the zone

[NewGuyonGuitar]

So I was practicing last night. Going over one of the few minor pentatonic scales I know. Something happened. For a few minutes, my fingers seemed to know what they were doing. I wasn't missing notes, I wasn't stumbling over anything. My playing sounded smoother, more blended. Other sounds in the room faded and my focus seemed to sharpen. The notes seemed to flow.....

 

I'll label it "the zone".

 

Does this come more frequently the longer you practice?

 

Do some of you shoot for this every time you practice?

[Virgman]

Although I no longer play I have been in the zone while golfing. Usually once or rarely twice a year I would get in the zone. It's incredible and magical.

 

Drives are long and accurate, iron shot fly true, pitches and chips land near the hole or sometimes take odd bounces towards the hole, putts drop.

 

It's a strange phenomenon but very real and unexplainable. The cosmic forces of the universe have aligned for some reason. To have experienced it is a rare gift.

 

But I've never been in the zone playing guitar.

 

The book "The Inner Game of Golf" has come the closest to explaining it to me in the area of golf.

[1001gear]

The zone is like a peak reading meter. It stays where you took it. The better you get, the higher you take it, the more there is to it. And the rarer it gets. I been in my zone lotsa times. As a teen it's easy - do weed, zone. As you progress it's like hormones. They gotta be pent up and the zone is the release. Weed still helps. Not saying I was good either. Just in the zone.

 

Now, 30+ yrs later my intellectualized zone is just a figment. Never been there and don't care. I try to push my personal "pretend" zone but I kinda like the normalcy of my current abilities. Not saying it's that good. I just like playing.

[JonR]

I've never been a surfer, but I liken it to how I imagine that moment when you get up on the board and the wave carries you. It's a mix of feeling in perfect control, but also in the flow of some power beyond your control.

As virgman says, sportsmen certainly get it, just as musicians do. It's when all that practice pays off, and you forget to think - wow, you realise, your subconscious actually does carry you through!

My usual experience is that, while in the zone, I start to get conscious of it, and then start thinking again, and then (of course) it disappears.

I don't believe in any kind of mystical interpretation, but it does seem that an audience recognises it too when it happens - like you're suddenly all in the same place, outside of reality for a moment, surfing on the music. I know I've seen it happen at gigs and concerts I've been to, but very rarely. It's where every single note played seems to be just the right note for that moment - that microsecond - it couldn't have been any other. There's no struggle, either from the player(s) or the audience.

IMO, this is the true power and role of music itself (in all cultures), to take us outside of ourselves for a few moments. I think it's the thing we're always waiting for or searching for (even subconsciousy) every time we listen to music, or every time we play. But you can't control it, you can't summon it deliberately.

It's an irritating platitude to say "you just have to feel it", but this is what people mean when they say that. You DO have to feel it, but if you're trying to, it won't happen. You can open yourself up to it, with the right attitude, but that's all. The best you can do is try to be a clear channel, to give it the best chance.

[BydoEmpire]

 

Does this come more frequently the longer you practice?

For me sometime's it's there, sometimes it's not. I haven't really pinpointed, but I wish I knew how to turn it on at will - if I did I'd be a hell of a lot better! Honestly I think it has to do more with my state of mind and other factors than my practice, outside of maybe how well rehearsed I am. If I'm well rehearsed I'll be comfortable at the gig, and it's easier to be in the zone because I don't have to think about the songs I can just play them. I think I'm a lot better now than I was 10 years ago, but I don't think I get in the zone more often.

 

 

Do some of you shoot for this every time you practice?

I practice so that I can get there more easily when I play, but I'm not sure I really get in the zone when I practice. Maybe I'm just arguing syntax here...

[JonR]

 

Do some of you shoot for this every time you practice?

Not me.

But then I don't really practise any more, and haven't done for years. I play when I teach, and when I gig; and when I'm learning a tune (usually for teaching, but sometimes for gigging and sometimes just for me); and when I'm composing.

But I don't deliberately aim for the zone in any of these activities, except possibly in the last one, when trying to write.

For me, it's gigging where it really happens but - as I said above - if you try for it it doesn't work. It's something to do with the adrenalin, or the surroundings, that can bring it on live.

When trying to compose I do attempt something similar consciously, which is to try to forget what I know, and just listen to how tunes try to form themselves in my head. I pretend that the song is something with a life and intention of its own, and I just have to let it emerge and do its thing, and follow where it takes me.

In a sense, playing live (improvising) is the same process but much more urgent and heightened - and connected of course with the existing songs we're playing. So the inventive process is much more channelled, more limited. I know all the tunes we play by heart - which I think is essential for a "zone" event to take place - so I don't have to think too much when playing. I find that a good trigger is when I improvise something that sounds different from how I expected it to; that then inspires me in a different direction, and - with luck - the solo takes over and seems to play itself. That's what I call the "zone". The hard part then is to keep it going.

[Virgman]

The Zone is like a mist. You can try to hold it but it is impossible. It's there and you pass through it for a brief time and then you are past it and it is gone.

 

You can't hold on to it. You can't make it happen. It just comes and goes by itself.

 

It is most amazing. It's God-like.

 

Perhaps it is the closest a man can get to experiencing what being God must be like. And God has given it to us to show us what is possible.

[jeremy_green]

The zone - The most addictive place on earth! Training yourself to be able to "get there" at will is the elusive brass ring for the masters of the instrument. I try to get there every practice and am successful to varying degrees depending on how full my mind is with other thoughts. I'm learning though.

 

Nice that you had a taste of that so early man. It took me a LONG time to get awareness of it at all.

[chuzwozza]

I live life in pursuit of the zone...some days it just doesn't happen, some days it's zone time all the way! If someone could work out a way to harness and bottle it, they'd be a squillionaire!

[chittypantz]

That's disturbing. Clearly your hand has become possessed, and you need to separate it from the rest of your body ASAP. I recommend consulting the instructional documentaries Evil Dead 2 and Idle Hands if you have any questions. Beware, though, that the hand will be displeased and likely will seek revenge consisting of either bodily harm or framing you for its crimes.