The Best Mindset for Effective Piano Practice

 

When it comes to piano playing, we talk a lot about how to improve posture, get better at playing with two hands, how to coordinate, read music, and so on… but another aspect that holds a similarly significant role in our practice is our mind. In fact, our mind can often be the main factor to determine how well or poorly we end up practicing, or even playing in front of an audience. Whether you’re studying the piano to become a professional or to enjoy this as a hobby, improving your mindset during practice or when playing on a stage can truly make a difference. Let’s look at a few things you can try for a more positive mindset!

 

Making piano practice a habit

 

First of all, the best way to ensure that you turn your practice into a routine is to make it a habit. If you can, find a time in your diary that you set aside specifically for practice, ideally that would be the same every day or a few times a week. Booking a regular lesson with a piano teacher can also help you ensure that you commit to regular practice as you’ll have someone checking on your progress.

 

Plus, this way, you train your mind to associate a specific time of the day with your practice, making it fit more naturally within your usual routine. Something that you might find helpful is the pomodoro technique, where you set a timer to practice for 25 minutes and then give yourself a 5-minute break.

 

Overcoming mental hurdles

 

There’s no better way to hold back your progress than to let any mental hurdles get in the way. Anything from believing that you’ll never get better at playing certain pieces or that you can’t perform well in front of an audience will do more harm than you think as it holds you back from even trying. Practicing is the first draft of performance, and you can find some strategies to help you with performance anxiety in this book by ISM.

 

A good thing you can attempt to overcome your mental hurdles is to change your black-and-white thinking into a more positive mindset like ‘I will try it’ instead of ‘I’ll never be able to do it’. Psychological stress can also influence our piano practice - I personally find mindfulness to be a great help with this, but you can also try other activities like ‘the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, Pilates, or a meditative practice such as yoga breathing’, as suggested by Trinity piano Professor Penelope Roswell. Check out this toolkit by ISM to find more suggestions on how this can benefit your musical practice. In my toolkit, I have Cognitive Reframing, where I set out to write two columns: one where I share the original thoughts and the other where I reframe those thoughts (a technique I learned from Daubney’s Performance Anxiety webinar).

 

 

When you see those challenges as opportunities to give something a go, rather than actions you have to take only to succeed, you’re telling your mind that everything is possible regardless of the outcome.

 

Practicing effectively

 

Sometimes, the reason you create those mental hurdles is because you’re not practicing effectively. There can be many causes for this, such as practicing for too many hours but infrequently (which consequently leaves you struggling more and making less progress) or focusing on learning a piece above your level (which gets you demotivated and convinced that you can’t make progress).

 

The best thing you can do to solve this problem is to talk with your piano teacher to spot what you might be doing wrong during your practice and learn from your mistakes.

 

 

Trying mental practice

 

Mental practice is simply a way to re-hearse a piece you’re playing or scales mentally, rather than physically. Imagine you’re at the grocery store waiting to reach the till, in the time you have available, your mind could end up rehearsing that piece you were playing just yesterday. Don’t discard these few moments when you’re simply thinking about music instead of making it, as they can be just as useful.

 

This can be an effective way to let your mind go back to music even outside of your practice and help you overcome some issues you might have been facing at different times. You can get some tips on how to try visualisation in your practice in How to Practice Music by Andrew Eales.

 

 

We hope that these tips have encouraged you to work on your mindset and to never let your mind hurdles get in the way of making progress. Happy practice!

 

 

Bibliography

Daubney, G. and Daubney, A. (2018) Play: A psychological toolkit for optimal music performance. London: Incorporated Society of Musicians Trust. 

Daubney, G. and Daubney, A. (2019) Performance anxiety: A practical guide for music teachers. London: ISM Incorporated Society of Musicians Trust. 

Eales, A. and Harris, P. (2021) How to practice music. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. 

ROSKELL, P. (2022) Complete pianist: From healthy technique to natural artistry. S.l.: Peters Edition.