From my experience, I wouldn’t say logic is excluded, even when the will of the music takes you into the zone. Some very sophisticated thought is going on– but it’s non-verbal, non-visual, and it’s synthetic rather than analytic. A lot of it is muscle-think, that’s going straight into the dance on the (in my case guitar) strings, and expressive inflection (as distinct from the thought content) of the vocal. I’m literally thinking the feelings, both physical and emotional, that make the music happen.

Thinking and feeling are commonly imagined to be separate processes– one objective, one subjective– so “thinking a feeling” seems like a contradiction in terms, but I’ve decided it’s not true. I know what feelings in my hands/arms/body will make the next note or chord happen– and the next, and the next– as do you– and the thought signals stream straight to the necessary muscles.

We don’t do it by being objectively logical; I call it being rationally subjective, for lack of a better term. And it’s not just physical; when I move on to the next song, I deliberately change my emotional state accordingly. Actors do the same thing; now it’s time to be happy, now it’s time to be sad. . . on purpose, or in other words, logically. It’s the rational way to express the meaning in the music.

Enough for now. My thinking on this is still “under development”. I wonder if this has any bearing on your research, and am curious to hear anything you might have to say back to it.
Regards,
Alan James