Optimizing Practice Experience - Jenny Jieun Park

Optimizing Practice Experience:

Strategies for Practice Rooms

Jenny Jieun Park Teachers College, Columbia University jp3934[at]tc.columbia.edu

As a teacher, we see our students either daily, a few times a week, or once a week depending on our role and position. The questions that this article raises are: What do we know about our students’ practice sessions? How much do we know or, don’t know?

Are they optimizing their time? How often have we heard “everything sounded better in the practice room” stories?

Flow is a well-known phenomenon in the field of psychology, and it is defined as a state of optimal enjoyment occurring when one is feeling highly challenged and highly skilled for the activity in which she or he is engaged (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Based on numerous studies, nine dimensions of flow experience are presented: 1) the perceived challenge and skill are balanced, 2) goals are clear, 3) feedback is immediate, 4) action and awareness merge, 5) concentration is high, 6) sense of control, 7) loss of self-consciousness, 8) transformation of time, and 9) autotelic experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). While the flow has been extensively studied in performance settings in music and sports and has been associated with the “peak” experience or personal best, only a few studies were conducted in practice settings.

While the nature of the practice room settings is quite different from performance settings, studies have found flow is present during practice sessions (Fullagar, Knight, & Sovern, 2012) and band rehearsals (Miksza, Tan, & Dye, 2016). Some studies have found a positive correlation between the number of practice hours and flow proneness in musical performance (Butkovic, Ullén, & Mosing, 2015; Marin & Bhattacharya, 2013; Waite & Diaz, 2012).

One of the most significant findings from Araujo & Hein’s study was that three dimensions of flow, loss of self-consciousness, senses of control, and action/awareness merging were less experienced compared to the other six dimensions during music practice sessions. Fullagar, Knight, & Sovern's (2012) findings included that flow appears when there is a balance between the perceived challenge in a certain passage of music and the perceived skill to play that particular passage. These findings may be explained by the environment and the nature of a practice session: to figure it out.

Miksza & Tan's (2015) findings support that flow in practice is linked to collegiate students’ practice efficiency and surmise that those who experience flow more frequently during practice sessions are more likely to be efficient and vice versa. Based on the book, The Fundamentals of Flow in Learning Music, this article poses five flow strategies for students to practice and facilitate in their own practice room and extend even beyond the practice rooms. 1. Try to observe yourself as you play because attention is the key. Ask yourself questions such as: Are you breathing? Are you tense anywhere? How is your pulse? What do you hear? Or not hear? Are you blinking? Expanding our awareness is important in feeling a sense of control in a multi-faceted musical experience. It is what makes practicing feels real and not automatic. This sensation may be very subtle but the more you try, the more you will be aware and easier to become aware. 2. Go phrase by phrase and practice your awareness of time and maintain your breathing. Start with shorter phrases and build yourself up. In the end, you should try to string all the phrases into a section where you are aware of the time and maintain your breathing for a longer period of time. Breathing can be a tool and it will be helpful too, even outside of practice such as in a performance. Breathing will eventually become part of your inner singing as you play. 3. Why not try observing yourself and your breathing outside of your practice room? While it may seem overwhelming to be aware of yourself during cognitively demanding music practice sessions, try to be aware of yourself while doing ordinary activities such as walking, listening, or watching, which do not require much attention. Think of this as a practice in your daily life, into your music practice, and finally working up until a big one, performance. Building this habit will become essential when our consciousness distorts our sense of time and self during a pressured activity such as performance. 4. Flow is best achieved when the perceived challenge, which is slightly higher than normal, is matched with your perceived skill. This sense of confidence plays a role because the challenge is slightly higher. Practicing is like a building block, working towards a bigger goal. Try to resist the temptation to move through different levels quickly. Learning to structure your challenges in each level and activate a state of flow in each level is part of building the block.

5. Do not strain and overwork to achieve flow. Not every day has to incorporate flow during practice. Some days, you might notice yourself over-efforting such as muscle strain, perceptual errors, or poor timing. If you find yourself trying too hard to be in flow, be sensitive to the changes in alertness and energy. There might even be a point when you feel that your brain is shutting, and performance is suffering. In this case, just take a break and change the story.

Additionally, try some of these other strategies in your practice, whether just one or two at a time. • Start by warming up on a familiar exercise • Take some breaks before you lose your cool • Regain flow by working on previously flow-achieved sections • Shorten or simplify passages • Breathe and sing internally and/or externally Flow has been associated with a number of benefits, such as psychological, affective, and social benefits. This article offers five flow strategies for music students to optimize practice sessions, which are often overlooked. Although flow cannot be necessarily taught, knowing these strategies will increase the likelihood of students possibly experiencing flow more frequently in their practice and beyond and increasing their efficiency.

References

Araujo, M. V., & Hein, C. F. (2016). Finding Flow in Music

Practice: An exploratory study about self-regulated practice behaviours and dispositions to flow in highly skilled musi cians. In L. Harmat, F. O. Andersen, F. Ullen, J. Wright, &

G. Sadlo (Eds.) Flow experience: Empirical research and applications (pp. 23-36). Springer International Publishing/

Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31928634-1_2 Butkovic, A., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2015). Personality related traits as predictors of music practice: Underlying environmental and genetic influences. Personality and

Individual Differences, 74, 133–138.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Flow: Creativity and the psychology of discovery and invention. Harper Collins.

Fullagar, C., Knight, P., & Sovern, H. (2012). Challenge/skill balance, flow, and performance anxiety. Applied Psychology, 62(2), 236–259.

Marin, M. M., & Bhattacharya, J. (2013). Getting into the musical zone: Trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 853–853.

Miksza, P., & Tan, L. (2015). Predicting collegiate wind players’ practice efficiency, flow, and self-efficacy for self-regulation:

An exploratory study of relationships between teachers’ instruction and students’ practicing. Journal of Research in

Music Education, 63(2), 162–179.

Miksza, P., Tan, L., & Dye, C. (2016). Achievement motivation for band: A cross-cultural examination of the 2 X 2 achievement goal framework. Psychology of Music, 44(6), 1372–1388.

Penneys, R. & Gottlieb, R. (1994). The fundamentals of flow in learning music.