A Strange Phenomenon

thatukuleleguy

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Over the last couple of weeks, I've been working on a song. It was going well, but I was having some problems; awkward chord changes, things like that. Then, last weekend, I had to travel and couldn't bring my uke. The first thing I did when I got home last night was pick up my uke and play that song again. Only one thing was different this time.

I didn't have the usual problems.

I didn't have access to a uke for four days. I barely had time to even think about the song. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know why this happens?
 
It's kind of like when you have writer's block and you put down whatever you're doing and let it ferment awhile. You find that, when you get back to it, you're thinking much more clearly than you were before. Sometimes we let our brains get overclouded with thoughts...sometimes we just have to step back and reevaluate.
 
That's happened to me. I've been told that playing the ukulele (like learning anything else involving the use of muscles) requires the brain to develop what has been called a neural pathway for the movement that you're trying to learn. One theory is that during the time away from a series of motions you're trying to memorize, the brain continues to create the neural pathway that prompts your muscles to make the movement. My massage therapist, who works with athletes who change the way they move while recovering from injury (thus creating unwanted neural pathways for the new injury-caused movements) has explain this a lot better than I can. But many of my "breakthroughs" while learning rudimentary stuff on the ukulele have come after a few days away after serious time trying to memorize the movement.
 
I practice about 20 songs at a time, and the ones I struggle with I always let sit for a few days- I figure I dream about them.
As for traveling and not being able to bring a uke- you need to fix that :)
 
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