Dealing With Nerves Pt. 2 - Mental Rehearsal

Our biggest fear is, and always has been, the unknown. So what's the best way to combat this? Make the unknowns known.

Obviously, traditional practice and preparation play a massive part in ensuring a strong, confident delivery whatever the performance situation. But we can definitely do more to support this aspect, especially in today's busy society when practice time is always limited.

 

The technique that we're going to look at today is mental rehearsal. At its heart, this idea is very simple – imagining, visualising in as vivid detail as possible exactly how you're going to perform the piece, scale, or exercise. It may sound ridiculous, but this is a well-used technique among many athletes and professional speakers. It focuses on taking advantage of the brains' limitations in discerning real from simulated experiences – for example, have you ever had a particularly vivid dream in which you've argued with someone you know? It can be hard to shake the residual feeling of hostility when you see them again in real life.

Let's try this in action. Firstly, take the song you're working on. If you have the transcription, set it in front of you. Listen through the piece, tracing it through on the transcription if you have it, or just listening and remembering the notes if you've learned it by ear. Now, do this exercise again literally playing air guitar to it, visualising the notes, the movements and the character of the articulations (bends, slides, staccato/ legato attack). This helps cement the association between the movements, transcription and critically, sound.

Now, when playing the piece with instrument in hand, try to feel where you feel most comfortable with it, most “in the groove” where you really feel that you're channeling the flow of the music. Try and remember exactly how that feels – be it a colour, shape, flavour or texture. What you're doing here is setting what's known as a “peak performance signal”, to give yourself something solid to aim for when practicing.

It's also worth mentally rehearsing from both your own and your listeners point of view – if you were hearing the piece, how would you like certain passages to be expressed, dynamically? And switching perspectives, how would you articulate that passage to achieve that goal?

Essentially, for all the neuro-linguistic jargon associated with this technique, all it really boils down to is thinking, very hard, about what you're doing. And that's very rarely a bad idea.

I'd also advise researching the exam venue – Google Earth and Streetview are excellent for this- particularly for those of you who are drivers and need to assess parking- and see if you can talk to anyone who's sat an exam there. The clearer the picture you can form for yourself of what to expect, the fewer unknowns you'll be facing and the more confident you'll feel that nothing is going to throw you off your performance.