Mental Practice in Music Memorization: an Ecological-Empirical study

The present study aims to systematically describe free (the meaning of “free” is not clear to the reader at this point. I would eliminate “free” here because you describe it in the next paragraph) Mental Practice (MP) in a complex cognitive task, including cross-individual differences in the use of different MP strategies and their relation to performance. Sixteen pianists were studied while memorizing piano pieces. Each subject memorized two pieces, one by MP and the other by Physical Practice (PP). During MP subjects freely applied the practice strategies they preferred, except physically playing a real piano (ecological approach). Practice and performances were video-documented; practice strategies were reported in researcher-developed questionnaires. MP alone produced successful musical learning. MP combined with PP produced results close to PP alone. MP outcomes were significantly related to the strategies applied. Results suggest a connection for MP with the internal-external attentional focus theory (Wulf, 2007) developed for overt motor learning. Practical implications for musicians’ practice habits are discussed.