Mental Practice Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide for Musicians

The following information on mental practice is excerpted from the Berklee Online course, Practicing Techniques for Musicians authored by Barbara LaFitte.

As a musician, not all of your practice will be on your instrument. Some of it will be in your head, and some of it may even be on objects that are similar to your instruments. We call this mental practice.

Some people hear music in their heads all the time! Especially composers! I am not a composer, so I only hear what others have composed. I want to get to know the piece on as many levels as possible, and sometimes that means exploring the score, the intention of the composer, the lyrics, in order to be completely familiar with the piece.

What do you do when you can’t get to your instrument? Maybe you are traveling or commuting for long periods of time, yet are stressed out about a piece that you are going to be performing.

I have commuted a lot in my life. For many years, I held principal oboe positions in the New England area. I hate to drive, so I find public transportation and bus services from point A to point B. During those commutes, I would frequently practice my parts on a pencil. Yes, a pencil! The pencil would become my oboe, and it is understandably harder to finger on a pencil without keys than it is on the oboe. The pencil is smaller, showing me exactly where and when my fingers would be out of sync or sloppy. If my brain and fingers can respond accurately on the pencil, it will be even easier on the oboe!

You may have seen pianists practice on a table, as if the table is the keyboard. They are hearing the music inside their heads as they coordinate their fingers to respond correctly. Drummers are often drumming on all kinds of surfaces besides the drums. They are practicing their rhythmic skills while hearing the music in their heads. 

Read: How to Practice Drums in an Apartment

Saxophonists can practice on their arms, feeling their finger motions, as can many brass players. Singers are the lucky ones here, they have their instrument at all times and can hum or practice intervals anywhere, anytime, using mental practice.

Playing Our ‘Instruments’ on Other Surfaces

Sometimes we can’t just set up our instruments and start to play. Again, vocalists have it easy, compared to us instrumentalists, but the tradeoff is they have to take extra special care when using their daily instrument!

As I mentioned earlier, I have practiced on a pencil when I am in a situation where I cannot play the oboe, either because I’m on a train or a bus, or there are sound curfews in the building. 

How do I do it? Like this:

 1. First I’ll look at the piece of music. By quickly going over it, I try to find the rhythmic or technical passages that might be the most challenging. For rhythmic problems, I might break down the phrases or measures that look complicated, then break them down into subdivisions so that I can accurately tap or sing the rhythms.

2. For the technical passages, I might make a note on the margin of the music in order to quickly find that hurdle. Then I practice the fingerings on my pencil. 

3. I will try to hear the passage in my head while practicing the fingerings. I could hum or sing the passage while fingering on the substitute object, in this case, a pencil.

Adam Neely, a Berklee graduate, made a great video on how you can do this. He talks about all the things I recommend and do myself! Watch it below:

I have seen string players thinking about their music, moving their left fingers lightly through the air towards their palms, and moving their right arm, reviewing bowings. There is so much coordination required for us to make our music. As musicians, we are athletes!

Some of us get too attached to our instrument though. We may feel we can’t possibly play without that physical sensation. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the oboe is just a piece of wood (albeit a very special kind of endangered wood) and I’m blowing on two tiny pieces of bamboo. Our music is more than the instrument!

An adult amateur oboist who I teach recently reported back to me that she practiced without playing a note. She did this by simply holding her instrument to go over the fingerings and realized she could hear it in her head. When she went back to the oboe the next day, she found that she had actually retained the material much better with her silent practice. That is huge!

 Score Study

There are plenty of other ways we can study music without our instrument or ability to play in our apartments. One way is to study the score, or arrangement of the piece. How do you hear your part inside the ensemble, or inside your solo piece? 

Deep listening is crucial to this task. Find the score, lead sheet, or arrangement, and follow along with the music.

As a mostly classical oboist, I have often been tasked to understand the entire score for many pieces that I don’t honestly know. That included many piano and violin concertos. I wouldn’t dare to go into rehearsal without knowing the solo parts (for violin or piano) without listening deeply as to how my part would fit into the entire piece. If my musical line had to connect to another line, I would need to know that. If you are more jazz- or pop-oriented, you still need to understand how and when your part fits in. You have to understand the groove and the backgrounds!

You can learn this by listening to various interpretations and studying the scores or lead sheets. Every performance will be (and should be) different. How are they different? What version do you like best?

Deep Listening

How do I describe deep listening? For me, it is an opportunity to listen carefully to many of the elements of the music. 

First, just think about how it emotionally affects you. 

Music is an emotional connection, inspiring memories, excitement, chills, all those emotions. You might have a piece in mind that takes you back to a great memory or place or time in your life. That is the emotional connection.

For example, in high school, I often listened to George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh album. Although the pieces had been performed many times with other bands, the performances from Concert for Bangladesh will still take me right back to my childhood living room, where I can see the furniture and feel the ambience in the house. I can remember that exactly as soon as I hear the recording. It creates nostalgia for me.

Second, ask yourself, “Why do you feel the emotional connection with one performance and not the other?”

With George Harrison and the other artists featured on this album (including Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar, and more), they were recorded in a live performance, which usually projects more energy than a studio recording. When I hear one of my classical heroes, on any instrument, I must admit I am more fond of a live performance than a studio recording. If you only have studio recordings to access (and we now have so many recordings at our fingertips!), try to ascertain why you like one version or another. Is it the tempo, is it the energy, is it the colors that the performer extracts from the music?

Third, identify when the recording was made, and if it is a symphonic work, who the conductor was.

What kinds of recording equipment were they using at the session? The equipment has changed radically in the past 70 years. On YouTube, the user might not post the recording date, and all you’ll see is the upload date. Be sure to investigate when and where the recording was made. Concert halls and studios all have different acoustics, and older recordings might not have added reverb to the recording. Listen as carefully as you can to determine whether or not the recording has been “doctored.” Try to focus on the interpretation, the tempo, or groove, the balance of the ensemble. If it is something like Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, the conductor would have put their “stamp” on it, in terms of tempo. Bernstein’s Mahler recordings are very different from Dudamel. Really deeply ask yourself, which do you prefer? Value your own opinion! There is no right or wrong!

Fourth, explore the composer.

Who is the composer? When and where were they living when they wrote the piece? What was going on in their head, in terms of inspiration to write this musical letter for the future? You should know their dates, if they are still alive, and understand their community and purpose. For example, J.S. Bach lived from 1685 to 1750. Where? What was his job? Try to be able to answer those questions about the composer you are researching. 

I highly recommend that you listen carefully to a number of versions of the piece that you want to explore. Listen for the tempo, the balance of the ensemble, and the interpretation.

Now that you know how to practice outside the practice room, you can practice, listen, and incorporate many of your daily ideas into your knowledge. Score study, deep listening, singing, and using substitute objects to practice small connections will all help you become a better musician. Give yourself credit whenever you imagine your music! Allow yourself to add into your practice journal when you studied mentally, studied the score, and listened deeply!