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From:  "Elizabeth Finkler" <mightymezzo@h...>
Date:  Mon Sep 9, 2002  8:52 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] "Muscle Memory"

>From: "michael.chesebro" <michael.chesebro@w...>
>The phenomenon you describe is real and is also often called kinesthetic
>memory.
>As long as a singer knows where the memory is actually encoded, s/he is on
>the right track.
>

This is a bit off topic, but may help in understanding "muscle memory":

I started knitting again a few days ago, after buying an afghan kit at a
yard sale. (I was probably thinking along the lines of the character in
"You Can't Take It With You" who started writing plays after a typewriter
was delivered to her house by mistake.)

NOTE FOR NON-USA LISTERS: The "afghan" referred to above is a knitted or
crocheted blanket draped on the sofa (usually) for use on chilly nights.

I didn't want to trust my *conscious* memory to remember how to make some of
the stitches, so I bought a beginner's book on knitting along with the
needles. I opened the book to the instructions on how to cast on the first
row of stitches. All I had to do was make the first stitch..... and I was
off and running! My hands took over, and I didn't even have to think about
the four carefully illustrated steps in the knitting book.

THAT's "muscle memory." Hope this helps.


Elizabeth Finkler
San Jose, California
mightymezzo@h...
http://home.earthlink.net/~mightymezzo

We all live in a place called "23 skiddoo." --John Prine


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