Remember that scene in the pianist, where he is locked in a small room with a piano but he can't make any noise? He sits down and plays with his imagination. You don't actually need a piano to practice; my teacher used to tell us about learning a whole Mozart concerto on her kitchen table and playing it a week later. Glenn Gould supposedly recorded the Brahms Ballades without having played them once on the piano before, through mental practice for a month. John Ogdon was known for learning whole pieces on the plane ride between concerts. Mental practice is not impossible to learn and can be just as good as actually sitting down and plunking out the notes. It is actually a lot more strenuous work to have keep your mind active and engaged while you imagine all the harmonies and notes of what you play as well as how it would physically look and feel to play. Even so, you can get better at it, the more you do it. Imagine an invisible piano and use your mind to practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment