The mind and its inherent capabilities feature more and more regularly as a subject in the popular media and literature. During critical moments in a game or match, sports commentators are quick to mention that the player with the strongest mind will emerge as the victor. During retirement successful sportspersons often write an account detailing their years of competition, the titles of their books often include some reference to the mind and how harnessing its power and energy helped them to overcome various obstacles.

Business managers and executives pay lots of money for their employees to attend workshops and seminars in which the final challenge is a ’fire-walk’. The ’fire-walk’ involves the participants walking across a bed of hot coals in their bare feet. Allegedly the purpose of this and similar seminars is to demonstrate that the natural power and ability of the mind is available to everybody not just a select few. The participants are introduced to a variety of mind techniques, including visualisation techniques. Although there is a plethora of different visualisation techniques, it normally requires the user to see the end goal in his/her mind before responding physically, this is based on the principle that all concepts are created twice, first in the mind and second in the physical world. In the fire-walking seminar the participants would have been encouraged to repeatedly construct ’mental scenes’ where they saw themselves walking across the coals without any discomfort.

Visualisation and mental imagery are generally used to describe the mental representation of oneself being successful in a task. Mental practice or rehearsal on the other hand describes the entire process of rehearsing a task cognitively. Mental rehearsal incorporates the evocation of all the senses, visualisation and mental imagery is but one aspect of this process.

Medical research has long been aware of how the mind and attitude of individuals can help fight disease and illness. Mental imagery is believed to produce dramatic organic changes in the body. Many doctors advise cancer patients to include mental imagery in their care programme. This work was being reported as early as the mid-1970’s. Dr Simonton has written numerous books and scientific papers that document the process of teaching terminal patients to visualise/imagine their bodies resisting and fighting cancer. He advises his patients to regularly imagine their white blood cells as a powerful army, polar bears or white sharks, which has the ability to tear apart and devour the cancerous cells. Allegedly some cancer patients who employed imagery techniques doubled their life expectancy after the initial diagnosis compared to that of patients who did not use any cognitive interventions. Dr Simonton teaches his patients to enter a trance-like state of relaxation before attempting any cognitive work as he noticed that a deeply relaxed state facilitates the manipulation and vividness of mental images.

The use of visualisation has been extended to other areas. Various medical reports mention the effectiveness of visualisation in helping women increase their bust size without the need for cosmetic surgery.

Musicians have also proposed the benefits of mental imagery. The violinist Fritz Kreisler was an early advocate of mental rehearsal with music. Although Kreisler was famous for his exceptional talent it was equally well documented that he did not enjoy practising. He apparently learnt entire concertos on the train without taking his violin out of the case, stressing how important he thought the creation of ’a mental picture...a sort of master record’ of one’s playing actions was.

Rubin-Rabson discovered that if a period of mental rehearsal was scheduled in the middle of a practice session, the session proved more successful than a longer session of physical practice only. Not only did she hypothesise that mental practice can reduce the amount of physical practice needed but that the retention of learning was on a par with that of additional physical practice.

Many orchestras are becoming aware of the detrimental effects that protracted periods of playing can have on the physical health of performers. These physical effects can usually be addressed by simply reducing the amount of daily playing. While this is not always possible for a professional musician it might make a difference if the player could find another practice method when not involved in the work environment.

Mental practice in the context of a musician’s day to day life can provide the freedom to practise even when one’s instrument is not accessible. This might prove particularly advantageous to musicians with relatively immobile instruments for example, harp, piano, organ etc. Even players of more portable instruments might find mental practice beneficial when travelling to or from engagements or during other occasions when they are unable to play physically.

Singers can use mental rehearsal during periods of voice-rest to maintain and secure current skill level. It is well documented that regular respites from muscular activity release pent-up tension and are generally constructive. Mental practice won’t result in muscular exhaustion and strain and when applied in conjunction with physical practice will provide a natural period of rest for the player. During mental practice musicians can evoke their ideal performance and this may serve as inspiration or help combat boredom as it reminds them of what they would like to express musically and assist the development of musical ideas.

The proposed benefits of mental practice for musicians are not limited to instrumentalists and singers. Mental practice can also be extended to composers. Nadia Boulanger frequently advocated the merits of mental practice. Mental rehearsal affords the chance to remove oneself from present circumstances and provide the opportunity of cognitively evoking and refining what is finally heard and seen on manuscript. Mental evocation gives the composer the chance to clarify musical goals, a necessary and significant part of the compositional process. Many conductors anecdotally report that they use mental practice, for a conductor this type of practice is particularly useful as it is not always possible to rehearse with a live orchestra.

Sports and other disciplines often refer to the effectiveness of mental practice in combating the effects of performance anxiety. Sports people often incorporate periods of mental rehearsal that involve them cognitively evoking and constructing complete sports events in preparation for competition. These evoked mental scenes will commence as ’far back’ as visualising entering the dressing room before the event, the sports person will then go through the complete event in their mind and ultimately see themselves winning. It has been documented that musicians cognitively go through an ideal performance of their repertoire as part of their preparation and to combat performance anxiety, all the relative aspects of the performing environment will be included in the mental imagery so that the realness of the imagined scene is heightened.

It is evident that the applications of mental rehearsal are numerous and varied. I firmly believe Mental Rehearsal is a dynamic tool that benefits both practice and performance. Successful Mental Rehearsal is an ensemble of cognitive techniques and routines. Many studies and literature sources demonstrate that effective Mental Rehearsal programs share similar approaches.

A successful Mental Rehearsal programme revolves around the application of an effective relaxation schedule. Without including this vital component Mental Rehearsal will be frustrating and unproductive. The discovery of an enjoyable relaxation routine is an exciting journey of self-discovery. Progressive relaxation routines that systematically address various muscle groups are best suited to Mental Rehearsal.

When involved in any process that requires the release of imagination and visualisation it is imperative that all our sense organs are recognised and utilised. We all have preferred senses and filtering sequences which are used to translate our external representations to our internal world. As a result of this partiality certain sense patterns and sequences are less developed.

Musicians fastidiously develop the hearing sense as this is the obvious representation of the musical world. It is important that we awaken other senses not only the habitual ones when engaged in creative activity. This acknowledgement will expose us to more creative opportunities and stimulate normally dormant artistic channels. In order for Mental Rehearsal to be effective and willingly engaged in, the process has to be exciting. The incorporation and recognition of our sensory awareness is provocative and fertile.

An effective practice routine will have a goal-setting schedule at its core. Unfocused practice is a hit-and-miss affair that is not productive and hard to sustain. A good goal-setting programme must include the following elements neatly summarised by the acronym SMARTER:

§          Specific

§          Measurable

§          Acceptable and Adjustable

§          Realistic

§          Time-Phased

§          Exciting

§          Recorded

Mental Rehearsal requires the practitioner to have clear short-and-long term ambitions.

I am passionate about the benefits Performance Coaching will bring to your artistic development. Performance Coaching will help you design an effective Mental Rehearsal programme to run in parallel with your physical practice routine. Please contact me to learn more about this valuable resource.

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