As a computer programmer and a musician, I have experienced is crossing over from "still learning to do it" into "performing with little effort". I assume anyone who drives a car or rides a bike has the same experience.

For example, when I'm playing a piano part that I haven't completely internalized, I'll have think about what I'm doing. When I reach for a specific interval of notes, I need to double-check that my fingers have landed at the expected anchor points, and the stretch of my fingers matches the interval. It's hard because I'm still learning it as I'm playing, and learning takes a lot of work.

In contrast, when I've internalized all that, it takes far less mental effort - I can just reach for the interval, confident that the I'll hit the mark.

Of course, sometimes that confidence is misplaced. wink

Because I'm not a great player, I'm always ready to strip complexity from my playing in order to maintain that groove. If I'm coming up to something that I won't be able to execute at the full level of complexity, I'll figure out how much it needs to be pared down so that I can keep the groove.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?