Underlying mechanisms
The underlying mechanisms for imagery are both cognitive as well as motor mechanisms. These include working memory, action simulation and internal models (Keller, 2012). and provide the brain with the right stimulus to produce the internal images. Working memory is important because in order to be able to form a mental image, the brain needs information about rhythm, pitch, timbre and other musical patterns. Action simulation is used by the brain to vividly imagine the processes that are associated with the actual movement and absence of the movement itself. Finally, internal modes rely on experience-based learning (Keller, 2012).
Figure 2 gives a schematic overview of how mental imagery enhances ensemble playing. The most important factor in this is anticipatory auditory imagery and the benefits it brings. First of all, it helps the player select which movements to produce. Secondly, the imagery enables rapid movement by planning ahead and finally it optimizes timing accuracy by optimizing movement kinematics (Keller, 2012).
Keller (2012) researched how structural and temporal properties of sound are represented during auditory imagery and auditory perception. It can be concluded that musical imagery is about the collaboration of different brain regions that become active during auditory and motor processing. New developments in the neuro-sciences can indicate both when an individual engages in imagery, as well as showing different patterns of brain activity that are associated with imagining specific musical pieces and rhythmic structures.
Keller (2012) describes the different musical imagery modes and modalities (figure 3).
Measuring Mental Imagery
In research that implemented a mental imagery plan on students (Williamon, 2011), some questionnaires were used to measure the effect of the mental imagery plan. Two of these questionnaires are:
- The Creative Imagination Scale which measures ‘responsiveness to suggestions of image’
- The Movement Imagery Questionnaire which requires the person to make a small movement of the arm and then immediately imagine that movement. This evaluates a person’s visual and kinaesthetic imagery ability.
However, no other details about these questionnaires could be found.
Forms of mental imagery
Different authors have described different forms of mental imagery. For example, Keller (2012) distinguishes between three forms of mental imagery:
1. Practice away from the instrument
2. Silent reading of musical scores (notational audiation)
3. Thinking of the ideal sound during performance
Whereas Repp (2001) distinguished between four different types of musical imagery in daily life:
- When a composer hears unwritten music in his head before putting it on paper
- When a trained musician can hear music by just reading the score, through understanding and experience
- Actively hear a musical passage from memory, with or without a visual score
- Imagery that musicians use during a performance to acquire a desired emotion or sound in a work.
Johnson (2011) researched musical tempo stability in mental practice. In this, motor and non-motor imagery techniques were compared. The experiment consisted of two parts. In the first part the performance of the different musicians was recorded in two excerpts. Next, the musicians mentally rehearsed the two excerpts in 12 trials. During each trial, the individuals heard three seconds of their recording. Before and after that they were asked to mentally rehearse the excerpt in a steady tempo using one of two strategies: non-motor imagery and motor imagery. With non-motor imagery, the individual focuses only on the sound while motor imagery involves focussing on the imagination of performance movements. At the end of the trial participants had to show the imagined excerpts. No significant differences were found in mean tempo accuracy while using the different mental rehearsal strategies. However, as the repeated mental rehearsals of the musical tempo led to a more precise tempo in the end result, motor imagery might provide support for this phenomenon.
Furthermore, the results of Johnson (2011) suggest that it can be more beneficial to use first motor-imagery before other kinds of mental practice. This because the movement you make as a musician may be easier to remember than the sound. The motor-memory can then serve as a basis for further use of imagery. Finally, Johnson (2011) showed with this experiment that when performing successive mental practice, participants of all different levels continued to improve. This suggests that mental practice can benefit everyone and furthermore, that it can continue to be beneficial, also for experienced musicians. This is similar to what Rogers, Hall and Buckolz (1991) noted, namely what the imagery ability and thereby the effectiveness of imagery can be increased through practice.
As Johnson (2011) pointed out: mental practice is used by musicians, but it is employed in various ways and likely with the same varying degrees of success. There is a great deal in diversity in the education of mental practice, which might be reason for the fact that it is still not a core component of music education.
For Johnson (2003) the most common forms of imagery are:
- Aural: this aspect comes quite naturally for musicians due to experience and practice. However, it can be improved by playing passages, hearing the passage in your head, and repeating this process until the aural image is as vivid as the actual performance.
