Musical Excellence: Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance

Description

Musical Excellence offers performers, teachers, and researchers, new perspectives and practical guidance for enhancing performance and managing the stress that typically accompanies performance situations. It draws together, for the first time in a single collection, the findings of pioneering initiatives from across the arts and sciences. Specific recommendations are provided alongside comprehensive reviews of existing theory and research, enabling the practitioner to place the strategies and techniques within the broader context of human performance and encouraging novel ways of conceptualizing music and teaching. Part 1, Prospects and Limits, sets out ground rules for achieving musical excellence. What roles do innate talent, environmental influences, and sheer hard work play in attaining eminence? How can musicians best manage the physical demands of a profession that is intrinsically arduous throughout a career that can literally span a lifetime? How can performers, teachers, and researchers effectively assess and reflect on performance enhancement for themselves, their colleagues, and their students? Part II, Practice Strategies, presents approaches for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of practice. These are generally for the individual and ensembles and specifically for the tasks of memorizing, sight-reading, and improvising music. Musicians spend vast amounts of time and energy acquiring and refining their skills, but are there particular rehearsal strategies that they can employ to produce better performance results or to achieve the same results more quickly? What implication does existing knowledge of human information processing and physical functioning have for musical learning and practice? Part III, Techniques and Interventions, introduces scientifically validated methods for ordered from the more physical to the psychological to the pharmacological; however, they all address the issues of b Cover Title Pages Acknowledgments Foreword Contributors 1. A guide to enhancing musical performance Abstract and Keywords 1.1 Introduction to Parts I, II, and III 1.1.1 Part I: Prospects and limits 1.1.2 Part II: Practice strategies 1.1.3 Part III: Techniques and interventions 1.2 The potential for enhancement 1.2.1 Physical and psychological enhancement 1.2.2 Managing and overcoming obstacles 1.3 Selecting a personal program for enhancement 1.4 Conclusions Acknowledgments 2. General perspectives on achieving musical excellence Abstract and Keywords 2.1 Quantity of Practice: The 10-year Rule 2.2 Quality of Practice 2.3 Fundamental characteristics of musical excellence 2.3.1 Concentration 2.3.3 Self-evaluation 2.3.4 Strategies 2.3.5 The Big Picture 2.3.6 Caveat 2.4 The Social Psychological Antecedents of Musical Excellence 2.4.1 Sources of Motivation 2.4.2 Attribution 2.4.3 Self-efficacy 2.5 Conclusions Acknowledgments 3. Managing the physical demands of musical performance Abstract and Keywords 3.1 Surveys 3.2 Specific Medical Diagnoses 3.2.1 Structural disorders 3.2.2 Focal Dystonia 3.3 Nonstructural musculoskeletal Problems 3.3.1 General remarks Posture Practice, tension, and fitness 3.3.2 Individual instruments Piano Violin and viola Cello Guitar Flute Conductors 3.3.3 General advice to Prevent Injury 3.4 Conclusions 4. Measuring performance enhancement in music Abstract and Keywords 4.1 The process of assessing musical performances 4.2 Musical Value 4.3 Measurement error 4.4 Extramusical factors 4.4.1 Performer-related aspects Self-efficacy Expressive variations Attractiveness and flair Movement 4.4.2 Context related aspects Communication within the ensemble Acoustics Social factors Audience support 4.4.3 Evaluator characteristics Memory influences First impressions Mood of the assessor Familiarity and preference Halo effect 4.5 Nonmusical factors 4.5.1 Stereotyping 4.5.2 Order of performance 4.6 A model with practical implications: The Johari window 4.7 Conclusions Acknowledgments 5. Strategies for individual practice Abstract and Keywords 5.1 Individual practice: A historical perspective 5.2 Planning and preparation strategies 5.2.1 Strategies for activity selection and organization 5.2.2 Strategies for setting goals and objectives 5.2.3 Time management strategies 5.3 Executive strategies 5.3.1 Rehearsal Strategies Mental Versus Playing Rehearsal Strategies Strategies to master the whole piece versus smaller parts Strategies for difficult and challenging parts Strategies concerned with tempo of performance 5.3.2 Strategies for the distribution of practice over time 5.3.3 