title: First In The Mind
tags: philosophy
h1:

The phrase *'First in the Mind, then in the body'* is something I picked up in the
years I spent learning Taiji. I [wrote a little on this here](https://maze.allsup.co/taiji/FirstInTheMindThenInTheBody?action=edit). When it
comes to composing, playing, and sound-design, something similar is beneficial
to develop. The ultimate aim is to be able to think the sound, or melody that
you want, and automatically know how to make that tune or sound reality.

In the context of melody, this means being able to take a tune you can
imagine in your head, and either write it down as sheet music, or program
it into a piano roll on the computer. Indeed a half-way stage of this is
being able to visualise sheet music or a piano roll representation of a
tune you are imagining.

In the context of sound design it is similar: you want to imagine a sound,
or perhaps a melody, in terms of the actual end-result, such as hearing
chords played by an FM Piano patch, or perhaps a rasping sync saw lead.

The general idea is that you first form a detailed, strong, deep picture
in your mind of what you intend to make, and then make it. To develop this,
as it doesn't happen by itself, you have to practise this. To practise this,
you must slow yourself down, and deliberately form a mental picture of each
and every action, each and every synth patch, and so on, before executing it.
In time, your brain will learn the association between what you imagine and
how to realise it.