1

MINDFULNESS IN THE MUSICAL PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE

How the Mindfulness could improve the Musical practice and Performance?

Diana Maria Osorio Cardenas

Conservatorium Maastricht, Zuyd Hogeschool

Conservatorium Maastricht, Zuyd Hogeschool

Bonnefantenstraat 15, 6211 KL Maastricht

Contact: 1827634osoriocardena@zuyd.nl Formatted: English (United States)

 2

Contents

INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 1

ARTISTIC RESEARCH QUESTION ....................................................................................... 3

Main question: Can the practice of mindfulness improve my own musical performance? ....... 3

METHOD ................................................................................................................................... 4

ARTISTIC OUTCOME ............................................................................................................. 5

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 7
 1

INTRODUCTION

This project intends to investigate the use of Mindfulness to improve the practice and the

performance with clarinet, while benefiting other aspects of my life.

Mindfulness expresses a certain state of the mind, which means maintaining a moment-by-

moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and surrounding environment,

through a gentle and more objective point of view (Center, 2010).

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the creator of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) which is a

program that has roots in Buddhist meditation due to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s background. The program

was launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 19179. Since that time,

thousands of studies have documented the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness in

general and MBSR in particular, inspiring countless programs to adapt the MBSR model for

schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans centers, and beyond.

Acceptance is also a part of mindfulness, meaning that besides paying attention to our

thoughts and feelings, we do not judge judging them—for instance, that there’s a “right” or

“wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts

tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining

the future. (Center, 2010).

 2

The current applications of Mindfulness are mainly present in four environments: Clinical,

educational, work and personal development. (sukhamindfulness, 2014)

According to the theories of mindfulness, there are six types of attention: Sustained, selective,

divided, alternating, visual and auditory. (Bhasin, 2018)

In the field of musical practice and performance sustained and selective attention are the most

needed. Briefly, the sustained attention is the ability to concentrate and focus on one single task

while removing all other distractions and the selective attention is the ability to choose to focus

on one stimulus and ignore the other kinds of stimuli that are present in the environment.(Bhasin,

2018)

In the practice of a musical instrument, it is essential to have a perfect connection between

body and mind. To differentiate a good from an excellent practice, the level of consciousness and

attention of our minds while our bodies are moving with the instrument is the key. And

mindfulness can help to reach that level of awareness and improve the unity between body and

mind.4 As all musicians and myself have already experienced that during the musical practice or

performance we could face difficulties to be focused. This may result in a suboptimal

performance with a negative impact in the emotions and self confidence. (Alvarez, 2015)

The current project pretends to study the applicability and possible benefits of Mindfulness in

the technical aspects of the musical practice and performance and in the emotional regulation.
 3

ARTISTIC RESEARCH QUESTION

Main question: Can the practice of mindfulness improve my own musical performance?

Subquestions:

How can mindfulness help me getting rid of judging myself negatively while I am playing

clarinet alone or in stage?

Which principles of mindfulness could be applied more specifically to the practice of clarinet?
 4

METHOD

There will be a weekly session of mindfulness with a recognized coach in mindfulness with a

duration of one hour. These sessions will be followed from September till December 2019.

In order to measure the possible improvement of mindfulness in my practice of clarinet, two

teachers from the Conservatorium of Maastricht will judge my performance before and after the

practice of mindfulness. The aspects to be judged by these teachers will be: quality of the music,

confidence, performance, body language.

The judging behavior will be determined by personal notations in a diary after every practice

with clarinet. The diary will be revised by a psychologist at the end of this project, who will be

able to judge if a real improvement will be present.

A selected number of text books, websites related to mindfulness will be read in order to review

whether there are specific aspects specially associated with clarinet or other wind instruments.

From the knowledge gained by reading, I will try to put that into practice when I will play

clarinet. At the end of this project, eventually I can write my own experience and name some of

the aspects affecting specially to the performance with clarinet.

 5

ARTISTIC OUTCOME

A concert will be held in Maastricht where I will perform with clarinet a program of 45

minutes. To this concert two teachers from the Conservatorium of Maastricht will be invited to

judge the improvement after the regular practice of mindfulness.

 6

PLANNING

1-hour mindfulness session with coach: Every Monday from 2nd September till 16 December
 7

REFERENCES

Center, G. G. (april 14th, 2010). youtube.com. Obtein from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoLQ3qkh0w0

Qué es el Mindfulness, without date. Obtein from

https.// www.sukhamindfulness.com/que-es

Bhasin, H. (december 22th, 2018). Obtein from

https://www.marketing91.com/types-of-attention

Alvarez, D. Mindfulness para musicos. 2015. Page 4