The mother of one of my students warned me at the beginning of the summer that her daughter would be flying solo to New York, and staying for the month of August. Mother and daughter had both decided that the violin would stay at home throughout the trip. Between a carry on suitcase and a heavy backpack, the responsibility of a violin on the shoulders was a bit too much to handle (who can blame them)!

With this warning also came a request; they wanted a curriculum of sorts to make sure previous hard work wasn’t forfeighted during this month-long violin sabbatical.

After some contemplation and research, I settled on a three part assignment to be carried out without use of her violin.

LISTENING.

An integral element to developing a musical environment, listening to music comes hand in hand with being a musician. For mental practice, I assigned her no more outside listening than usual, but did give specific instruction to include listening in visualization (described below).

VISUALIZING.

The key element of practicing away from the physical instrument is visualization — practicing with the instrument in mind. Before dismissing the idea as radical and take a look at this and this. Both articles outline the value of mentally working through a practice session if the violin isn’t in front of you (or when it is, but you have hit a wall or are bored stiff). Research has proven that whether your muscles are actually moving, or if you are just thinking about moving them, neural pathways are being built and fired. In fact, mental practice in some ways has the edge on physical practice because one can imagine doing an action (performing, for example) perfectly!

So how is it done?

Begin by imagining the reality of your instrument. What does it look like, feel like? How does it sound?  Then practice as you would with your instrument. Follow the normal routine (scales, etudes, technique skills, review, new pieces, etc) but in a variety of new ways.

• Don’t move a muscle. Use your mind to imagine everything about your playing.
• Move as if you were playing, but without the instrument in hand.
• Perform mentally along with a video or audio recording (moving or not moving).

It is said that some great concert musicians can learn a new concerto while in flight to their next performance. Harnessing the ability to visualize the way you play, and learn from struggling through techniques and repertoire virtually, will give you huge advantages in skill building.

LEARNING.

Time away from the instrument is a great opportunity to dive in to some of the more academic elements of musicianship. I assigned research on relevant composers and a study of the major key signatures, but you could invest some time in any theory or music history practice!

In order to keep up consistent work with the violin, I would attempt this three-prong approach to mental practice for students of any age!