Imagery I

Research indicates that imagery is potentially very useful for musicians. It seems vividly imagining you are performing on stage, for example, activates neural and behavioural responses similar to the genuine experience. As a result, imagery is technique that some musicians use to help prepare for performances.

Sometimes called visualization, as this is a large component of the experience, musicians can use imagery to see themselves from one of two perspectives. One is from a first-person perspective, called internal visual imagery—that is, seeing what he or she would see if he or she were actually performing. The other is external visual imagery, a third-person perspective in which the musician is watching the performance from outside his or her own body. In this image, the musician may choose to view their performance from multiple angles to improve overall stage presence.

You may have heard imagery referred to as visualization, but that doesn’t quite capture it. Visualizing is certainly a part of it, but the visual image alone is too limiting. Kinaesthetic, or feeling, imagery is also needed.

Kinaesthetic imagery includes calling to mind physical sensations, such as muscle tension and the rapid heart rate that you might feel before stepping on stage. It might also include an awareness of your body’s movement in execution or positioning once you walk onto the stage. Working through pain and fatigue issues with kinaesthetic imagery can be a useful tool for musicians rehabilitating from injury. Emotions, good and bad, can also be usefully studied. What are you feeling up there on stage?

Ultimately the imagery that counts most for musicians is audio imagery, which allows you to ‘hear’ or ‘play’ music in your mind away from your instrument. For mainly sight reading musicians, like orchestra players and wedding ceremony musicians like myself, visual imagery is less useful simply because we don’t move around much on stage.  The ability to hear music in our heads from reading a score, on the other hand, is extremely beneficial.

Using imagery effectively may depend on the model you use. I suggest one you might try in my blog ‘Imagery II.’