Tuning in to Your Senses

Vanessa Mulvey, LBME

New England Conservatory

 

Using information coming the senses can be a valuable tool to use in performance anxiety situations. Experiment with using your senses, one at a time, to find which one or ones really impacts your playing in a positive way.  

 

Tactile - information about what’s touching your skin.  

 

Auditory - many music students are used to blocking out everything else due to practicing in typical practice rooms.  What happens if you let the other sounds exist in the background and not use mental effort to block them out?  

 

Kinesthetic - feeling feet on the ground, spine, free and dynamic head balance

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Vision - including peripheral vision information really helps. It won’t be in focus, but it will be in your awareness.  The goal is to find out what sense is your "Spidey Sense" and then practice including that every day. 

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