I made my first flipbook since middle school a couple of weeks ago – inspired by the wonderful YouTube channel Andymation, which I’ve been watching with my kids.
Flipbooks are a wonderful window into how our brain works, because we make the panels one at a time, but if make the panels well, when we flip the book, it turns into a seamless animation. That’s because of how our brains process the images and infer seamlessness.
Unlike flipbooks or animation music actually is seamless – it flows continuously when we play it. Even the silences are part of the flow. Nevertheless, we can use our understanding of how our brains work to influence how we present and interpret music.
If we nail the big moments, create a consistent impression, it might not matter if we gloss over some detail–the impression is what will remain.
To be clear, I am not advocating for not paying sufficient attention to the details. We need to be discerning to the ultimate degree in rehearsal. But at the same time, it can be useful in a spirit of self-care to recognize that a failure in performance on some detail will not be enough to destroy the performance if we have created a consistent overall impression.