- Visual: this aspect is about the ability to see objects or certain events in the mind’s eye. Visual imagery in music can be both about seeing a score in your mind as well as imagining yourself listening to your own performance or visualizing your instrument.
- Kinaesthetic: this aspect is about imagining sensations that are connected to muscular movements.
All of these forms of imagery can be separated into two groups: external and internal. External refers to viewing yourself practicing from an audience’s perspective, while internal is when you see things while practicing or performing.
Mental imagery and sports science
The idea of mental imagery in music is very old, but not put into use. Even though the benefits are acknowledged, imagery is as not widely used and researched as in sports science. In sports the role of mental imagery has been actively researched for example in the 1970s and the 1980s (Johnson, 2003). Whereas in the field of music the role of imagery still isn’t completely covered in literature, in the field of sports psychology, the role of imagery is much more important and widely accepted. For example: for sports an applied model of imagery use has been proposed. Gregg and Clark (2007) tried to find similar links between the research about mental imagery in sports and in music. By doing this, they developed a similar applied model of imagery use.
The applied model of imagery use in sports was developed by Martin et al. (1999). The goal of this model was to guide the practice of imagery and thereby creating more effectiveness of that practice. In sports, it turned out that the relationship between the practice of imagery and the desired outcome is not perfect. They found several other variables to be of influence: the imagery ability, the skill level and the type of sport. Gregg and Clark (2007) find that this might also be the case for the use of imagery in music. For example: classical schooled musicians that have to perform a lot, use imagery more than non-performance majors. Also, the use of imagery in music can be influenced by the type of instrument. For example, singers might use imagery more than instrumental musicians.
What Gregg and Clark (2007) add to the sports model is that for music, modality might also be an important factor that could influence the relationship between the use of imagery and the desired outcome.
Johnson (2003) also acknowledged the parallels between sports and music. He specifically focused on the use of imagery in teaching and learning organ music and points out the common elements of playing an instrument and sports. These elements involve goal-setting, motivation, commitment in hours of practice, concentration and the ability to eliminate irrelevant thoughts when necessary (Johnson, 2003).
Johnson (2003) describes that one of the first steps to successful mental imagery involves learning to relax the body. Also, Williamon (p. 222) stresses the importance of relaxation. According to him, a relaxed state “is characterized by an absence of unnecessary activity and tension.”
Theoretical Framework
Robert Schumann wrote his Humoreske, Op. 20 for solo piano. In this piece, there is a section with a third stave between the treble and bass line. This inner line contains a lyrical and melodic line and is market as innere Stimme. The idea is that the performer imagines this line while playing the piece, it is not to be played. It is assumed that the inner line represents the voice of Clara (Schumann’s future wife) singing one of her own compositions. Imagining this, should change the character of the playing (Keller, 2012).
The anecdote above illustrates one of the many ways mental imagery can be used in music-making. When reading about the subject, diverse examples from famous composers and musicians can be found. Rubinstein learned a piece in the train, by just sitting with the score. There were composers, like Tchaikovsky, who became deaf later in life, but still heard entire symphonies in their head. The aforementioned examples relate to the use of mental imagery in music. In literature, mental imagery has many different definitions.
Definitions
There are several definitions of musical imagery, and the ones that are most relevant to this research are listed below.
According to Keller (2012) musical imagery is “a multimodel process by which an individual generates the mental experience of auditory features of musical sounds, and/or visual, proprioceptive, kinaesthetic, and tactile properties of music-related movements, that are not (or not yet) necessarily present in the physical world.”
According to Johnson (2011) “imagining musical form is a holistic way to experience a work’s interrelation without having to listen to or perform the work in temporal order.” Furthermore, mental practice is sometimes confused with ‘visualization’, however, it can be much more than only visualization. Driskell et al. (1994): it is the mental rehearsal of a task in absence of actual, overt, physical rehearsal. Johnson (2011) summarizes that mental practice is about inner rehearsal of the different steps used in skills. Mental practice involves a variety of different physical and cognitive skill sets.
Haddon (2007) states that mental imagery is our mental capacity for imagining sound in the absence of a directly audible sound source. Furthermore, Haddon (2007) distinguishes between the deliberate use and the non-deliberate use of mental imagery.
