Like walking down the street, we hardly consider putting one foot after the next. The brain coordinates everything while that main part of consciousness thinks about what flavour of ice cream to buy. When musicians know something inside out, then they can do other things simultaneously. They can more or less hold a conversation while their hands play the piece. Same for actors, dancers, anyone who learned how to drive stick. The part of the brain that can’t initially do it no longer in that slow processing position.
Been reading about the reticular formation, that part of the brain that decides what to filter towards consciousness or what to ignore. Makes me think about learning something new and how it is necessary to do 10,000 times until auto pilot exists. Wonder if it can be reduced to 9000? I ask my students to recite the months of the year backwards while they practice or do a math calculation. Maybe it is a useful short circuiting to try being as though we are in the future place before we are.
Like teaching French, ask them to take a break, get an orange juice inside a French Cafe, hear a lot of fluent French by other voices unlike what they hear in the classroom. Many things will happen for their brain by standing in the middle of a French restaurant instead of a classroom slowly pronouncing du jus d’orange.