Strategies for preparing for a public performance 5.4 Evaluation Strategies 5.4.1 The necessity of evaluation 5.4.2 Strategies for process evaluation Aural and Visual Models Strategies to detect and correct errors Self-guiding strategies 5.5 Metastrategies 5.5.1 Knowledge about strategies 5.5.2 Control and Regulation of Strategies 5.6 Conclusions 6. Strategies for ensemble practice Abstract and Keywords 6.1 Group Dynamics 6.2 The rehearsal Situation 6.2.1 General Structure of Rehearsals 6.2.2 Approaches to Individual Pieces 6.3 Verbal and Nonverbal Communication 6.3.1 Between A Conductor and Ensemble 6.3.2 Between Coperformers 6.4 Case Studies 6.4.1 Rehearsal Method 6.4.2 Rehearsal Communication 6.4.3 Social Interaction 6.5 Conclusions 7. Strategies for Memorizing Music Abstract and Keywords 7.1 Memory: Structure and general recommendations 7.1.1 Structure 7.1.2 General recommendations 7.2 Musical Memory 7.2.1 Memorizing by rote 7.2.2 Memorizing visual information 7.2.3 Memorizing by ear 7.2.4 Translating visual information into imaginary sound 7.2.5 Developing and exploiting conceptual memory Analysis Structural boundaries 7.2.6 Memorizing strategies for singers: combining words and music 7.3 Conclusions 8. Strategies for sight-reading and improvising music Abstract and Keywords 8.1 Comparing sight-reading and improvisation 8.1.1 Task analysis: Sight-reading Perceiving Notation Cognitive processing of visual information Generation of movements 8.1.2 Task analysis: Improvisation Pattern chaining versus more complex models Previous knowledge in a secondary function Motor programming 8.1.3 Two sides of the same coin? 8.2 Acquiring and enhancing sight-reading and improvising skills 8.2.1 Skill acquisition and development Acquiring the knowledge base Things to consider when practicing 8.2.2 Identifying problems Some General Thoughts 8.3 Conclusions 9. Physical fitness Abstract and Keywords 9.1 Background 9.2 Chronic exercise 9.3 Acute exercise 9.4 Studies with musicians 9.4.1 Chronic exercise and music performance 9.4.2 Acute exercise and music performance 9.4.3 Subjective responses from students 9.5 Guidelines for the musician 9.6 Conclusions Acknowledgments 10. Alexander Technique Abstract and Keywords 10.1 Application of at to Music Performance 10.2 At and Science 10.3 Anatomical and Physiological Studies on the General Population 10.4 Studies With Musicians 10.4.1 Physiological Studies 10.4.2 Behavioral Studies 10.5 Conclusions Acknowledgments 11. Physiological self-regulation: biofeedback and neurofeedback Abstract and Keywords 11.1 Biofeedback 11.2 Biofeedback and Music Performance 11.3 Neurofeedback 11.4 Neurofeedback and Attention 11.5 Neurofeedback and Relaxation 11.6 Neurofeedback and Performance Enhancement in Musicians 11.6.1 Enhancing Attention 11.6.2 Achieving Peak Performance 11.7 Conclusions Acknowledgments 12. Mental skills training Abstract and Keywords 12.1 Relaxation 12.2 Mental rehearsal 12.2.1 Introduction To Mental Rehearsal 12.2.2 Evocative symbols and images 12.3 Using and developing mental skills for specific performance situations 12.3.1 the pre-performance routine 12.3.2 Concentration 12.3.3 Ideal performance states and simulation 12.4 Using Mental Skills for Long-term Learning and Preparation for Performance 12.6 Conclusions Acknowledgments 13. Feedback learning of musical expressivity Abstract and Keywords 13.1 The nature of expressivity 13.1.1 Common myths about expressivity Expressivity is a completely subjective entity that cannot be studied objectively You must feel the emotion in order to convey it to your listeners Explicit understanding is not beneficial to learning expressivity Emotions expressed in music are very different from everyday emotions Expressive skills cannot be learned 13.1.2 Perspectives from empirical research Expression of emotions: summary of findings 13.2 A novel approach: feedback-learning of musical expressivity 13.2.1 Criteria for a useful teaching strategy 13.2.2 The lens model 13.2.3 Cognitive feedback 13.2.4 Research on cognitive feedback 13.2.5 Generality of the CFB approach 13.2.6 Implications for music education 13.3 Conclusions Acknowledgments 14. Drugs and musical performance Abstract and Keywords 14.1 Musical performance as a psychomotor task 14.1.1 The effects of anxiety on psychomotor performance 14.2 Types of drug 14.2.1 Lifestyle drugs Alcohol Caffeine Nicotine 14.2.2 Prescription drugs Antidepressants Beta-Blockers Tranquilizers 14.2.3 Illicit drugs Amphetamines Cannabis Cocaine Ecstasy Hallucinogens Opiates 14.3 Conclusions Acknowledgments Epilogue: A note on future directions for enhancing musical performance Index