Welcome back and today we will discuss another major element in ones technique that may improve your musical performance.
This post explains how visualization can improve your performance
This again couples words with your notes but in a slightly different way.
For several decades I have used this process on my students with remarkable success. It is easy and yet very helpful.
One of the first times I implemented this technique, I was teaching a middle school student who did not have any idea as to the art of passionate playing. Everything he played was dry and lifeless even though he played every note the way it was presented on the page. Finally I suggested that he take a couple days to add a text line to his music as it is done in vocal music. At his next lesson he floored me with the most beautiful rendition of the same material he had butcher the week before. The improvement was outstanding so I asked him what he had done differently this past week. He told me that he did as I had ask and put words to each instrumental note. Obviously I was interested in knowing what text he had come up with and he told me. “The setting was in front of a burning fire place with an outstretched blanket in front. There was a beautiful girl”……by then I got the idea he was describing and we got back to the lesson again. Obviously the shocking improvement in his playing could be attributed to the compelling of a text with the musical line. Eventually I began teaching this concept to all of my students and had consistent improvement in every case. I coined the phrase “Imagery in Music” and I continue to use it both with students as well as my own playing.
When visualize your music as the background track for a movie, the result is amazing. You are not playing only notes but are actually filling in the sound track for your setting. This also has a benefit when you try to memorize new music for the changing scenes will lead you to the next sound track, giving you an additional level of connection to your music.
Your assignment for our next visit is to take the first phrase of the solo you have printed out and put words to it making a complete and understandable sentence.
Remember- Every note can be assigned to a word of a sentence which sets a visual image of the music for a more musical interpretation.
