A Quiet Mind: The Key to Musical Performance

In this day and age, many people believe they can multitask. From texting and driving to watching television while studying for a test, we always want to accomplish many things at once. Musicians often try to multitask while practicing their instruments. They think about breathing, articulation, jaw movement, finger technique, and more. However, research has proven that multitasking is impossible. According to Christine Rosen in “The Myth of Multitasking,” time and efficiency are actually lost while the brain decides which task to perform. Practicing with a “quiet mind” will lead to peak performance and avoid the detrimental effects of trying to concentrate on many things at once. What constitutes a quiet mind? For my project, I will draw on material from The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey, Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and others to explain how to attain this mental state during musical performance. I will show how the application of the techniques described in these books can help musicians “concentrate without thinking,” as Gallwey writes. When musicians practice with a quiet mind, they perform with a quiet mind. If they perform with a quiet mind, they are free to play as well as they can imagine.