Or, How I Performed My Junior Recital
During my sophomore year of college, I was diagnosed with severe strain in my left shoulder. The injury took me almost completely out of playing commission for a solid year, and forced me to go from 3+ hours a day of playing my instrument, to five minutes a day.
Yes, five.
During that time, I was in college for my music performance degree, which meant that I had to prepare a junior solo recital in addition to keeping up with my other required performance classes (orchestra and chamber music) and my academics.
No, I did not drop out and yes, I did perform that recital!!
How I did it? Mental practice.
My shoulder injury forced me to reevaluate a lot of things in my life. A big one was how I approached practice. I had to step back and force myself to take a less break-neck-speed approach to improving on my instrument and to prioritize how I felt as I played. It forced me to get out of my comfort zone and find new, unfamiliar ways of learning on my instrument. So, I did research.
I found that performance psychologist Noa Kagayama of the Bullet Proof Musician touted mental practice as an incredibly important tool for musicians’ practice. He introduced me to sports psychology studies about mental practice that proved the technique could be used instead of physical practice, that evidence supporting its effectiveness was growing, and that it could be used to improve on your instrument even when you were injured!
I pricked up my ears and jumped on the mental practice bandwagon. While continuing to research the technique and experiment with it, I slowly added mental practice into my practice toolbox. Here are some key takeaways from my learning.
Frontiers in Psychology defines mental practice as “a fully immersive multi-sensory procedure that associates as numerous senses to create a mental image and process it without the presence of external stimuli. In the sport situation, imagery has been designated as the state in which people imagine themselves while effecting abilities to deal with the forthcoming duty or improve performance”.
Further, mental imagery (the technique of mental practice) “is the reproduction of perceptual experience (Kosslyn et al., 2001; Pearson, 2007) across multisensory ways and the processing of images in the absence of external stimuli”. That is, you are taking in sensory data that your mind produces in visual, kinesthetic and auditory dimensions, and using that data to strengthen already existing neural pathways in your brain. This drastically the physical effort of building up skills while still providing the same effects!!
Dr. Kagayama pointed out that while mental practice can be a really effective tool, it needs to have two aspects to produce results. Mental practice needs to be systematic. You need to structure it into your routine, and you need to approach it strategically as you would physical practice. To be most effective, Dr. Kagayama recommends having a plan for your mental practice and to use it for problem solving, experimenting with different execution options, and acclimating to a performance setting. In a nutshell, keep yourself engaged in the process rather than going on autopilot.
Mental practice also needs to be vivid to maintain its effectiveness. Vaguely imagining yourself performing or woodshedding a passage won’t really work. Dr. Kagayama advises mentally visualizing your surroundings and combining body awareness with the exercise to enhance vividity. In my own experimentation, I found that mental practice needs to be vivid in three ways in order to stick:
– Auditory. When I was completely sure of how a given note or passage would sound, beginning-to-end, I found that I was able to execute it to my liking much more clearly and easily. Conversely, if my sense of how a note or section was in any way fuzzy or unsure, my practicing wouldn’t stick and my ease of execution suffered. Mentally imaging how certain notes or passages of music would sound is a process called audiation. Audiation can be used to solidify intonation, experiment with dynamics and phrasing, and building familiarity with new pieces or rhythms.
– Visual. Especially when problem-solving, I found that I needed to be crystal clear on how executing a given skill would look. For example, when planning my bow usage in mental practice, I couldn’t rely on visualizing the sound I made or how it felt- I had to know how much bow, visually, I needed to use. Could I imagine what my frog looked like, the middle and tip parts of my bow, or visualize the distance between first position and seventh?
Visual imaging proves to be especially helpful when preparing for a performance. Instead of having my first experience of a performance when I got on stage, I could mentally visualize the concert hall, my family sitting in the middle of the front row, the stage lights blinding me, etc. This exercise helped me acclimate to the experience of performing.
– Kinesthetic. Connecting with my kinesthetic awareness (the perception of how the human body moves in relation to itself and the environment) and sense of touch is the most crucial part of mental practice for me. When I mentally practiced, I could have a precise awareness of how I wanted a note to sound, how my bow and fingers looked while I played it, the people in the room with me. But if I couldn’t feel how it felt to play it in my body the visualization would be ineffective.
