Don't Have Time To Practice Everyday?

Feeling rushed and a bit frustrated because you can’t fit everything into your day that you’d like to?

There isn’t always time to get all of our plans and lists accomplished each day, and we can get behind on seemingly ‘less important’ activities, like practicing the piano.

If this sounds like you, then this post is good news for you because there’s a great way you can still get piano practicing in each day, even if you can’t get to your piano physically to sit down and play.

Just Imagine

Our imagination and the power to “create” by using visualization have been scientifically proven to have a very direct and positive effect on our physical activities.
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Athletes use their imagination to practice their gymnastic routines, or running a race, and even winning, all the time. Tiger Woods uses visualization before he plays every time and believes that it enhances his performance.

Playing the Piano is a “psycho-physical” act

It involves repeated reinforcement of the nerve pathways to the desired motor skill.
Muscle memory is the key to accomplishing any physical task, whether it is walking to your car from your residence, driving to work, or playing a scale or a piece on the piano.

Essentially, this means that our body does what our brain tells it to do. This means that we learn to “do things” in our brains first, and then it manifests through our physical actions.

A toddler doesn’t just get up and walk one day. She has watched her parents, siblings and everyone else walk for at least several months before they actually get up on their legs and start moving them forward. They “practiced” this action in their heads without even realizing it, before doing it. They think about each step at first, but as their muscles “memorize” what to do, they just start zooming all over the place without having to think about it anymore.

The same goes for playing the piano and learning music
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One study showed that pianists that practiced a passage for 2 hours per day without the piano had the same results as those that practiced the same passage for 2 hours per day on the piano. source

A Harvard study done in the early part of this decade showed again, that mental movements stimulated the same neurons as the physical movements did, and produced the same effects as if the participants had physically practiced the piano passages.

Further, this study by Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone found that using both mental and physical practice surpassed the effectivity of physical practice alone.  

“the combination of mental and physical practice leads to greater performance improvement than does physical practice alone, a phenomenon for which our findings provide a physiological explanation.” source

Getting started with Creative Visualization

It’s really as easy as taking that same first step that you did
when you were learning to walk.

​Creative Visualization is using your imagination to create a specific image or set of actions performed in your mind, not physically.


​There’s a much more complicated definition on Wikipedia, but also some great resources on visualization in general.

Basically…

• Try to do it at a time where there aren’t a lot of distractions around, at least until you get the hang of doing it
• Take a few deep breaths…just let everything go when you breath out
• Close your eyes
• Visualize your keyboard and then think about the music you want to practice
• Take a small section of music, even 1 measure is great to start with
• See the notes in that measure in your mind; or if you don’t use music, just think about each note in that measure and hear them in your mind
• Start practicing the passage in your mind, just as you would if you were actually sitting down at your piano keyboard
• Did you mess up? That’s OK…go back and slow down, (just like you would at your piano) and play through the passage again.
• Got it right this time? Great…do it again a few more times
• You can either keep going at this point, or stop if this is your first time trying mental practicing
• Take a couple of deep breaths as you open your eyes

Remember, that practicing with your brain is just as effective on your muscle memory training as physical practicing. The more you do it, the more positive results you’ll have from your practicing.

Not only is mental practicing effective, it’s fun.Use your visualization time to create an appreciative audience, a concert in Spain, jamming with your favorite band – there are no limits!

Once you get the knack of using your imagination to get some piano practicing and playing done even if you can’t be at your piano, you’re really going to discover a neat way to communicate with yourself and improve your piano playing!
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Stay tuned to LessonsOnTheWeb and learn much more!

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