Participants
Twelve bachelor and master violin students were recruited from music students at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Out of the 12, six ultimately participated. The six participants did the meditations and completed pre- and post-mind-wandering questionnaires and interviews, but only four completed everything including the mindfulness questionnaires. The experiment was carried out two weeks before the mid-term master exams.
Experimental design
The mixed-methods design consisted of the collection of quantitative data followed by qualitative data. The quantitative data was collected pre- and post-intervention to measure levels of mind-wandering frequency and dependent variables and mindfulness. The qualitative data was collected post-intervention to discover any effects of learning mindfulness on participants’ lives as musicians.
Measures and materials
Mind-wandering
Mind-wandering was measured through thought probes. Two different phone applications (Random Notification for iPhone devices and Randomly Remind for Android devices) were used to control participants’ states of mind. Participants were randomly notified during two practice sessions of 1 hour: one while practicing technique (scales, arpeggios, double stops, mechanical etudes) and the second while practicing a new piece. Thought probes were based on the thought probes used by Brosowsky et al., (2020) and Levinson et al (2012), who asked participants to answer whether their attention was on or off task. A second question asked participants to indicate whether their mind-wandering had been intentional or unintentional. To complete this task, participants were given a sheet with instructions about how to respond to the thought probes (Appendix A). An extended explanation of mind-wandering was avoided to prevent social desirability responding or acquiescence bias as much as possible. Besides responding to the on/off task question when being probed, participants completed a series of binary and Likert-type questions asking about different researched contextual variables of mind-wandering before and after their practice time (Appendix A). Before practice, they were asked about their level of fatigue and type of piece (i.e., technique or new piece) and, after the practice session, they were asked about their level of motivation, worry, and efficiency during practice.
Mindfulness
As part of the pre-intervention, mindfulness was measured as a trait with the questionnaires FFQM (Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire) and MfM (Mindfulness for Musicians) (Appendix B).
The FFMQ is a 39-item measure, a 5-point Likert scale, and was developed from five other mindfulness questionnaires (Baer et al., 2006). Specifically, it measures mindfulness using five facets: Observe, Describe, Act with Awareness, Non-Judge, and Non-React. The Observe facet assesses the moment-by-moment awareness (internal and external) and is measured using statements such as “I notice the smells and aromas of things.” The Describe facet assesses noting or mental labeling of stimuli with statements such as “I’m good at finding words to describe my feelings.” Act with Awareness measures the ability to attend to the current action, rather than falling constantly into mind-wandering. An example of this statement in the FFMQ is: “I am easily distracted.” The Non-React facet assesses reaction to inner thoughts and feelings, with statements such as: “I watch my feelings without getting lost in them.” Finally, the Non-Judge measures judgments of those thoughts and feelings. An example statement from the FFMQ is “I disapprove of myself when I have irrational ideas.” The FFMQ has been evaluated as having high construct validity and internal consistency (Park et al., 2013).
The Mindfulness for Musicians questionnaire (MfM) (Czajkowski, 2018) is a new 15-item design using the same five-facet model by Baer et al. (2006). Items on this questionnaire are based on primary areas of student musicians’ experience: lessons, practice, and performance. An example of a statement for the Observe facet referring to body awareness is “When learning technique in lessons, I notice new tiny muscular sensations or small changes in sound production as they happen.” An example of a Describe statement is “It is difficult to describe clearly in words how I feel before I go on stage.” The FFMQ “Act with Awareness statements” include the term “Distraction,” used as follows in the MfM statement for this facet: “I’m easily distracted when practicing my voice or instrument.” An example of a Non-React statement is: “If something unexpected happens when I am on stage, I notice it without reacting and easily carry on performing”, and an example of a Non-Judge statement, to measure levels of self-criticism, is: “I’m always criticizing myself in singing or instrumental lessons.” Czajkowski (2018) reports a full overview of the development of the MfM. Unfortunately, in this study, the MfM is not being validated due to the small sample size. The same issue was encountered in Czajkowski (2018), where hypothetically the small sample size and fewer items in the MfM than in the FFMQ may have been reasons for finding a lower for the MfM than for the FFMQ. As is claimed in Czajkowski (2018, pp. 355-356): "This measure needs further testing and refining". Nonetheless, the MfM works as an extra method of response for the participants and invites musicians to reflect on their attentional states during their daily musical activities. Ultimately, Czajkowski (2018) recommends a study to validate the MfM measure in collaboration with the developers of the original FFMQ to make this tool more precise in measuring musicians' levels of mindfulness.
