This Technique Saved Me 100s of Hours of Practice Time

I have played piano since I was 3, professionally since age 15. I started using visualization when I had to ride the bus to school. I'm 81 and STILL do it! This WORKS people, music has always been up to the connection between the brain and the fingers, your job is to get out of the way and let the music through...

I played saxophone in high school and college. I'm 61 now, and I'm playing jazz guitar. I use visualization regularly, especially for memorizing chords and comping. I find it very effective, and often do this when I can't sleep at night. It still surprises me that when I'm mentally playing chords, I'll stop occasionally, because I missed a string or picked the wrong voicing, just like when I am playing a physical guitar!

Absolutely amazing. I’ve been struggling to remember the chord changes and the melody for All The Things You Are. Yesterday I watched the champions league match, and when nothing happened I visualised the chords, the melody and how I would improvise. Today I picked up my horn and immediately played the melody and was able to improvise over the chords. It’s mind blowing how powerful this method is.

Yes, I agree. My Saxophone professor in college taught me “visualization practice”. I’ve been using it for years and years. I can confirm that it works. Great video. 👍🏻

Absolutely spot on, Jay. I started visualising about two years ago and it has transformed my playing. The biggest benefit I found is that it has even improved my sight reading. Not sure how but I no longer fear sharps and flats. By the way, I tried out practising in the car after your previous video and it has worked a treat! Thank you.

Very interesting and informative as always. Particularly relevant to my current reading which is classical guitarist Christopher Berg's book 'Practicing Music by Design - Historic Virtuosi on Peak Performance.' He covers eight common elements of practice which have been used by pianists and violinists historically. One of these is chapter 4 'Mental Work'. The interesting thing about the book is that Berg doesn't just look at modern research into learning and performing (which includes sports coaching as well as music) but that he emphasises how these techniques were known and used historically. He starts the chapter with the sentence 'Study methods away from the instrument that were used by some of the great pianists and violinists - specifically mental work and the use of recall - anticipate and confirm current research about learning and memory.' He mentions the formation of myelin (the insulation of brain cells which speed transmission of impulses in the brain) and how this increases with mental work. He quotes accounts of older virtuoso musicians' practice and teaching requirements which included work away from the instrument. Other chapters include slow practice, chunking, variety in practice. So (forgive the long comment 😐), your practice is well founded by research and older virtuosi. Thanks again for your videos!

Thank Jay. I started doing this technique a few months ago and it has definitely been a game changer in my playing ability. As always thank you for the constant encouragement to become a better Sax player.

Great tip Jay and definitely something I’ve done for years - also a brilliant reminder for newer players to get off to a faster start.

You are priceless. Thank you soo.... much for your generosity and sincerity. A struggling clarinet owner and aspiring clarinetist.

Very solid recommendation and gives me a lot to consider when on an airplane or other down times. I use this when trying to play by ear. Starting with tunes I know and then visualizing neighboring tones. Thanks for reminding us!

Great video Jay! Yes I do this too, mostly to help me go to sleep or in the middle of the night. I’ll usually go over a solo I’ve transcribed or a tune. As you say it’s also a great chance to work on your ear training and intervals!

Yes, thankyou Jay great post.. The music is not in our fingers or our instruments, the music is in our head.Recently I have been learning new, and revisiting old melodies by singing and playing the melody on piano.Start very slowly and sing and memorise the intervals on piano and the timing from the sheet .Then when I am driving I visualise the piano and rhythm sheet, singing the melodies and then sing visualising the transposition to tenor saxophone.I find visualisation is great. singing with visualised thought is useful as we can do it anywhere👍 anytime.

Makes perfect sense Jay, and it works for so many different things. Thanks for surfacing the topic!

Wonderful, Jay. I have used visualisation to remember chored changes of tunes in several keys, but haven't thought about using it for the actual practice of playing. Thanks!

I have been practising chord changes in the mind for some years now and have found it has helped me to analyse quickly the notes l would need to play.

Thanks Jay. This is new to me, very zen, very cool! I've been stressing lately as work and life has kept me from practicing as much as I want. Gonna give it a try...

Really helpful and reassuring Jay! I have been doing this rather randomly for years without thinking about it and do find it helpful and even a good problem-solving technique. Whilst I don't move my fingers fully, I do find a tiny twitch of the 'correct' finger(s) helps me. But maybe I should try and move on from that!

It takes a special skill to make a video like this. Great job. I do this, I do find it helps to move fingers, even if its only a small amount when going through patterns and as others have said here, this really does work and you will feel the benefit when you try it on the instrument. Fingering is about muscle memory (an imprecise term but everyone understands the concept) and muscle memory gets 'baked in' AFTER rehearsal, and during rest. So it makes absolute sense to do this as you drift of to sleep.

Yes, this really works! I've done it for many years. In fact I can't keep from doing it. Whenever I have a tune in my head I visualize the fingerings. Great for developing, improving relative pitch, "virtual" ear-training and improvisation.

Great info as usual. Thanks Jay! Mental practice is very useful for many situations, and can increase our concentration capacity if we do it regularly like you say😊