Experiencing how it felt to play a passage or note also provides me an interesting opportunity to observe my body and internal sensations. While exploring my kinesthetic sense in mental practice, I often had realizations like that I was unconsciously carrying chronic tension in my core, hips or jaw, or that I would lock up with anxiety before executing a big shift. I also often found that if I couldn’t access how executing something would feel, that lack of clarity directly translated into an unclean sound or mistakes.
– A bonus – when I could mentally execute a passage with clarity in all 3 of these aspects (auditory, visual and kinesthetic), I found that I “automatically” memorized the passage!
Dr. Kagayama also points out in his blog that mental practice is like a fine wine – fantastic on its own, but best paired with cheese. That is, mental practice is most effective when combined with simultaneously observing someone else execute the skill or with physical practice. If you’d like a really interesting experiment, try watching your favorite soloist play a piece you know by heart while mentally imaging yourself playing along with them.
When I was using mental practice to learn a skill (like a new rhythm or bow technique) for the first time, I found that it simply…didn’t work. This article points out that beginners in a given skill should not use mental practice, since they don’t have the data your brain needs to mentally “rehearse” a skill. I also found that if I tried to practice a passage much faster than I was already able to play it, that mental practice didn’t help at all. Evidently, mental practice can be used for deep learning – to refine skills you already possess and to troubleshoot. It’s not as effective for completely new learning or execution beyond your current skill level.
I mentioned earlier that mental practice is a technique best used by non-beginners of a particular skill. This is true, but it doesn’t mean that a person needs to be a certain age to use mental practice. Children are able to use it too! Once children have hit the age to be able to logically reason, around 7 years of age (Piaget’s Concrete Operational stage of development), they are able to use mental imaging to refine a skill.
A study was published in Frontiers in Psychology that concluded that children had great success using mental practice, and that little athletes were able to use the technique much more easily than their non-athletic peers. Teachers and parents, don’t be afraid to guide your student through mental practice!
Which brings me to my last point: how to mentally practice. Here’s a loose step-by-step process that I follow.
Step 0.5 - Planning + Awareness
Before I begin my practice session, I remove any distractions that would interrupt the process. I place my phone across the room, prepare my practice materials (scores, sticky notes, journal and pencil) and breathe. I also plan out what I’d like to accomplish that practice session, selecting technique concerns, a scale or two and passages from my repertoire. Then, I’m ready to practice.
o Body scan: I like to start with a body scan to become aware of any pain or tension I’m feeling at the moment (I got this idea from Dr. Kagayama’s how-to guide on mental practice). I close my eyes, get comfortable wherever I’m standing or sitting, and mentally check all the areas in my body for tension or pain. Once I’m aware of what I’m experiencing, I make note of it, try to release any tense areas, and make a mental note to stretch any areas I cannot release in those 5 or so minutes.
o Environment: After I check in with my body, I try to imagine my surroundings. I usually practice in my bedroom, so I picture myself in my bedroom. If I’m imaging a concert performance, I’ll linger over imagining the stage space, how big it is, how big the room feels, whether the room is occupied by the audience, and how the light hits my eyes. I’ll take note of the temperature and energy in the room and then walk to the area I will stand to play.
o Perspective: A note about perspective – some video games will allow the player to play in first person, that is, showing the player’s surroundings as if the player is looking at them directly through the avatar’s lens. Some video games will instead be experienced in the third person – the player can still control the avatar’s actions, but the player is watching the avatar execute the actions. I tend to prefer practicing in as true-to-life of an environment as I can, that is, in the first person. Some people may prefer the third-person and “watching themselves practice”, but I find that that perspective is not as intuitive or conducive to kinesthetic practice.
Step 1 - Warm up
After I’m aware of my body and surroundings, I then walk to my case and imagine myself taking out my instrument (in the “first person”, as stated above). I feel how the instrument feels in my hands, how much it weighs, and if it makes sound when I handle it. I pluck the strings to test its tuning, then put the instrument up to my shoulder. I feel how both violin and bow contact my body and the textures of the wood and metal. Then, I tune my instrument, hearing its tone, resonance and intonation.
After I tune, I warm up slowly with a resonant scale (my favorite warm-up) and feel how the strings vibrate under my left hand, the tension of the strings under my bow, how my body responds to my balance and holding my instrument. I hear each note’s beginning, tone and intonation as I play the scale, and if I “played” a note without hearing it clearly or feeling it in my body, I go back and play it again. This process takes a little while as my brain gets used to the experience, and then I can usually find a flow to it. I give myself all the time I need to find a groove with my awareness.
