Is playing blindfold a good practice method?
Is playing without being able to look at what you're doing a useful practice technique for instruments like guitar and piano?
Learning to play without needing to look at your instrument is good of course but what about forcing that strictly either by having a dark room or a blindfold, for some portion of your practice - so you can't keep sneaking a look every time you hit the wrong note?
Sensible or stupid?
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Blindfolding might be taking it a bit too far, but I guess it can't hurt. I personally like to play in the dark. :)
I find it helps in several respects:
Obviously, it's going to help you learn to play automatically,
without any crutches, and reinforce your muscle memory.
I've also found that it helps you focus your attention on your sound
and execution: Less visual noise, so your brain is more focused on
the sound. You will notice things about your playing that you might not notice with all that visual noise distracting you.
For the same reason, if you're playing, not just practicing, cutting
down on visual noise helps your musical creativity. I think most of
us prefer low lighting when we're playing, and I don't think it's an
accident that some of our greatest, most naturally talented musicians -
people like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Roland Kirk - were/are blind. The brain tries to focus on all the sensory inputs that are delivered to it - cut down on one, more attention can be dedicated to others.
It's good to play with others who do not have their heads down all the time. You can communicate with them, have a laugh, guess what they're thinking.And there's often lots of interesting things going on on the dance floor that you'd otherwise miss.
Apart - yes, it's a good idea. Maybe not the blindfold or paper bag, but certainly looking away for periods of time.Most pieces will not have great leaps of hand position , so there's no real need to look. My piano teacher would hold a book above my hands, so I couldn't see the keys. On guitar, muscle memory will aid finding the right fret - try it - a barre A on 5th fret, take hand away, try again. 8/10 is pretty good! Once in the box, most of what you need will be underneath your fingers. There's also the danger, if you're reading, that you'll lose your place. My students have the dots/charts just where the guitar head is pointing - eyes up and down a little, rather than watching a tennis match. Who came up with putting the music in front of a guitarist. (Yes, I know, it usually makes them play very quietly...)
And if you do hit a wrong note, pno or gtr, try to hit the correct one WITHOUT LOOKING.
Addendum - with the guitar neck, on the opposite edge to where little dots are sometimes seen, thus on the blind side, little blobs could be put, which would be felt by the inside of fingers. Maybe not on all marked frets, but, say, 5,7 and 12.
Not exactly blindfold but playing in the dark or very low light increases the detail in my hearing. I find it a very useful method especially for acquiring a good sound and interpretation rather than technique.
An other suggestion may be to play all transposes of the song from the hearth after memorizing the piece in the original key. This exercise breaks the dependence to the muscle memory and instrument-wise limitations and help you to comprehend the piece conceptually independent from the instrument.
I a not a musician. But, I just asked myself this same question, after seeing a drummer with hair over his eyes.
Since it looks like other musicians are asking this question, I want to mention something auditory related that people may want to consider:
I used to metal detect at night, with no light. The more I did it, the more my ears and mind became attuned to sound - pure sound. From the sound my mind learned to distinguish many things about the target - shape, size, density, etc. It became more than just a "beep". Sound can have an edge, a clarity, a lack of clarity, length, strength, etc. After much practice, I realized that it was easier for me to work in absolute darkness, than with a light, or with my eye on a gauge. Seeing became a distraction. I just needed to hear pure sound, and nothing more.
I would be willing to bet that if musicians practiced performing in absolute darkness, the musician's mind would began to focus exclusively on pure sound, in a very nuanced manner. It might take weeks and months of practice. But, I bet that the person's mind would learn to "parse" and analyze the quality of sound in a very focused manner, with no other competing sensory distractions.
I hope this helps someone. By the way, I never did better in metal detecting than when I learned to operate purely off of sound.
This question makes me think of Ray Charles, Jose Feliciano and Ronnie Milsap. They had to learn to play without being able to look at their hands and they each play with incredible expression and soul. Perhaps forcing yourself to have to learn that way does have it's advantages. An interesting aspect about learning almost anything is realizing there is more than one way to "skin a cat". Also actually performing blindfolded might be an interesting gimmick.
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