The hypothesis of this research was that following a specific routine that implemented mental practice and body awareness exercises, musicians could know their body better, learn how to control it, and improve their practice sessions and performance preparation.
The scope of the research isn’t big enough to have such strong conclusions as I would like. However, with these participants I have discovered that they benefitted from using the routine. The Logbooks showed us that they found ways to manage stress while improving their focus by using Applied Relaxation and Mindfulness exercises, they improved their performance and practice enjoyment, they learned new ways to study and approach music learning and they improved or gained awareness of their imaginative abilities, its importance, and how to train them.
They had different educations, countries of origin and cultures, with special ways of learning and studying but all of them found in these routine tools and methods that helped them improve their practice sessions and their performance preparation. These improvements were shown not only in their feedback but also in the Bett’s QMI.
Another intervention is taking place as I write this, and I’m hopeful that it will have positive results, as this one had. There is still much to research about mental practicing and body awareness – including how to apply research finding into practical and flexible methods and strategies for practicing and performance preparation. It would be necessary to continue researching this topic, with bigger interventions, more number of subjects and more time to research.
We live in the age of information and it cannot be that we are so aware of the importance of imagery and psychology in sports and we have not taken the necessary steps to implement them in music. In order to train complete musicians who have the knowledge that allows them to develop their maximum potential, it is necessary that conservatories implement classes that teach us how to know and take care of our body and mind in their curriculum, and that they have physiotherapists and psychologists at our disposal to guide us and teach us the correct functioning of the body and mind, so that we can make informed decisions and create our own learning mechanisms.
I honestly think and have experienced that mental practicing and being aware of your body are one of the most important things a musician can work on, and I hope that this research makes some people interested to carry out further interventions and researches in these topics in the future.