Step 2 - Technique
After warming up and priming my brain for my work, I find the technique(s) I wanted to focus on in the practice session and practice those as I would usually do physically. However, I encourage myself to be more aware than in my physical practice. If there is a place in the etude or technique that is “fuzzy”, where I can’t imagine it clearly, I linger over that spot and figure out what about its execution is unclear to me. I ensure that I can clearly visualize both my left hand’s and my right hand’s actions and how they work together to execute the skill. I take note mentally or on a sticky note of any trouble spots, repeat them as necessary, and troubleshoot sticky areas. If there were any major breakthroughs, I write them down.
Step 3 - Repertoire
After technique, I’m ready to practice the repertoire I’m working on. I follow the same process as previously to assess my selected repertoire section. I’ll provide my mental assessment process in more detail here:
– I find the small spot I want to work on, and visualize myself playing or performing that spot.
– I assess the take for problems and clarity. Was there anything that went obviously wrong, that I was not confident on, or that seemed unclear?
– I assess my kinesthetic experience. Could I clearly feel how playing the passage successfully would feel in both my hands, in my chest, shoulders and back? Was I engaged with my core and feet? Did I experience anxiety symptoms in any part of the passage? If so, why? Did I feel pain or lack of freedom? If so, why? What can I do differently if anxiety or tension happen? I write down ideas and thoughts. If I want to at the time, I troubleshoot, or I continue assessment.
– I assess my auditory experience. Could I clearly hear how playing the passage successfully would sound? Could I hear each note clearly, or did I gloss over any? Did I execute dynamics and phrasing? Did I like what I did, or was my execution too shy? Did I like my phrasing? If not, why not? Could I hear each note’s tone and intonation? Did any sound unconfident? I write down ideas and thoughts. If I want to at the time, I troubleshoot, or I continue assessment.
– I assess my visual experience. Could I clearly see my bow and my fingers as I executed a slur, shift or hand position? Did I over- or under-shoot any shifts or bow distribution? Are my hands coordinated? I write down ideas and thoughts. If I want to at the time, I troubleshoot, or I continue assessment.
– I assess my artistic experience. Am I satisfied with my phrasing and interpretation? If not, why? What can I do differently? I write down ideas and thoughts.
– This entire assessment process takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes, depending on how much trouble I have with the passage and my mental energy.
Step 4 - Experimentation + Solidification
Usually, I use mental practice as an assessment tool, as I detailed above. When I have identified the things that I am doing well and what I am not satisfied with, I usually decide if I want to continue the mental practice session, if I want to take a break, or if I want to continue practice on my physical instrument.
If I intend to use mental practice as just an assessment tool, I conduct the full assessment (above) and then take a break (all that thinking is tiring!) or continue practice on my instrument. If I want to experiment and solidify a skill with mental practice, then I will select an aspect of the passage that was weakest (kinesthetic, auditory, visual or artistic) and improve clarity, troubleshoot problems and experiment.
This process looks very similar to how I’d normally practice on my physical instrument. I improve clarity by repeatedly visualizing myself playing the passage until the complete mental image of the experience comes into focus. Most importantly, I continue asking myself questions as I play and take breaks if my mind gets tired. I give myself the freedom to focus on just one aspect of the passage (kinesthetic, auditory, etc) or to improve a combination of them. If I have lots of energy or if I’m in the zone, I perform, assess and break down multiple passages in my repertoire.
Step 5 - Implementation
At this point, my mind is very tired and I’m ready to be done with the practice session. I usually conclude my mental practice session with another mental performance of the passage(s), or play the section(s) on my violin. I compare my first performance with my last performance and see if there is improvement. Usually, I miss some of the awareness or new learning that I had practiced in previously, but about 60-80% of it sticks!
Step 6 - Rest
I take a nap because my brain is exhausted. If you do it right, you should be quite tired after a round of mental practice! It takes a lot of energy!
Do you use mental practice? It’s such a helpful tool in practice, and I would love to hear if you’ve used it before! Does your experience of mental practice look different than the tutorial above? Let me know!
Until next time, happy practicing!