This study partly replicates the methodology used by Czajkowski et al. (2020). A replication study is repeating a study's procedure and observing if the prior findings repeat in similar conditions. Nevertheless, this study differs from Czajkowski et al. (2020) in several aspects. First, this study departs from a newly designed mindfulness practice that differs from the standard MBSR in that it lasts shorter (15 min instead of 45 min). Moreover, this study has the added of measuring levels of mind-wandering before and after the intervention to examine the impact of mindfulness on participant proneness to distraction. Besides, it not only examines mind-wandering as an isolated construct but also looks at potentially confounding contextual variables (Robinson et al., 2020). Finally, with this study, I follow the suggestion of Czajkowski et al. (2020) about investigating the specific effects of mindfulness on particular types of musicians, although not in a longitudinal study.
Qualitative data
Participants were invited to reflect on their feelings, body sensations and mental states after each practice session in which the mindful training was included. Also, at the end of the week, participants were invited to an open interview (without script) for 10 minutes to talk about their overall experience with the meditations.
Procedure
It was the initial idea to carry out an introductory session to explain the experiment, introduce the meditations and the questionnaires and respond to possible inquiries. However, considering the difficulty to gather all the participants at the same time and in the same space, a Whatsapp group was created to inform participants about both mind-wandering questionnaires (Appendix A) and the meditations (See mindfulness instructions’ handout in (Appendix C).
Participants conmplete first the mind-wandering the pre-intervention thought-probes and follow-up quesiotnnaires and the pre-intervention mindfulness questionnaires (FFMQ and MfM).
Three different 15-min. (approx.) recorded guided mindfulness meditations were used for the purpose of this experiment (Appendix C). The first meditation consisted of a sitting breathing meditation with playing at the end of the practice. Participants were asked to do this one the first two days. The second meditation was very similar to the first one, except that it requires a standing position. The last meditation was a sitting body scan meditation with playing as well. The training demanded one session per day, but subjects were free to use it as many times as they wished during their practice sessions.
After their final mindfulness practice session, participants were asked to complete the post-intervention thought probe and follow-up quesiotnnaires and the post-intervention mindfulness questionnaires. Finally, they were invited to an interview in which they were invited to talk about their experience with the mindfulness meditations. Numbers, instead of names, were used in the results to ensure anonymity.
Mindfulness design
Responding to the research question: "How can one design a violin-specific mindfulness meditation? Diaz (2022) surmises the possibility to incorporate mechanisms such as MBA (mindfulness breathing awareness) into musicians’ lives. More specifically, he compels musicians to include meditative practices in musical warm-ups, rehearsals, and performances. For the design of a new guided meditation, it is only reasonable to ask ourselves what the targets of a mindfulness meditation might be. According to Diaz (2022) and Lutz et al., 2015, Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) aim to target the following psychological processes: Object orientation, meta-awareness, and dereification.
Object orientation describes the process of focusing attention on a target to the exclusion of other stimuli. Meta-awareness, in the mindfulness context, would refer to noticing cognitive or physical features concerning the present experience while at the same time focusing on an object. Meta-awareness may be present in MBI training through statements such as: “notice when your mind wanders and try to come back to the object of attention” or “if you feel a negative thought is tensing up your body, let go of it and go back to the feeling of flow with the instrument”. Dereification refers to the ability to reinterpret thoughts, feelings, and other perceptions, interpreting them as “mere thoughts”, rather than valid or accurate descriptions of the present moment. Dereification would be especially helpful to musicians when facing negative, unhelpful, or irrelevant thoughts during practice. Diaz (2022) suggests that musicians may find it useful to label these kinds of thoughts as “just thoughts”, and then come back to the object of attention. Finally, adopting a non-aversive or positive affective tone, through a non-judgmental or curious disposition to meditative experience, is a fundamental part of carrying out the previous meditative processes.
Not surprisingly, the described PM (Phenomenological Matrix of mindfulness) features can be found in several examples of guided meditation available in the literature (Brown, 2020; Diaz, 2011; Diaz et al., 2020; Diaz, 2022).
Object orientation is present in Diaz (2011): “Now allow your awareness to focus more fully on your breath”; Diaz (2020): “tune into your breathing”, “when one breath ends, another breath begins”, “moving the attention narrowing it like a beam of light from a floodlight in composing the entire body to spotlight that moves very deliberately down the body, down the left leg…so that we are resting in awareness…almost to the exclusion of everything else”, “be aware of it in isolation of the rest of the body, just the left knee”; Diaz (2022) “Anchor your attention on the natural ebb and flow of your breathing”; or Brown (2020): “As you bring your attention to your body, you’ll notice your body sitting. Make a little mental note of that. Sitting. Sitting. Sit, and know that you are sitting.”, “I’d like you to play the open string of your choice. Can you do this activity and be aware of your body breathing […] Out. In. Out. In. What about the vibrations? Where do you feel your instrument vibrating you?”.
