This Technique Saved Me 100s of Hours of Practice Time

I have played piano since I was 3, professionally since age 15. I started using visualization when I had to ride the bus to school. I'm 81 and STILL do it! This WORKS people, music has always been up to the connection between the brain and the fingers, your job is to get out of the way and let the music through...

I played saxophone in high school and college. I'm 61 now, and I'm playing jazz guitar. I use visualization regularly, especially for memorizing chords and comping. I find it very effective, and often do this when I can't sleep at night. It still surprises me that when I'm mentally playing chords, I'll stop occasionally, because I missed a string or picked the wrong voicing, just like when I am playing a physical guitar!

Yes, I agree. My Saxophone professor in college taught me “visualization practice”. I’ve been using it for years and years. I can confirm that it works. Great video. 👍🏻

Absolutely spot on, Jay. I started visualising about two years ago and it has transformed my playing. The biggest benefit I found is that it has even improved my sight reading. Not sure how but I no longer fear sharps and flats. By the way, I tried out practising in the car after your previous video and it has worked a treat! Thank you.

Absolutely amazing. I’ve been struggling to remember the chord changes and the melody for All The Things You Are. Yesterday I watched the champions league match, and when nothing happened I visualised the chords, the melody and how I would improvise. Today I picked up my horn and immediately played the melody and was able to improvise over the chords. It’s mind blowing how powerful this method is.

Thank Jay. I started doing this technique a few months ago and it has definitely been a game changer in my playing ability. As always thank you for the constant encouragement to become a better Sax player.

Yes, thankyou Jay great post.. The music is not in our fingers or our instruments, the music is in our head.Recently I have been learning new, and revisiting old melodies by singing and playing the melody on piano.Start very slowly and sing and memorise the intervals on piano and the timing from the sheet .Then when I am driving I visualise the piano and rhythm sheet, singing the melodies and then sing visualising the transposition to tenor saxophone.I find visualisation is great. singing with visualised thought is useful as we can do it anywhere👍 anytime.

Great tip Jay and definitely something I’ve done for years - also a brilliant reminder for newer players to get off to a faster start.

Makes perfect sense Jay, and it works for so many different things. Thanks for surfacing the topic!

Very interesting and informative as always. Particularly relevant to my current reading which is classical guitarist Christopher Berg's book 'Practicing Music by Design - Historic Virtuosi on Peak Performance.' He covers eight common elements of practice which have been used by pianists and violinists historically. One of these is chapter 4 'Mental Work'. The interesting thing about the book is that Berg doesn't just look at modern research into learning and performing (which includes sports coaching as well as music) but that he emphasises how these techniques were known and used historically. He starts the chapter with the sentence 'Study methods away from the instrument that were used by some of the great pianists and violinists - specifically mental work and the use of recall - anticipate and confirm current research about learning and memory.' He mentions the formation of myelin (the insulation of brain cells which speed transmission of impulses in the brain) and how this increases with mental work. He quotes accounts of older virtuoso musicians' practice and teaching requirements which included work away from the instrument. Other chapters include slow practice, chunking, variety in practice. So (forgive the long comment 😐), your practice is well founded by research and older virtuosi. Thanks again for your videos!

You are priceless. Thank you soo.... much for your generosity and sincerity. A struggling clarinet owner and aspiring clarinetist.

Great video Jay! Yes I do this too, mostly to help me go to sleep or in the middle of the night. I’ll usually go over a solo I’ve transcribed or a tune. As you say it’s also a great chance to work on your ear training and intervals!

Very solid recommendation and gives me a lot to consider when on an airplane or other down times. I use this when trying to play by ear. Starting with tunes I know and then visualizing neighboring tones. Thanks for reminding us!

definately going to give it a go.

Wonderful, Jay. I have used visualisation to remember chored changes of tunes in several keys, but haven't thought about using it for the actual practice of playing. Thanks!

Thanks Jay. This is new to me, very zen, very cool! I've been stressing lately as work and life has kept me from practicing as much as I want. Gonna give it a try...

Great info as usual. Thanks Jay! Mental practice is very useful for many situations, and can increase our concentration capacity if we do it regularly like you say😊

Thanks very much Jay for this fascinating lesson.

Thank you for the video!! I'm excited to give this a try!😊

great Jay! As usual. You are telling people things they should do for every activity….. so they might get better in it. In fact it's the base of real meditation and has everything to do with INTENTION. This way you're creating your own reality and skills! Super ! Well done to advise this for playing saxophone!