Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Imagine Playing the Kalimba

Brain researchers studying monkey brain functionality have discovered something really cool - when a monkey reaches for a banana, and when a monkey sees another monkey reaching for a banana, the same networks in the brain are firing.

Applied to humans, researchers have discovered that your brain is getting a very similar workout if you play guitar or if you imagine yourself playing guitar.

I am making an assumption here - that someone who has never played guitar before won't really benefit from imagining they are playing. But if you have played before, then you have a map in your head that connects the string and fret with an actual pitch. If you can imagine playing a particular riff with your fingers playing on particular frets and also hear it in your head, then I would guess that this would be pretty much as good as actually practicing - or maybe better, as it strengthens the fingering/pitch map in your head.

As a beginning kalimba player, the first thing to do to make such imagination exercises work would be to make sure you have the map between the tines and the pitch in your head. So, do this: play each kalimba tine from lowest to highest, paying attention to the scale as you play it. Next look at the kalimba, imagine you are playing the same thing, and imagine how it sounds. Then actually play it and see if the actual sound is the same as the sound you had imagined. After you can do that, close your eyes and imagine the tines, imagine you are playing, and hear the sound in your head. Pay attention to things like painted tines, how many tines, left or right. This exercise works for any kalimba riff you might play. You know you are doing it well when you can initiate things in the mind and go to the kalimba and discover that it really does sound like you had imagined. Start with a very easy riff if you need to, this is a very valuable skill to acquire. Good luck!