Practice without an instrument

How do you practice without an instrument? That sounds kind of silly because you’re not really practicing. But it can be really useful to practice without an instrument.

You do this by visualizing.

It can be a great way to practice while you’re not able to practice your instrument.

It’s not a replacement for practicing with an instrument, but it’s something that I used to do while at Berklee quite often. It can also help with hearing a piece of music in your head; audiating.

If you can visualize yourself playing some in as much detail as possible you’ll be able to control your fingers and play it better when you do have an instrument.

It can also help with sight reading an remembering notes and fingerings because you’re imagining where those notes and fingerings are on the instrument.

Let’s start with the first thing.

What does “in detail” mean?

That means imagine it being as similar to you having an instrument in your hand as possible. Imagine everything. Try to feel what it’d feel like to press down the keys or the strings or the frets. Imagine how your hand is going to be positioned and how your feet are going to be positioned.

Sometimes when I would do this I would hold my hands up as if I actually did have an instrument. It might look or feel silly, but it can be super helpful when you don’t have an instrument in front of you.

Imagine how everything on the instrument looks. What color is everything? How big is everything? What temperature is everything?

After you’ve got everything in detail you want to imagine everything about how you play. Imagine what the keys feel like. Imagine what the strings or frets feel like. Imagine what the embouchure feels like if you’re playing a wind instrument. Imagine how the position changes feel when you play different parts of the music. Imagine how everything sounds when you play it.

Imagine everything.

It should “feel” as real as you can make it.

And honestly this should be quite difficult. Imagining everything in this much detail will take a lot of effort. It’ll be really difficult to do this, and it likely won’t be something that you’ll want to do for extended periods of time.

Now how can this help?

It helps in a few ways. It helps by getting your brain ready to move those tiny muscles in your hands and lips to create the correct sounds and fingerings while you’re playing. It prepares you to make all of those tiny movements.

One main way that this helps is because you’ll practice everything perfectly. If you’re really doing this correctly you’ll be imagining everything perfectly. You want to visualize yourself playing everything absolutely perfectly. That’s an incredibly effective way to practice, especially with an instrument. Every note, every articulation, every small little hand movement should be perfect.

Another thing this can help with is audiation; hearing music in your head.

When you’re reading a piece of music it can often be useful to imagine yourself playing that piece of music to be able to hear it in your head. It gives you something else to hold onto in order to hear the music.

I often do this with guitar, or with piano music. If I’m trying to hear something in my head I’ll visualize myself playing it on the piano and imagine sight reading it on piano. That gives me an idea of where my hands would be placed on the piano. This helps me imagine what notes the piano would be making while I’m doing this.

Give this a try if you’ve got some extra time at a bus stop or before a meeting or something. It can be a great way to improve your skills without needing to have an instrument in front of you. You’ll be surprised at how much this will help you improve your instrumental skills.

ISJ