Enhancing your musical performance abilities

American Music Teacher, August-Sept, 2004 by Lesley Sisterhen

Musicians usually are amazed when they hear stories bout those who perform remarkably well with little physical practice. Usually we explain this phenomenon by citing the performers' prodigious mental capacities. Fritz Kreisler, for example, was a renowned violinist who was famous for his disregard for physical practice. He silently studied scores while on long train rides between concerts and described learning entire concertos without touching his violin. He believed technical skill was a result of mental ability, and he advocated the creation of a "mental picture" of one's playing actions. (1) There is truth to these beliefs, and everyone possesses the ability to improve by mentally practicing away from their instrument.

Similarly, athletes such as Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan and Nancy Kerrigan prepare for performance by "seeing" and "feeling" themselves performing key actions successfully in their "mind's eye." (2) In The Inner Game of Tennis, Timothy Gallwey equates athletic improvement with the development of mental skills, "without which high performance is impossible." (3) During the past century, this phenomenon has been studied by sport psychologists who advocate the use of cognitive strategies to improve physical performance.

Sport psychologists believe peak performance is a consequence of both physical and mental factors. Mind and body cannot be separated, and many athletes and coaches say at least 40 to 90 percent of sports success is due to mental factors. (4) In both sport and musical performance, the mental aspect of a skill becomes more important as the skill level is raised. Sport psychologists specialize in the use of mental skills, such as imagery, relaxation, modeling and mental practice to enable athletes to maximize their performance potential.

Imagery

Research in the field of sport psychology supports the belief that the use of imagery can help decrease anxiety during performance, increasing focus and concentration, easing the effects of stress and promoting a more cognitive approach to practicing. Parallels between the fields of music and athletics are numerous, but two important similarities must be kept in mind. First, both athletes and musicians depend on the trained response of their muscles to function in their skill. Secondly, performance in both fields requires concentration, focus and the ability to allow the mind to control physical reactions when the body is under stress.

Sport psychologists became interested in imagery after they discovered how often it was used by the most successful athletes. Questionnaires related to a person's cognitive style and use of imagery were given to athletes at different experience levels, so researchers could develop a psychological profile of a successful performer. In addition to having high self-confidence, good concentration skills and feeling relaxed but energetic during performance, many of these athletes stated they used imagery to prepare for competitions.

Imagery is a mental process in which an individual experiences the sensory and perceptual processes of an event by consciously visualizing the experience in his or her mind. This technique "programs" the human mind to respond according to how it has been trained. It is important to understand that this process is an ordinary mental function and has not been invented by psychologists. In fact, all infants rely on imagery to process information, so we all have some natural capacity for it. As people reach the stage of adolescence, however, more emphasis is placed on other skills, such as verbalization, and the use of imagery decreases.

Images allow for a simultaneous processing of huge amounts of information, just like skilled movement. If a musician or athlete is able to form an image of the movement, he directly experiences the action or perception that goes along with it. In contrast to imagery, conscious analytic thought is a serial process, requiring each bit of information to be taken in sequence.

When teachers describe for a student the actions that take place in a particular movement, the words they use are symbols representing a more abstract concept. In a state of simultaneous processing rather than conscious thought, one allows the body to function automatically without interference of thoughts about how to play. The technique of modeling, in which the student tries to imitate the teacher's sound or physical gesture, may be used during a lesson to trigger simultaneous processing.

Though most researchers agree that imagery and mental practice do indeed have a significant effect on performance enhancement, they continue to debate exactly why imagery works. Some research suggests the impulses that occur in the brain during actual movement also occur to a smaller degree when the same movements are imagined. (5) This is called the "psychoneuromuscular theory."

Richard Suinn most recently tested this phenomenon when he had a downhill skier use imagery to recreate a race. The electrical activity in the skier's leg muscles was monitored as he imagined the downhill run, and the printout of muscle firings mirrored the terrain of the actual ski run. (6) A student reading music and hearing the music in her head is gaining benefits similar to those from physical practice, if the same impulses occur in the brain during actual movement.