#mental practice

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were studies about how to use mental techniques to improve performance? Oh wait, there are -

Sport Psychology is super helpful for musicians. There actually studies now for music performance specifically, but I think there are more/earlier sport-related studies that are also applicable to musicians. 

As mentioned in my last post, The Bulletproof Musician has a ton of resources about this, writing that they “discovered that that top athletes don’t just train physically, but engage in a ton of mental training as well.“

I think that mental practice has become more well-known; a lot of people I know have at least heard about mental practice. But I think a lot of us don’t really know just how beneficial it is or what all of the options are besides looking at a score and listening to a recording. This post is mainly focusing on mental practice in general and how to do a mental rehearsal for a performance, but there will be future posts on using mental practice for performance anxiety and for memorization.

How beneficial is mental practice? Here are some articles from The Bulletproof Musician that may be helpful:

How Effective is Mental Practice, Really?

A study that shows that pianists who practiced mentally for 30 minutes and on a real piano for 10 minutes were able to reach the same level as pianists who spent all 40 minutes on a real piano. 

Does Mental Practice Work?

Yes, if done correctly. Of course, you should also use physical practice. But doing mental practice can cut down on how much physical practice you need to do. Article includes guidelines for successful mental practice.

A 7-point “How-To Guide for Effective Mental Practice

This is a guide to doing a mental rehearsal of a performance. It can also be used for slowly practicing tricky spots. 

Have Difficulty Staying Awake During Mental Practice? Try "Dynamic" Mental Imagery Instead!

Looks at the differences between static and dynamic imagery. Moving your fingers while doing mental practice can help you stay awake, but he also points out that there aren’t studies on which will help more long-term. I use static mental practice to really force myself to make sure I have a piece memorized, but I can’t do it in bed before sleep or else I’ll fall asleep mid-piece. Lately I’ve been doing it while walking to/from class.

How Many Hours a Day Should You Practice?

Leopold Auer said, “Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours.“ Heifetz believed that practicing too much is just as bad as practicing too little, and only practiced three hours a day. What’s most important is the type of practice you do - deliberate, not mindless. Studies show that there is little benefit to practicing more than 4 hours a day, and that gains begin to decline after the 2-hour mark. This post has some good suggestions for the most effective practice.

Deep Practice Few Do

This post is a partial glimpse of Chapter 31: Going Mental. The image below of the Facets Model is from page 173 in The Practice of Practice

https://amzn.to/2EFmILC

If you’re passionate, curious, and driven, you might do this kind of practice without much thinking. Learning just the notes, or the sounds, isn’t enough. Dig deeper.

Use the Facets Model

Facets of an Artistic Work

(Ba…

Top Psychological Practices An Aspiring Professional Trader Should Master!

Introduction Most traders have certain fundamental psychological issues. They arise from the experience of the first five years of life. For example, the problem might be self-esteem, childhood fears, getting along with other people etc. Once a person can deal with these issues adopting a...

No matter how smart you are, you don’t have all the answers!  Have you ever watched someone who does not have access to GPS get lost?  There is no shame in asking for directions.

In fact, it is just plain silly and a bit stupid to be so independent that you do everything by trial and error.  This same concept applies to life situations that go to the heart of why people get stuck in their lives. You don’t  have to figure out and do everything yourself.  Why doesn’t anyone offer to help?  Maybe it is because no one knows you need help.

Sometimes there is this little voice in our head that say “you should be able to do it yourself”.  But, that little voice can get us into a heap of trouble.

The ultimate example of this is illustrated in the rather sad story of when my sister, Mary was in the hospital with a recurrence of breast cancer.

Mary was brilliant, a Ph.D. organic chemistry professor.  She had the good fortune of being hospitalized where she was aided by many of her former students who became nurses at the local hospital.

I lived over a thousand miles away, but came to her unsolicited as I knew she would never ask.  As I entered the hospital room I overheard a nurse lecturing Mary to “Hit the call button. And ask for help right away.”

Asking for help right away

The nurse was upset that Mary sat in a very uncomfortable and unsanitary way too long.  Mary had been just waiting for a nurse to come along and help, but she did not want to be a bother.  She believed she should be able to overcome obstacles by herself.

The fact was that what she did by waiting made the nurse feel bad.

Taking this further, Mary was moved to a rehab nursing center.  It was her second day there when I came in from lunch.  In desperation, Mary cried that she could not take it there, that she had to get out or she was afraid she would die there.  It was a plea for help! She was desperate.

So what would it take for her to get out of the rehab nursing center?  It really all boiled down to getting from the bed to the bathroom and back on her own.

We talked about how she was learning in rehab –what to do to get out of bed, building up her strength, how to anchor her body and where.

I asked her to think about the exercise, the very specific body movements she needed to make to get from the bed to the bathroom.  To go over it all in her minds eye at night when she could not sleep.

Mental practice produces real physical results.

Being able to visualize it, Marie felt like she got some control back into her life right then and there.  I could see it in her face.  She said “That’s all I have to do?”  In a short time, she was able to go home to her beautiful garden.  She wanted at least one more summer in her garden.  She had two.

But to make this happen she had to start by asking.  Then talk, think about how, and act.  Having a goal helped also — an interim goal of getting to the bathroom helped with her ultimate goal of being in the garden in her own home.

There is a fascinating book, The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D.  Dr. Doidge and the subject of neuroscience were featured on PBS’s The Brain Fitness Program.  Chapter 8 of the book – “Imagination” talks about mental practice and how it is very effective even when physical practice is not possible.  Check it out!

{was looking at some readings etc about a multi-person meditation type thing, and there’s a supercategory there I want to think more about/to have more words for/etc, and had thought and wanted to jot down}

two types of thing (there can be more, they can happen at the same time, etc):

-’Trying to improve at something mental etc by doing stuff, like an exercise’. Fake examples: ‘I will focus on this one thing for 15 seconds. I’m hoping that as I keep doing this it will help me improve at tuning out distractions’. ‘I will spend 15 seconds imagining what the person I’m talking to is feeling. I am hoping this will make me better at noticing other people’s feelings in conversation’.

-’Trying to have an experience’. Fake example: ‘I will focus on this one thing for 15 seconds. I’m hoping this will give me experiences of being more connected to it’. ‘I will spend 15 seconds imagining what the person I’m talking to is feeling. I am hoping this will make me feel in tune with them’.

(mm, third thing