Mental Practice

Mental practice is the most challenging practice technique I’ve done. It’s a skill that takes a while to develop and takes a tremendous amount of focus and concentration. If you do it right though, it can be an

amazing tool to build memory and music comprehension.

How Does Memorization Work?

Take a song you can play, and without going to the piano, try to think of the actual notes of the song on the keyboard. It’s surprisingly difficult. Even with pieces you can play flawlessly, its really tough to sit down and name the notes. Why is this? When you memorize music, your brain uses three different kinds of cues to remember what note comes next: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (muscle memory). Your brain uses all three to some degree to memorize a song. When you

memorize music, you get a cue (the part of the song you are playing), and you have a response to that cue (the next part of the song). This response becomes the cue for the next part, and you keep cycling cues and responses until you finish the song.

An example of a visual cue is the notes on the paper. You see a C chord notated on the page (the visual cue) and you

respond with playing a C, E, and G with your fingers. For audio cues, you hear a sequence of pitches (the audio cue) and you can “hear” what the next series of pitches are, and you respond by finding the next sequence of notes with your fingers. A kinesthetic cue is where you memorize based on

feel. You feel the shape of a certain chord (the kinesthetic cue) and your fingers respond by moving to the next notes. These cues work great when you’re playing in your practice room, but they can fall apart during performance. For

example, if the piano you’re performing on has heavier keys, this could mess up your kinesthetic cues. If the piano has a brighter or duller sound it could mess up your auditory cues. And if you change to a different version of sheet music, and a certain measure is on the top of page 2 instead of the bottom of page 1, this can mess up your visual cues. This is one of the main reasons you can play so well on your practice piano, but sometimes your piece falls apart in performance.

How to Solidify Memory

To solidify your memory, you have to memorize your piece on a deeper level, where you can remember it without cues. This is where mental practice comes in. When you are visualizing yourself playing the piece you don’t get any visual, audio, or kinesthetic cues to help you out, so you have to rely on your true understanding of the piece. If you do this, even when cues are slightly different, you’ll have a deeper understanding of the piece.

Mental practice is extremely tough, so start slow. Maybe only do 5 minutes or so a practice session, and gradually work it up to longer periods of time.

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Main Benefits to Mental Practice:

• Develops Rock Solid Memory • Increases Musical Comprehension • Enhances Performance

Using Mental Practice: Step by Step

Step 1: Visualize the Keyboard

See the keys of the piano in your mind. If you can’t, you might want to try looking at the keyboard, then closing your eyes and trying to maintain that picture in your head.

Step 2: Visualize the Left Hand Alone

Take a small section and visualize your left hand playing the notes. The first couple times you do it actually say the note names out loud as you play them in your head. Then see if you can visualize it without saying the note names.

Step 3: Visualize the Right Hand Alone

Now repeat step 2 with the right hand. Remember to go slowly so you have time to think of the notes. Mental practice should be just like physical practice, so go slow enough so you don’t make mistakes.

Step 4: Visualize Hands Together

This is the most difficult step. You might have to visualize hands separate for a couple of days and then try to put hands together.

Extra Tips for Mental Practice

Make it Vivid

Try to make the picture in your mind as vivid and real as possible. Imagine it’s on the big screen at the movie theater. The more realistic it seems the better it will work.

Get Rid of Cues One at a Time

Instead of taking away all your cues at once, try taking away one at a time. Try closing your eyes and actually playing the piano to take away your visual cue. To take away your audio cue, try playing your piece on a keyboard with the sound off. Then try straight up mental practice, it should be much easier to visualize.

Alternate Physical and Mental Practice

A great time for Mental Practice is when you hands start

getting tired. When I have a passage with a lot of fast notes or octaves, my hands can get tired when I’m trying to drill them in over and over. By doing 5 minues of mental practice, you can learn the section in a different way and rest your hands at the same time. Then you can go back to physical practice with fresh hands and a better understanding of the section.

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Memorize Chords

When learning and memorizing a piece of music, it can be almost impossible to memorize every single note. Instead, focus on memorizing the chords (you’ll have to know some music theory for this). This way, instead of memorizing 20 notes, you may only have to memorize 5 or so chords.

Story: My First College Performance

For my first piano recital in College, I was playing a Debussy piece. I had learned it well, and it sounded great in my practice room. When I sat down at the piano on stage though, it felt different. The keys were a lot heavier than my practice room piano, and it freaked me out. I completely botched the middle section of the piece, a part I almost never messed up during my lessons. For my next recital, after I’d learned how to use mental practice, and even though the feel of the piano was different, I had a much deeper understanding of my piece and I could find the right notes.

Wrap Up and Key Points

Mental practice is one of the toughest strategies in this book, but if you learn a piece in this way you’ll know it on a whole new deeper level. Here are some key points to using mental practice:

• To Use Mental Practice, close your eyes and visualize your fingers playing the notes on the piano in your mind • Practice Mentally just as if you were practicing

physically. Do hands separate and slow tempo first • Memorize chords instead of individual notes. It will free

up mental resources

• Alternate between Physical and Mental practice to give your hands rest when practicing physically demanding passages.

Video Lesson

Want me to personally explain it to you? Watch the video lesson here:

http://www.bestpianoclass.com/Vid-Lessons

And if you don’t have the video lessons and would like to upgrade, go here:

http://www.bestpianoclass.com/GetVideos

And remember, you’re ALWAYS welcome to contact me if there’s something in this chapter you’re confused about: Email: [email protected]

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zachevansmusic Twitter: @zachevansmusic

Alright, on to the next chapter where we’ll talk about specific strategies for practicing Arpeggios, Octaves, and Large Leaps.

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