The use of the mind in instrumental performance

In a previous article I spoke of the importance of relaxation in instrumental performance. This relaxation, which can be produced relatively easily by means of appropriate exercises, can only be done with the involvement of the mind; in fact, when we try to relax our body, we displace our mind and our attention, we focus our thoughts on such and such a part of the body to order it to "relax".

But the mind has many other abilities and its power is very great.

Positive thoughts

The state of mind in which we approach the problems specific to our instrument is just as important as the work which is supposed to solve these problems.

Indeed, if you are convinced that you cannot play a passage because it requires, for example, an agility you have never acquired, even in spite of working hard, you genuinely will never master the passage. On the other hand, if you adopt (if you manage to adopt) a positive state of mind, that is, if you first of all try to understand why this "technique" which you lack is beyond your reach, and if you decide to use the power of your mind to reach it, and then to do the work again in better mental and psychological conditions, you will then have every chance of obtaining the desired result.

I do not mean to say that nothing is impossible and that it is enough to decide on something, to want it, for it to succeed — in that case there would be only supermen and super-gifted instrumentalists — I mean simply that these techniques are extremely important stimulants enabling us to get the maximum out of what we are capable of doing.

Having a positive state of mind in the manner of approaching problems, even the learning of certain topics or, as far as we are concerned, the problems and difficulties specific to our instrument, is thus of capital importance; and I would like to illustrate this by outlining the experiments done in a neighbouring country's experimental schools.

One or two of the worst pupils were taken from different and randomly selected classes and, with the collaboration of the teachers, the parents and some other pupils, it was decided to make these "bad pupils" believe that they were progressing very fast, and that if this continued they would soon be at the top of the class; for example, after questioning one of these "guinea-pig" pupils, the teacher encouraged him, telling him simply that he was making sensational progress, and to keep it up etc... The headmaster called these pupils into his office purely to congratulate them and encourage them. A little later the parents, coming back from a meeting, explained to their children that for the first time everyone was very satisfied with the results of their work and that at school they were winning the admiration of their teacher or teachers through the progress they were making... etc. Some of their "accomplice" friends told them they were on their guard because they could see their friends' progress and did not want to be overtaken, etc.

And these experiments were a great success since most of these children made genuine substantial progress which could not be explained by anything other than by this experiment.

So here already is an ability of the human mind which can be of use to us personally, provided we can convince ourselves that we are capable of reaching a certain degree of virtuosity (to take the previous example) but which will also be of considerable help to some of our pupils who lack self-confidence. Thus it is the teacher's job to persuade him that he is capable of succeeding.

But in order to make a success of this type of experiment on oneself there is a very important qualification which one must understand.

Everyone knows the saying "where there's a will there’s a way". But in fact it is not enough to "want" something to obtain it, and that is where the qualification comes in. I would even say that the more you want the less you get. The effort of volition will unavoidably produce the opposite effect. This is a psychological law which has been demonstrated by Emile Coué, the father of autosuggestion.