The dereification target is observable in Diaz (2011): “See if you can just notice the thoughts. Maybe, very gently, begin to notice the type of thinking ... are you planning, judging, or worrying? Then practice just letting those thoughts go ... releasing them.”; Diaz (2020): “You may start thinking about another things. If this happens, this is not a problem, it is very natural” “We may find along the way that our attention drifts, that we find ourselves thinking of other things, other times, memories, desires, emotions…anything at all, and simply when we notice this bringing the attention back”, “if these memories, emotions, or thoughts arise, simply allowing them to wash over us, like waves. Just washing over us and then receiving, recognizing that they are just thoughts or emotions or memories”, “see if we can label it”, “gently redirect your attention back to the breathing”; Diaz (2022): “While focusing on your breath, allow yourself to notice any thought, feeling, or sensation that might naturally arise. As you become aware of these thoughts, feelings, or sensations, simply notice and then label them as they pass through your awareness”; Brown (2020): “If you find your mind wandering, maybe you’re thinking of food, a tv show you watched or COVID-19, that’s ok. That’s a very important part of meditation. When you catch it, make a mental note of it, and simply begin again. The next concept is one I briefly touched, and that’s ‘mental noting.’ The idea behind mental noting is that you are acknowledging something that has come into your awareness. It’s a sort of kind acknowledgment, without judgment.”
Meta-awareness is seemingly present in Diaz (2011): “Scan your awareness through your entire body”; Diaz (2020): “Feel the connection with the floor, the chair.”, “Relax any areas of tightness or tension”, “notice where you feel your breath in your body”, “is it warm, is it tight is it lose?”; Diaz (2022): As you become aware of these thoughts, feelings, or sensations, simply notice and then label them as they pass through your awareness"; Brown: “As your awareness of your body deepens, you may notice your body breathing”.
Finally, the Non-Judging feature is evident in Diaz (2011): “ As you continue to watch your breath, you will find that your mind continues to wander, again and again. Just see if you can notice it, and bring it back, bring it back with an attitude of patience and acceptance”; Diaz (2020): “See if you can be kind to yourself in the process”, “we stay present for just this moment, as it is, regardless of how it is”, “seeing if even at this moment we can be aware of it, without the need to do anything, without the need to change anything, just allowing it to be here” “once again, not needing it to be any different from what it is”; Diaz (2022) “Do not fixate on any sensation or association. Instead, acknowledge each experience non-judgmentally or with a sense of curiosity, label it, and then return attention to your breath for as long as possible.” Or “At the conclusion of this meditation, declare an intention to bring this quality of focus and non-attachment to distracting thoughts during your next activity.”; Brown (2020): “We’d like to avoid a judgmental or emotional attachment to the noting”.
Notably, despite all previous studies sharing the same psychological processes, while most meditation designs are more similar to formal meditation practices (Kabat-Zinn, 1994), which involve sitting or lying down, Brown (2020) proposes a meditation practice where the instrument (double bass) is involved. Thus, it may be possible to design one training that could be applied directly to violin practice. Overall, we can conclude that the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness serves as a reliable baseline for designing new training adapted to musicians since the psychological processes it targets are present in most available mindfulness designs in the literature. Therefore, three newly designed guided meditations for violinists are proposed: mindfulness breathing sitting meditation, mindfulness breathing standing meditation, and mindfulness body scan. Using these meditations, violinists will likely direct their attention to different targets, such as their breathing, body, and relevant musical objects of perception (contact with the instrument, quality of sound, tone, and timbre). The reason for including three different meditations is to provide violinists with a wider spectrum of objects of perception and sensations so that they can develop awareness more holistically by including the body scans or a standing position. Moreover, since these meditations have been designed to be executed before violin practice, the inclusion of a standing position while meditating may be of benefit to violinists since they would normally practice in that position. According to Diaz (2021), mindfulness breath awareness (MBA) would allow musicians to monitor affective, perceptual, and cognitive processes, including distractions, relevant to the musical activity to be able to self-regulate. Seemingly, mindfulness body Scan (MBS) practices may be useful to bring increased awareness and regulation of physical, emotional, and cognitive states involved in musical practice.
Length of the meditations
The duration of the 3 mindfulness practices was set at 15 minutes (approx.), considering the short duration of the training (one week) and the capacity of the participants as non-meditators. Another fundamental reason for choosing a short-time meditation is the observation of positive results obtained by different short meditation trainings in the literature (Brown, 2020; Diaz, 2020). Hopefully, by experiencing a short training, violinists will be more motivated to try out longer meditative practices that enable them to play more mindfully.
The meditation scripts can be accessed in Scripts ad the meditation recordings in: