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My teacher tried to explain mental practice to me. I find it to be very hard. Any advice? thanks

Kam

Now you're talkin'. Hey, and welcome to PW!

Best would be to ask your teacher.

I find it very helpful. I think we all would probably benefit from doing it more than we do; the only times I do it are when I happen not to have a piano available, because if I do, I'd rather just play.

When it comes to memorizing mental practice rules! You want to avoid anything that encourages muscle memory.

I'm kind of curious to what all this involves. Going over the score with music? Or is it with no music? Maybe just thinking about practice? Enlighten me ha ha.

I go over the score with music, listen to recordings, sing, conduct, make notes in the score regarding fingering, hand position changes, some theoretical analysis, etc...

I read through the score, listening to the music in my head as I do. Sometimes I get ideas, particularly with regard to phrasing. My piano teacher (who was a very accomplished musician) couldn't do this.

I do mental practice mostly after learning the piece well enough to play it without the score. I visualize the keyboard and play the piece slowly in imagination, making sure I know every note. I try to hear the music mentally while doing this, but sometimes all I can manage is the melody. As keyboardklutz suggested in another thread, visualizing the correct fingering is important for secure memorization. I've been trying recently to do this but am finding it very difficult.

Years ago I realized I might as well start memorizing anything I'm seriously interested in rather than read through the score, as that's the eventual outcome anyway. I now realize, and Matthay amongst many others concur, that you don't know a piece unless you can perform it in your head note-for-note finger-for-finger - so I'm starting there. Only when I can play a section in my head will I take it to the piano because that's how it ultimately must be anyhow. It's the only way to defeat performance anxiety (by avoiding muscle memory at all costs).

You set the fingering away from the piano?

Ah.....no. That's a very important point. And I do learn hands separately.

Also, do it in a quiet place, and a quiet time so you can focus. To me personally, it's like a form of meditation.

There's a dog that barks a lot round here. I put white noise on when doing this. Of course one can assume once it can be done in a crowded noisy room you're ready for the concert platform!

It really does work. I've just learned a Mazurka this way. A few memory probs were creeping in so I spent half an hour in the armchair this morning. This afternoon I know it 100% - pleasant surprise.

I can't help but notice that you seem to have a score in front of you in virtually every one of your youtube films. Am I perhaps missing something, or do I spy a rather major discrepancy?

As for avoiding muscle memory at all costs, that is simply absurd. Muscle memory must be complemented not replaced. This a huge distinction that needs to be made. Can you play a piece you have memorised, with you hand crossed over (ie. left hand plays the right and vice versa) with no more difficulty than as normal? If not, you are definably "guilty" of muscle memory, whether you realise it or not. For virtually all mere mortals, mental practise is hugely geared towards development of muscle memory- never moreso than than when it is based around fingerings, rather than merely decontextualised visualisation of pitches.

A good way of adding to (not replacing!) muscle memory is to play pieces from start to finish with one finger, by the way.

Where did I say replace muscle memory? That's absurd, you'd fall down without it. As usual, an entire post built on putting words in my mouth. But hey, glad you're studying my videos - you might learn something!

On interesting point though, even learning a piece from the sheet it's better practicing away from the keyboard once you've done the fingering. Mulling over music without the encumbrance of machinery is very beneficial - technical work apart obviously (though even there there's a space).

Indeed, I'm now intimately acquainted with a host of the dangers of the flopping approach and how much it can hold back those who devote their all to it. Pardon me for thinking that the sentence:

"You want to avoid anything that encourages muscle memory."

might be equated with seeking to replace muscle memory. The only absurdity I'm currently seeing is to claim that there is a notable distinction of definitions. Feel free to replace the word "replace" with "avoid" throughout my post, if that makes it any less absurd to you (after all I should absolutely hate to be seen as having forced the word "replace" into your mouth, where you actually wished to say "avoid"). And then perhaps you might actually go on to respond to the points contained within in specific terms? You claim to memorise everything, where your vidoes clearly show otherwise. So is this just a display of public bravado or do you ever actually practise what you claim to always do? And how can you claim the importance of "avoiding" muscle memory (which you would of course fall down without, according to an updated assertion), when your (claimed) learning approach is geared most clearly toward developing association of the PHYSICAL image of fingering, rather than merely pitch? Is an iota of argumental consistency too much to ask for?

Muscle memory is the water we swim in, surely striving to stick our heads above the waves (at all cost) is worthwhile?

Indeed. That's the precisely the point I made, so I'm not quite suire why you're pointing it out to me. Still, perhaps olympic swimmers would be well advised "to avoid" the water they swim in at all costs (but God forbid that they might "replace" it). That's supposed to be any clearer? Try thinking about it before whacking out yet another post and you might avoid offering such deeply misguided suggestions in future. The world is more complex than only having one thing or another, you know. To insist on avoiding muscle memory before detailing a practise method that is specifically towards developing it really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Back ten minutes and up to the same nasty flaming!