Two Theories
Johnson (2003) distinguishes between two theories that show why mental imagery can be effective. The first is the psychoneuromuscular theory which supposes that vividly imagined events cause an innervation in your muscles. This innervation is similar to what is produced when you physically execute the movement because the brain senses the imagined as similar to the actual movement. Another theory about the effectiveness of mental imagery is the Symbolic Learning Theory which supposes that rehearsal of a sequence of movements involved in a task is useful because movements are symbolic components of the task (Johnson, 2003). In other words: the rehearsal forms a mental blueprint for the body and the more they are rehearsed, the more familiar they become.
Furthermore, Johnson (2003) makes a difference between mental rehearsal and mental imagery, although it is a subtle difference. Mental rehearsal involves a conscious effort to analyze motions, sounds and senses, while mental imagery is the ability to develop an image, without necessarily analysing the content. When practicing mental rehearsal, there are two steps to be followed. First is to mentally recall the past experience and secondly to create a mental projection, which is about imagining an ideal sound or performance in the future.
There are five different types of general images:
- Memory image
- Eidetic image: like a memory image but in a photographic manner, like when someone would look at a piece of music and then imagine the score with precise accuracy
- Imagination image: may involve images from the past, but they differ from the original perception.
- After-images: when someone sees a bright flash against a dark background (a camera flash at night).
- Recurrent image: when someone sees an event over and over again in the mind’s eye. Musicians often experience recurrent image by replaying in their minds either an extremely negative or a highly successful performance (Johnson, 2003)
Potential benefits
There has been a great deal of research that showed that the combination of physical practice and mental practice is effective, but no research showed why this is the case (Johnson, 2003).
The most significant examples of the growing body of research that has been done about the potential benefits of imagery is discussed in the following section. Most of this research is based on self-reports and anecdotal evidence (Keller, 2012). Benefits have been found not only for individual practice, but also for ensemble performance. In particular, musical imagery enhances the coordination between the individuals of an ensemble during playing. It provides the individuals with a better prediction about the timing of the other players, thus leading to more coordinated music-making. Except for the self-reports and the anecdotal evidence, little scientific research has been done about the role of imagery in music performance. This can partially be explained by the fact that it is difficult to isolate the effects of auditory imagery on behaviour and brain processes in the presence of exogenous auditory stimulation.
Musical imagery can enhance memory and facilitate motor planning. This gives a boost to the cognitive system and may in turn lead to better control over musical parameters, like timing (Godøy & Jørgensen, 2001). Johnson (2012) showed in his research, one potential benefit of musical imagery is the increase in the stability of musicians’ tempos.
Clark and Williamon (2011) evaluated a mental skills training program for musicians. In some music schools there are programs for mental skills training, however, some of these programs base their training on little empirical support. Although some substantive research has been done, Clark and Williamon (2011) argue that there are still large parts of the functions of our mental skills to be discovered. For example, it isn’t clear for what range of functions mental rehearsal can be beneficial, neither is it clear what the benefits are of structural mental skills training are. In addition, it isn’t exactly clear how the most effective mental training program looks like (what exercises were used). The study involved implementing a multi-faceted mental skills training program on music students in the UK. The mental skills training focused on practice attitudes and behaviours, music and mental skills, and the effects of the program on trait and state anxiety, self-efficacy, and performance ability (Clark & Williamon, 2011).
The mental training program consisted of a group session of 60 minutes and an individual session of 30 minutes per week. The program lasted for 9 weeks and was based on previous research from different fields: music, education and sports psychology. Three main categories can be distinguished from the program: motivation and effective practice, relaxation and arousal control and finally performance preparation and enhancement. Each topic covered three weeks of the program. Clark and Williamon (2011) used the Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery from Bett (Betts QMI) to assess the level of mental imagery. The questionnaire asks the respondents to rate themselves on a 7-point scale concerning the strengths and the vividness of their sensory experiences. It addresses seven different senses: sound, taste, smell, movement and interoceptive and exteroceptive sensations. The lower the score, the better the imagery vividness. After following the program, the participants scored higher on the Betts QMI than before. This change was found to be significant. Furthermore, participants of the program reported a changed view towards their practice behaviour and scored also higher on the Musical Learning and Self-regulation questionnaire (also a self-report).
