Pay attention, Mr. McGoo...

Post by jazzy123 » Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:40 pm

LOVE this post. Listen to the song over and over and the playing becomes second nature.

MiddleC
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2020 11:09 am

Re: Pay attention, Mr. McGoo...

Post by MiddleC » Mon Nov 16, 2020 4:08 pm

Yeah, I am sure that most beginners experience this problem.

For the 100% thing...I have strived to get to 100% on every lesson exercise...just because I feel that if I'm moving on without doing my current lesson to perfection, then maybe I'm shorting myself of the learning. That being said, I don't have to much trouble getting to that 100% on the lessons. They aren't that long. Given that many of the exercises are quite simple...at least the first few in a series of 10 for example, that I may make an error, but have the confidence that I'm not shorting the lesson if I move on with less than 100%.

Regarding that song, I STILL HAVE NOT achieved 100%. I've played every measure of that song at 100% multiple times, but never in succession :shock:

And you hit the nail on the head, at least for this effort on this song, it is ego. I had several friends comment "Post your first song". Of course, I don't want to post something with errors in it.

I think I'm close to having it memorized, probably including the errors :lol:

@FlatPanda, I got a kick out of your post.

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