This sounds ridiculous, but I think I have learned that I play better when I practice with the same color fret board that I use for a gig.
My performance guitars are usually packed away, so it's much more common for me to pick up my studio guitars when I need to prepare for a performance- I'm a big believer in 90% of the magic needs to take place in the fingers, so I'll usually grab whatever guitar looks like the most fun at the time, I'll practice new or difficult parts the day before a gig and take it easy the day of the gig.
What's interesting is my main performance guitar for years has been a Parker NF (dark finger board) while my most recent gig guitars have maple fingerboards- What I am noticing for the first time (because I'm using dark and light fingerboards approximately 50% of the time) is that color seems to really impact how I visualize a part- I seem to be performing new parts much easier when I learn them on the same color fretboard.
I had noticed in the past that fret markers do have a small impact- there clearly is some visual muscle memory going on in the background ('now I need to slide to that rectangle thing...but all I can find is that dot thing'). But in my case, color appears to be memorized as well.
Logically, I would think neck shape and size would have the most impact, but that bike accident when I was 6 may have scrambled more neurons than I imagined
Anyone have similar experiences?
My performance guitars are usually packed away, so it's much more common for me to pick up my studio guitars when I need to prepare for a performance- I'm a big believer in 90% of the magic needs to take place in the fingers, so I'll usually grab whatever guitar looks like the most fun at the time, I'll practice new or difficult parts the day before a gig and take it easy the day of the gig.
What's interesting is my main performance guitar for years has been a Parker NF (dark finger board) while my most recent gig guitars have maple fingerboards- What I am noticing for the first time (because I'm using dark and light fingerboards approximately 50% of the time) is that color seems to really impact how I visualize a part- I seem to be performing new parts much easier when I learn them on the same color fretboard.
I had noticed in the past that fret markers do have a small impact- there clearly is some visual muscle memory going on in the background ('now I need to slide to that rectangle thing...but all I can find is that dot thing'). But in my case, color appears to be memorized as well.
Logically, I would think neck shape and size would have the most impact, but that bike accident when I was 6 may have scrambled more neurons than I imagined
Anyone have similar experiences?
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