Stop Playing Perfectly; Start Thinking Perfectly.
Have you ever played so perfectly in a practice room and yet could not display one-tenth of what you prepared in front of your professor or on stage? You then practiced for 7-8 hours the next day and felt really good about it only to find out you were back in a pickle in your next lesson or performance. It must be excruciatingly frustrating.
We have all been there.
The simple explanation is that you were not practicing the entire time, but merely “performing” for yourself. One of the most detrimental things a musician can do is to “perform” their repertoire during a practice session. I can sympathize though because it is enticing to play the entire Chopin 3rd Ballade or the Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto and it takes discipline to resist the temptation. However, the reality is that playing through a piece is not practicing. I would even go a step further to argue that playing perfectly is not practicing if the brain is not engaged. If you would like to be liberated from the shackles of careless preparation and frustrating experience, stop trying to play perfectly and start thinking perfectly.
What does it mean to think perfectly?
The most important body “part” a pianist must train is not the fingers, not the hands, not the arms, but the brain. Our brain is the mastermind of the orchestration of music and other playing mechanisms (hands, arms, fingers, etc.) are only the extension of it. You can play a difficult passage 10 times perfectly by relying on tactile, aural, and visual memories. But without learning the passage deeply, these memories will fail you when under pressure. If you do not let the brain do the work, you are depending on luck to see if the body will react the right way and it is a risky gamble. The most common question asked by someone who has not done the deep learning is, “What is the next note?” And you do not want to have that question pop up in your mind when you are performing. The good news is that you do not have to feel that way. It is possible that you exhibit confidence and freedom in your performance and the first step is to invite your brain to take part in your practice. To think perfectly is to have the correct context of all things in your head before your finger touches the key. Your head must precede your fingers! What is the next chord? How much arm weight do I need to use? What is the attack speed of my fingers? How should my body feel? What is the emotion involved? Do I know exactly and specifically what I need to do with the note I’m about to play? In other words, do I visualize when I practice?
What is visualization?
Visualization is a technique widely used by the top athletes in the world. Gu Ailing, the recent gold medalist of freestyle skiing, said in one of the interviews that she would go through her routine in her head before the actual run. It takes a magnitude of mental tenacity to achieve this but the result speaks for itself. A lot of great pianists will also tell you they can “feel” what they are about to play. Visualization is the process by which one experiences the execution of a task mentally. Next time when you practice, try to picture in your head what it’s like to play a passage physically and concentrate on how your arm, hand, and fingers coordinate. Once you “feel” the correct motion, proceed to replicate what you have in mind onto the piano keys. Do it before each repetition and as often as possible in the “drilling” stage of practice where you tackle spots that feel uneasy (Although visualization applies to all stages of learning). You will be surprised how much more ingrained the materials are in your mind and your body is capable of executing your command even under pressure. This is how you should prepare and build a sure pathway to confidence. If you are serious about piano, it’s time to do the right things that will lead you to success.
This is why I always admonish my students, “Stop playing perfectly and start thinking perfectly.”
