Bhassler wrote:oragami_itto wrote:It's akin to playing an instrument in a band. You don't have time to listen to each note before preparing to strike the next. As each note completes, before it can be registered by the ear and brain, we must be already striking the next, or we lose the rhythm and harmony.
Speed of sound = 343 m/s
Speed of a signal in the nervous system = 100 m/s
Presumably you're playing songs at something like 3000 bpm, then. Tender love songs, most likely....
Clever but you missed the point.
It's not about speed, it's timing. It doesn't matter how fast something happens if it starts a millisecond too late. In order for the song to stay true, certain events must happen at precise intervals, if the attention catches on the effects instead of continuing to maintain causes then there is stuttering in the flow. Double weightedness.
Listen to a beginning student practicing their instrument. The irregular pauses as they look up the note, remember the body positions required to sound the note, move the body to that position, and then sound the note. In the beginning each note is distinct and probably irregularly sounded, too loud or too soft. As familiarity with the instrument increases, then it becomes more of a matter of knowing which note to strike next in the sequence. So learning a song, perhaps there's some of that play-play-play-pause, play, long pause, play, play, short pause, as they refer to the sheet music. Next they can perhaps play songs without reference to the sheet music because they've been memorized, but sometimes they may forget the next note and stutter. Next then playing songs by ear, and finally perhaps the ability to sit in with someone else and improvise, or spontaneously compose. Same thing with Taijiquan.
They say playing an instrument provides a unique boost to mental capacity, I theorize this particular need for the internal harmonies is at least part of the reason for that boost. Consequently, I hypothesize you can receive some of the same benefit from authentically training the harmonies in your martial art.
Personally, I break it down as such.
There's the sequence buffer/pattern generator. Let's call that Xin. We learn the movements intellectually, store the movement in the body, and orchestrate them with the heart. There's a level of awareness tied to each aspect, Xin, Yi, Qi, Jin, and they're all proceeding on individual tracks. So when we strike a note, or blow, there's the part of the mind that is setting up the next movement, the part of the mind overseeing the execution of the movement, and the part of the mind observing what has happened.
That's the main idea, that the process can't stop and dwell on the result. There is an observer tracking results, but the orchestrator doesn't have time to wait for that feedback. It can change tack based on feedback received, but it cannot delay action waiting for it.
Flow training, basically.