Mindfulness for violinists

Sacha Paredes Sánchez

An overabundance of mental distractions may prevent musicians’ minds from being in the moment while practicing. The present mixed-methods study examined the effects of three newly designed mindfulness meditations on six conservatory violinists’ levels of dispositional mindfulness, mind-wandering and respective variables. Thought probes were used before and after the intervention to examine frequency of mind-wandering and contextual variables (task difficulty, fatigue and stress, and motivation) during two hours of participants’ instrumental practice (one of technical work another of a new piece in their repertoire). FFQM (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) and MfM (Mindfulness for Musicians) questionnaires were used to measure mindfulness levels before and after the intervention. Interviews and meditation logs were used as qualitative data. Results indicated that all participants became more mindful at the end of the meditation week for all mindfulness’ facets for the FFQM and MfM questionnaires. However, the improvements were particularly noticeable for the “Acting with Awareness” and “Non-Judge” facets for the FFQM and for “Describe” in the MfM. Results showed opposing trends in mind-wandering levels throughout the intervention. That is, some participants showed higher mind-wandering at the post-intervention and others lower. However, contextual variables such as fatigue, motivation or worry, may have also affected how much participants wandered while practicing (e.g. some of them showed more rumination when being more worried and having slept less). Overall, results from the experiment evidenced the importance of including mindfulness in violinists’ daily practice as a useful routine to become more aware and less distracted.

Mindfulness’ instructions

The mindfulness intervention was accompanied by an informative hand-out with general instructions about mindfulness practices and 3 MP3 tracks with the daily practices.

Handout

What kind of mindfulness meditation will you be practicing?

FA meditation is a widespread style of Buddhist practice and involves sustaining selective attention moment by moment on a chosen object, such as a subset of localized sensations caused by respiration. To sustain this focus, the practitioner must also constantly monitor the quality of attention. At the beginning of the practice, the attention may wander away from the chosen object, and the typical instruction is to recognize the wandering and then restore attention to the chosen object. For example, while intending to focus on localized sensations around the nostrils caused by breathing, one might notice that one’s attention has been lost and that one has become unwillingly busy with thoughts unrelated to the task. One then simply releases this distraction and returns to the intended object.

Instructions for meditation:

Below, you will find 3 kinds of meditation: sitting meditation, standing meditation, and body scan meditation. The first two only vary in posture (standing or sitting). The three meditations are thought for you to do before your violin practice.

Each session lasts approx. 15 minutes. You will receive the sitting meditation (SM) to practice during the first 2 days, then you will receive the other two: meditation (Sn), and body scan (BS). You can alternate the last two with the sitting meditation after you have done all of them 3. You can alternate them however you like, but to take part in this experiment, you must do at least one of the three meditations per day, before you start violin practice (it can be at any time of the day, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be your first practice session of the day). At the end of your musical practice with meditation, record or briefly, write a short reflection on how your practice went.

Examples of organizing your meditation could be:

-SM, SM, Sn, BS, Sn, SM, BS

-SM, SM, BS, Sn, BS, Sn, Sn

-SM, SM, BS, Sn, SM, SM, SM

Try to look for a place where you know you will not be kicked out (you may choose to meditate at home, at the conservatory, or in any space where you usually practice) and a time when you are not rushed to leave.

Consistency is a key element to achieving the benefits of meditation. The day is long, and you will have plenty of time to dedicate yourself to your musical life. You are taking this time out for self-care and to develop your mental power as a musician, as well as your ability to be in the moment.

Please, do not share these recordings with other people outside the experiment. Thank you and enjoy your week of practice with meditation!

MP3 tracks link: Link to website

At the bottom of the page following the link below you will find my three designed meditations: body scan, sitting and standing violin meditations:

https://mindfulpracticing.net/one-on-one-violin/

Appendix C

Appendixes: Appendix A / Appendix B / Appendix C / Scripts

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