Mental training for musicians – excellence in performance

Abstract

As any musician’s goal is to achieve excellence in interpretation in order to receive the public's appreciation of their performances, mental training can open the door to its inner creative energy flow that conceals behind restricted patterns. A musician’s training must include more than individual exercise on the instrument. Many performing musicians experience a marked difference in their performance level in either a stressful situation such as an important concert or even in a non-stressful practice situation. The difference can vary considerably. As the timeframe is limited and proper study is not always available, environmental reasons and fatigue affect the artist both, mentally and physically. Therefore, the possibility to study and perform up to a certain qualitative level becomes difficult. Moreover, many talented performers have been forced to give up their careers because of a mental block, high stress, or strong anxiety. Mental training exercises bring an energy that can be canalized into the music and strengthen the music performance, memory, creativity, attention, and self-confidence. These exercises are of help to deal with stress and the accumulation of adrenalin from traumatic performance experiences. And, although diverse methods are available mental representation and imaginary training have, certainly, the best results in performing.