Since musical imagery has multiple meanings and applications, Haddon (2007) tried to discover what mental imagery means for music students and their teachers. Factors that influence how individuals perceive and practice mental imagery are: background, training, personality, sensory preference and the specific task. Furthermore, it would appear that individuals with absolute pitch displayed the highest use of imagery. Haddon (2007) found that for teachers mental imagery was most important for: (1) a holistic awareness and creative and musical benefits, (2) healthy physical practice and (3) developing a wider musical understanding. For students, mental imagery is important because of (1) awareness of the importance of the mind in performing and learning, (2) use in consolidation of musical learning and the promotion of more advanced musical learning and (3) awareness of the creative role imagery can play.
Feltz and Landers (1983) did an analysis about the already existing literature about mental imagery and mental rehearsal. They reviewed sixty studies related to mental imagery in sports, music and other tasks from 1930-1980. They came to the following conclusions:
- The effects of mental practice are mostly associated with cognitive-symbolic elements of a task (more than motor elements)
- Mental practice is found in both early and later stages of learning and may be task-specific
- It is doubtful that mental practice effects are made during low-gain innervations of the muscles that will be used during actual performance
- Mental practice can be of assistance in the psychological preparation for performance
Another experiment testing the benefits of mental practice is the one from Stewart Ross (1985). He did an experiment on college trombonists to test the effect of mental practice on their sight-reading abilities. For this, he divided the trombonists in five different groups:
1. Physical practice
2. Mental practice
3. Combined mental and physical practice
4. Mental practice with simulated slide movements
5. No practice (they only got an article promoting strong sight-reading skills to read)
In accordance with earlier literature, Ross (1985) found that group number three did best on the experiment. However, there were some limitations to his research. First of all, the experiment isn’t able to say anything about musical interpretation. Secondly, the experiment doesn’t say anything about the quality of mental rehearsal, which can be of influence on the outcome.
The success of mental practice depends on both the individual’s experience and the type of task. As Driskell et al. (1994) showed, people with experience in a particular task benefit more from mental practice than people with less experience in that particular task. Furthermore, research showed that exclusive physical practice alone is more beneficial than only mental practice, but mental practice combined with physical practice is said to result in more success.
Research from Lim and Lippman (1991) investigated three different practice conditions. The first being physical practice, the second mental practice while listening to recordings and the last one was solely mental practice. Individuals from different groups were judged by a jury during a performance on aspects like accuracy, timing, phrasing and expression. Physical practice turned out to be most successful. On some aspects mental practice while listening was more successful than only mental practice (note accuracy), but for example for rhythmic accuracy there was no significant difference between the last two types of mental practice. Therefore, Lim and Lippman (1991) suggested that mental practice can have variable benefits, depending on the specific task and/or skills.
Other benefits of mental practice is that it gives musicians time to rest physically while continuing to practice. All of the above research is able indicate some benefits of mental imagery. However, it does not always become clear exactly how this is proven to be the case. For example, the research of Clark and Williamon (2011) fails to explain what exercises they implemented with the imagery program, even though this can be of great influence on the outcome. Furthermore, a lot of the research is dependent on self-repots and anecdotal evidence, like the research from Haddon (2007). Although all previous research has done a great job in investigating mental imagery and its benefits, this subchapter showed that there is room for additional research to add to the already existing research.
As can be seen in Figure 1 some parts in the brain become active when people perform an auditory imaginary task.
There are different kinds of imagery tasks. For example: auditory imagery tasks, visual imagery tasks and motor imagery tasks. Zatorre and Halpern (2005) show that the different kinds of imagery tasks, activate different parts of the brain. For example, auditory imagery tasks activate a different part of the brain than visual imagery tasks. However, there is a tight anatomical connection between these regions. Furthermore, there is some evidence that auditory and motor imagery are integrated in the brain. Motor imagery involves the imagination of the kinesthetics involved in the actual movements (Zatorre & Halpern, 2005). Research from Langheim et al. (2002) showed that when string players imagined a familiar piece, it took them almost as long as the time taken to actually play the piece, showing that there is strong correlation between the timing of imagining and actual playing. Furthermore, research from Haueisen and Knösche (2001) showed that even when pianists only listened to a piece they had to perform, there was some activation in the primary motor regions of the brain, corresponding to the finger that would have produced the sounding note. In addition, Zatorre & Halpern (2005) argue that imagery of related sounds and movements can be integrated. This corresponds to reports from musicians that they can ‘hear’ their instruments during mental practice.
