Perform Project

Performance Enhancement Research FOR Musicians

Many performers and teachers are now pointing to the importance of strong mental skills to facilitate effective practice and successful performance. Such skills include imagery and mental rehearsal, metacognition, and cognitive strategies. There is little suggestion in the research literature, however, of how musicians are to learn about such techniques in a manner that will facilitate their integration into practice and performance preparation routines. There also appears to be little understanding as to the actual effects and impacts that particular types of mental skills may have.

One of the first aims of this project was to conduct a broad survey of skills and methods employed by musicians when preparing for performance. Following this, a better understanding has emerged of the function that various mental skills play in musicians' practice and performance routines, as well as how they may best be developed and integrated.

Building upon insight gained from this early work, the second aim of the project was to develop and deliver an intensive, musician-focused mental skills training programme. As well as exploring what impacts a course-based programme such as this would have on musicians’ performance experiences, a greater understanding of the issues and implications inherent in attempting to deliver this sort of programme were sought. Analyses indicate that those students who participated in the project enhanced their practice effectiveness, developed heightened levels of self-efficacy, and increased their imagery abilities.

Presently, guidelines are being elaborated for how best to incorporate mental skills training within the curricula of conservatoires. Interdisciplinary methods for assessing the efficacy of novel training programmes are also being developed.

For further information, including details of published reports, navigate via the right-hand menu or email Terry Clark (tclark@rcm.ac.uk).