Mental Practice and Memorization of Piano Music

Piano performance majors attempted to play short, unfamiliar selections from memory after practicing for 10 min by playing the score, visually inspecting it, or listening to a recorded rendition while examining the score. When practicing mentally, subjects were encouraged to make use of visual, acoustic, and kinesthetic imagery. Independent experts rated performance on four dimensions that were intended to reflect the musicality as well as the accuracy of the performances. Physical practice led to the best performance. Listening to a model of ideal performance provided some benefit over visual inspection alone.