Practice demands either total focus or absolute surrender

Active cognitive engagement. Shane Sager forces his brain out of autopilot by transcribing and practicing harmonica licks in reverse (Shane’s Substack). This method increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for logic and decision-making, which prevents reliance on familiar muscle memory patterns. A practice journal further enforces this intentionality by limiting the scope of daily goals to specific, manageable steps on the page.

Surrender to durational flow. Elori Saxl finds deep musical value in the opposite approach, where the performer commits to extreme repetition and space (First Floor). By holding a single note for minutes at a time, the music shifts from a predictable sequence into a state of suspended undulation that rewards focused attention. Craig and Alex of the project Tule echo this by building tracks through long, evolving tape loops, allowing the recording process to discover the composition instead of following a pre-planned structure (quiet details).

The tension of intent. These perspectives highlight a divide between music as a series of calculated, high-stakes decisions and music as an immersive environment. While Sager treats each solo as a repeated act of logic, Saxl and the Tule duo treat the performance as a vessel for resonance, where the goal is to inhabit the sound as it unfolds.