Practice Habits: Mental Rehearsal

Mental Rehearsal: An incredibly effective way to deeply internalize your music almost anywhere and anytime, even away from the piano…

Mental Rehearsal: When and How to Do It

Once you’ve studied a piece or section or even just a phrase of music well enough to know your musical intentions and choreography, try closing your eyes and imagine everything about it in your musical mind… making full use of all four musical intelligences (Ears, Intellect, Eyes, and Muscles)…

• Use your aural musical intelligence to imagine the sounds you want to make (your mind’s ear).
• Use your analytical musical intelligence to imagine the musical patterns you’re playing (using your knowledge of music theory).
• Use your visuospatial musical intelligence to imagine the arrangement and sequence of the notes on the keyboard (your mind’s eye).
• And use your kinesthetic musical intelligence to imagine the fingering, choreography, and the sensation of your muscles moving in response to your musical intentions.

It’s important to do all the above no faster than you can pay full attention to what you need to pay attention to.

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What Makes Mental Rehearsal So Effective?

Mental rehearsal is an extremely effective study habit for at least three reasons:

1. It’s a honest test to see if you really know the music.
2. It forces you to slow down and concentrate deeply on every detail.
3. Such brain work results in much deeply learning than is possible by just playing.

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Benefits of Mental Rehearsal

Adding mental rehearsal to your regular study and practice sessions elevates the quality of your playing to the genius level, enables you to will learn lots more music in just a fraction of the time, transforms self-doubt into feelings of competence and confidence, and becomes a self-motivating practice habits when you see the remarkable results.

And, as a bonus, such mental rehearsal enables you to study and practice almost anytime and anywhere even without a piano: while taking a walk, being stuck in traffic, or waiting in line at the store!

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Mental Rehearsal, like every other effective study and practice habit is simple and easy to do. The problem, of course, is that it is also easy NOT to do. And so the discipline required to rehearsal mentally is like a superpower that is guaranteed to elevate your playing. And most importantly, practicing as such is choice, not a talent… a choice that’s available to every one of us at this very moment.

learn more… Practice Habits

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