Co-ordinadtion

[LDT]

I was watching the One Show yesterday and it had a article about co-ordinating left and right hand:

Marty Jopson kicked off our Body Tricks week by looking at the weird and wonderful things we can - and can't - do with our bodies. First up, he looked at why we find it so difficult doing two different things at once.

To see if it really is as hard as it looks, the One Show production team had a go at Marty's Right Foot and Six Trick. Watch the results above. Can you do better?

To try the trick for yourself, this is what you have to do:

While sitting cross your right leg over your left.

Make clockwise circles with your right foot.

Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand.

Can you do this? Are you co-ordinated? Is this something that you find really hard?

Do you think this might be the reason I find left and right co-ordination so hard?

...when I think about playing the melody the accompanyment goes out the window and vice-versa.

[tombilly]

Ha, when I was learning the accordion, my teacher suggested patting the head with right hand and moving left hand in circular motion on tummy. Same sort of thing and the point was to co-ordinated the basses/chords left hand with the melody on the right. It's the same with tapping your foot to keep the rhythm - lots of beginners find this hard as they must learn to put the tap on auto. They start thinking about the melody and foot tap at same time and get confused. But like anything, practice and it becomes second nature.

[Hereward]

I was watching the One Show yesterday and it had a article about co-ordinating left and right hand:

Marty Jopson kicked off our Body Tricks week by looking at the weird and wonderful things we can - and can't - do with our bodies. First up, he looked at why we find it so difficult doing two different things at once.

To see if it really is as hard as it looks, the One Show production team had a go at Marty's Right Foot and Six Trick. Watch the results above. Can you do better?

To try the trick for yourself, this is what you have to do:

While sitting cross your right leg over your left.

Make clockwise circles with your right foot.

Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand.

Can you do this? Are you co-ordinated? Is this something that you find really hard?

Do you think this might be the reason I find left and right co-ordination so hard?

...when I think about playing the melody the accompanyment goes out the window and vice-versa.

 

This is probably the reason why most people would find this hard and the good news is, as also shown on the programme with the drummers, that with training you will be doing fine with both hands with some practice. Learning is easier when one is young and so I am sure you are going to be playing like a god in no time. One advantage older people have is they tend to be more patient and this is something you will have to work through.

 

One hand (probably the right) will play automatically from muscle memory eventually. When this happens you will be better able to work with the left one; although you should carry on using both whilst learning. Then the left will be semi-automatic and eventually, because you have reprogrammed a process, you will sail away each time you try a new tune.

 

There is a great saying I learnt in Aikido: 'Hold firm but let go easy'. Meditate on this a bit and apply the principle to this wonderful but often fiendish instrument and you will benefit.

 

I don't speak from any great knowledge of concertinas or even music but I am a qualified NLP practitioner and that gives me an insight into how this works.

 

Ian

[Chris Drinkwater]

I was watching the One Show yesterday and it had a article about co-ordinating left and right hand:

Marty Jopson kicked off our Body Tricks week by looking at the weird and wonderful things we can - and can't - do with our bodies. First up, he looked at why we find it so difficult doing two different things at once.

To see if it really is as hard as it looks, the One Show production team had a go at Marty's Right Foot and Six Trick. Watch the results above. Can you do better?

To try the trick for yourself, this is what you have to do:

While sitting cross your right leg over your left.

Make clockwise circles with your right foot.

Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand.

Can you do this? Are you co-ordinated? Is this something that you find really hard?

Do you think this might be the reason I find left and right co-ordination so hard?

...when I think about playing the melody the accompanyment goes out the window and vice-versa.

 

 

Ha, I couldn't even manage to cross my right leg over my left, never mind doing the rest of it!. A school in the North East of England, in Tyneside, has been experimenting with a new form of accelerated learning, which involves combining physical activity, with short bursts of learning and promises amazing results. It's called "spaced learning" and the technique apparently helps to make memories stick. It takes the form of an intense powerpoint presentation, repeated three times, and interspersed with ten minute breaks of juggling or spinning plates. They are using the technique to enable pupils to sit for GCSE's and pass them in a shorter time than normal teaching would take. I guess it might just work for learning to play a musical instrument or, once you can play one reasonably well, an aid to learning new techniques or tunes better. So, why not give it a try? Practice on your concertina for a while and then stop and juggle for a few minutes. If you can't juggle, then simply pass a ball (a tennis one will do nicely) from hand to hand, throwing it in an arc about eye height and do this for a few munutes and then go back to playing again. Repeat three times, as recommended above and see if your playing/technique or tune learning has improved or is better than it was. I am going to give it a try. Fortunately, I can juggle! Perhaps Ian can recommend some NLP techniques that might help.

 

Chris