Aleman, Nieuwenstein, Böker and de Haan (2000) researched the link between being musically trained and auditory imagery ability. They assumed a link since previous research has showed that the auditory cortex is both involved in the processing of music as well as in auditory imagery. For this reason, Aleman et al. (2002) expected that music training is positively associated with improved auditory imagery ability. In their research Aleman et al. investigated the performance of musically trained and musically naïve subjects on three different tasks: first a musical mental imagery task in which the individuals had to mentally compare the notes of a familiar song to the pitches. Secondly, the individual performed a non-musical auditory imagery task: compare the acoustic characteristics of everyday sounds. Finally, the individual had to perform a visual imagery task in which they compared visual forms of objects. The results showed that the musically trained individuals did better on both the musical mental imagery tasks as well as the non-musical auditory imagery task. However, the two groups did not differ in performance on the visual imagery task. So, the results suggested that music training improves both musical and non-musical auditory imagery, but not visual imagery. What is striking about these results is that music training hence does not lead to a general improvement of imagery ability, because both groups did equally well on the visual imagery task. This can be explained when looking at the brain. Visual imagery activates a different part of the brain than auditory activity.
The above section shows that musical imagery is of great importance to musicians. An understanding of its neural basis can furthermore help to understand the phenomenon better and provide us with some useful information for both educators as well as performers.
Online imagery is about the imagery that takes place while playing the instrument, for example during a performance. This can take place via a top-down or a bottom-up route. The top-down route is chosen when the performer generates mental images on purpose, while the bottom-up route is taken when the mental images are automatically triggered. Furthermore, Keller (2012) talks about modalities. The different modes of imagery can take place in different modalities: auditory, motor (proprioceptive, kinaesthetic and tactile) and visual. Which modality is used depends on the strategy and the goal of the performer as well as the environment in which the performance takes place. Offline imagery is about the imagery that takes place away from the instrument.
Brodsky, Henik, Rubinstein and Zorman (2003) show by using anecdotal evidence that musical notation can trigger auditory images. For example trained musicians are able to read a score containing well-known themes in silence and judge afterwards when they hear if it was the original theme. Brodsky et al. (2003) conducted three experiments in which subjects had to read a music score under different conditions: no distraction, concurrent rhythmic distraction, phonatory interference and obstruction by auditory stimuli. Interference by voice turned out to be most disturbing.
Summary of the possible benefits of mental imagery
As is shown from the above literature review, mental imagery can have multiple benefits for musicians. Most of the research is based on self-reports and anecdotal evidence. Also, as Johnson (2003) mentioned, it is proven that mental practice is effective but not why this is the case. However, the benefits of mental imagery are widespread. They range from enhancing memory and facilitating motor planning to increasing the stability of musicians’ tempos. Also, Clark and Williamon (2011) showed that mental imagery improved motivation and effective practice, relaxation and arousal control and performance preparation and enhancement. Another benefit of mental practice is that it provides the musician with time to rest physically while continuing to practice.
Musical Imagery in the brain
Besides the research on mental imagery and its potential benefits, there is also research that investigated how mental imagery has effect in the brain itself. This helps to partially answer the question on why mental imagery is effective.
Some evidence can be found that there is activity in the auditory cortical areas in the brain, even in the absence of sound (Zatorre & Halpern, 2005). This evidence shows that mentally imagining the sound, activates some part of the brain. There is neural activity that can take place, even in the absence of sound. However, this phenomenon is very difficult to research because of the subjectivity involved in these internal processes. For example, it is difficult to place people in a scanner and ask them to imagine a piece of music, because you are not able to gather evidence that the desired mental activity actually took place. Therefore, some researchers (Zatorre & Halpern, 2005) asked people to imagine the first four notes of Beethoven’s 5th and asked them whether the fourth note is lower than the first three notes. By doing this, they made sure that the people had to internally imagine the first four notes of the symphony.
Expectations/ Hypothesis
Since mental imagery can have multiple benefits for musicians, the expectation is that there will be an effect of mental training on my daily practice. Considering the question: “How can mental training help me practice more economically?” the expectation based on the literature review is that mental training can help to practice more economically because of the multiple benefits it comes with. Imagery can lead to quicker memorization, better motor planning, more effective practice and better performance preparation, Therefore, the hypothesis for this research is that: a mental imagery program will lead to more economical practice.
