It's all in the mind-set

Today I had this discussion with a few students. One mentioned that if she played a piece by memory, she would not trip up and the usual spot, not when she reads the notes, a voice would say in her mind "this is where I trip up", and it happened... exactly like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It got me thinking. Did I have such a voice? How did I get past all those tricky bits? Why did I pick the tough music to learn? There I have the answer. I pick some of the toughest music to learn simply because I have seen others do it, and I want to play those as well. I see those fancy moves techniques and I say "I want to be able to show off like them, too". Sure I come across those tricky bits, and sure I tripped out... but I never had the voice that says "here is where I trip up". If anything, the voice usually say "I'm going through this", and afterward, "YES I did it!".

In between practice, the music, the challenging part, would go through in my mind. At first I just let it "do it's thing", because it can be such a distraction especially when I need to do something else. Then I noticed something -- when the music flows through in my mind, it also "trip up" and exactly the places that I have difficulty. Well that does NOT make sense, does it? I mean, I was not even playing the violin, it's all in the mind! And it is doubly annoying to have an unwanted melody in the mind, plus the mistakes. I mean, at least I can have a nice and smooth tune, can't I? So I set about to deliberately direct the melody in my mind to be smooth and flowing, and erase the mistake. I did this out of spite, if nothing else, without realizing it is exactly the way to reprogram my brain. Of course any time I can have a "perfect version" just by listening to a recording, a CD. The difference is, when the melody flows through the mind, all the associated memories of fingers, shifts, bow movements are actually being "reprogrammed". e.g. If I keep running out of bow to do that slur, my mental action would show that I have plenty enough bow to do it, and that translates to the ability to actually do it on my next practice.

Bear in mind, though. This is not a short-cut. I don't just "reprogram" and it worked out perfectly the next day. I still need hours to practise. The difference is, I got the result I want, I can go show off that fancy move, and I don't have the voice that says "I'm going to trip up here".

Day dreaming does help, it seems. ;) Just don't do that 24/7.