Mindfulness for violinists

Sacha Paredes Sánchez

An overabundance of mental distractions may prevent musicians’ minds from being in the moment while practicing. The present mixed-methods study examined the effects of three newly designed mindfulness meditations on six conservatory violinists’ levels of dispositional mindfulness, mind-wandering and respective variables. Thought probes were used before and after the intervention to examine frequency of mind-wandering and contextual variables (task difficulty, fatigue and stress, and motivation) during two hours of participants’ instrumental practice (one of technical work another of a new piece in their repertoire). FFQM (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) and MfM (Mindfulness for Musicians) questionnaires were used to measure mindfulness levels before and after the intervention. Interviews and meditation logs were used as qualitative data. Results indicated that all participants became more mindful at the end of the meditation week for all mindfulness’ facets for the FFQM and MfM questionnaires. However, the improvements were particularly noticeable for the “Acting with Awareness” and “Non-Judge” facets for the FFQM and for “Describe” in the MfM. Results showed opposing trends in mind-wandering levels throughout the intervention. That is, some participants showed higher mind-wandering at the post-intervention and others lower. However, contextual variables such as fatigue, motivation or worry, may have also affected how much participants wandered while practicing (e.g. some of them showed more rumination when being more worried and having slept less). Overall, results from the experiment evidenced the importance of including mindfulness in violinists’ daily practice as a useful routine to become more aware and less distracted.