How to Learn Musical Multitasking by Offloading Skills to Your Body
Learning Musical Multitasking
I demonstrate that playing multiple instruments simultaneously is a learnable skill, not an innate talent. By practicing in isolation, then distracting myself with non-musical tasks, and finally combining actions, I move complex movements out of conscious attention. This process allows my body to handle rhythm and accompaniment while my mind focuses on melody or conversation, proving that anyone can master this form of musical multitasking with patience.
The core of it is that I have much more physical ability to do things than conscious attention to coordinate them with.
- vunderba
Whenever I think of a true musical multitasker, I picture Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins.
There's an element of multitasking that is (while not exclusively) inherent to piano definitely is an important focus.
For instance, I play a lot of stride and blues piano. One of the hallmarks of those styles is having a rock-solid left hand that can maintain ornate but very consistent patterns. Once that’s locked in, your right hand is pretty much free to do whatever it wants. You'll find that your right hand can literally be almost totally independent.
It can sing out the melody, feed yourself grapes, or turn the pages of a book while your left hand just keeps on going - honestly fatigue is the biggest factor particlarly at higher tempos.
OTOH, musical multitasking where the left and right hands (or different parts of the body) are genuinely playing new, independent lines is tremendously more difficult.
Mad respect for Johann Sebastian Bach, who by all accounts could extemporize contrapuntal music essentially inventing fresh, independent patterns in both hands at the same time. I know that’s not multiple instruments in the literal sense, but in effect it kind of is, especially when you factor in the foot pedals of an organ.
- bluGill
I've been trying to do something like this for a long time. There are lots of different options, but not many are easially available, and there are no instructions. The big lesson is always "I need a lot more practice". Harmonica has a hands-free brace from multiple manufactures, so that is the most approachable option to combine with a stringed instrument (and I sound terrible when I try it).
Maybe in 20 years I'll get something working. (sooner if anyone wants to fund my mid-life crisis)
- Rochus
The relevant issue is independent or coordinated control of concurrent musical parts, not whether those parts happen to use different instruments. Piano, Organ (with bass pedal) and drum-kit playing are canonical examples of the same underlying challenge. Skilled performance can require separately controlled fingers, hands, and feet, while the player experiences them as an integrated whole.
I started to play the drums with my feed on a bass pedal sixteen years ago and do the bass with my left hand. This worked naturally from day one (though I got better with more exercise). There is just not enough time to think about it, as the author suggests. Here is a recording where you can see it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJV0I7KgsJc, left guy). And here is a more recent solo recording: https://rochus-keller.ch/?p=1317, just one guy, all live, no overdupps.