If you feel uncertain about the clarity of each note,

phrasing, harmony, dynamics, form,

character, timing, and other aspects of a piece,

you remain trapped in the same mindset.

This will inevitably be evident in your ​performance.

As Liszt famously advised,

“Think ten times, play once.”

This means that without a vivid mental picture

of the music,

you will never feel fully at ease while playing.

Piano practice fundamentally relies on mental ​engagement. Over time, inconsistent or unfocused ​practice can become unproductive and even ​harmful, potentially leading to playing-related ​injuries and emotional stress.

You might be used to practicing for 8 hours a day, ​relying on your fingers and muscle memory ​without much mental involvement. As you begin ​to practice with mindful focus, paying close ​attention to each task, it may initially feel ​overwhelming.

Learning to think before you play is a process that ​requires mindfulness. At first, you might only be ​able to concentrate for short periods, perhaps just ​10 minutes. During practice, you may find your ​focus drifting frequently. However, with patience ​and persistence, you'll gradually train your mind ​to sustain focus for longer stretches. The optimal ​daily practice time is around 2-3 hours, which is ​typically the maximum time your mind can stay ​fully engaged.

By analyzing and learning a piece efficiently, you'll ​realize how little time is actually needed to prepare ​it, eliminating the need for 8-hour practice sessions.

"Technique is the ability to produce what you want. The ​presupposition is that you want something. So before ​going to the piano and practicing, training your muscles ​which is a waste of time [...] because it's not in the ​muscles, it's in the brain, it's in the inner ear. Artur ​Schnabel used to say it - 'Hear before you play. If you ​play before you hear what you’re going for, it’s an ​accident, and everything is built then on an accident'. ​So, want something, hear it, go for it"

Not all technical challenges stem from a lack of ​efficient hand motion, finger strength, or practice time.

There's an element missing from centuries of teaching: ​our imagination.

This imaginative force carves new pathways in our ​brain, influencing our muscle performance.

While general advice advocates practicing in your mind ​or visualizing your playing, there is a lack of clear, ​concise instructions on what to imagine and its ​connection to piano technique.

So, what precisely is mental practice?

Mental practice involves vividly imagining the musical ​score in your mind. It goes beyond a general feeling or ​hearing the tune—it's about crafting an accurate image ​of each note, even in dense polyphonic texture. This ​image includes qualities like sound, motion, harmony ​color, dynamics, and voicing.

Additionally, mental practice entails merging sound ​imagination with precise hand motion. The hands ​become a ‘bridge’ between your intentions and the ​keyboard, ensuring that correct tone production ​mirrors your envisioned sound.

"If you have in your ear the sound of the oboes, or the sound of the violin, or the sound of the chorus, or ​the sound of the flute [...] it doesn't have to be that hard Beethoven's orchestra [...] the mere fact that you ​have that in your ear, and you have that sensitivity and the understanding of how that flute sounds in ​that register, will allow you - if you have the necessary manual control - to produce a sound that is ​much more interesting and more imaginative than the sound that is produced by simply bringing the ​keys down".

"When you control things you play then you can create the illusion of playing a glissando on the piano ​[...] then you dream every note between the notes. That is kind of a hypnotic thing, because people are ​going to hear those glissandos, if you do hear it.

They will say themselves that it doesn't exist, you can not play glissando on the piano. But somehow I ​hear it, from where I sit it sounds like a glissando. It will be like a rainbow: the rainbow doesn't exist, the ​rainbow exists only where you are".

Mental practice is the ability to feel and create music between the notes.

Creating music in the space between notes by training inner singing is the gateway to expressing arm weight, articulations, ​dynamics, phrasing, character and the form of the music, as well as confident energy when performing on stage.

"You must sing if you wish to play”

"I tell the young people 'Sing! Sing inside'.

You have no voice - that doesn't matter. The best voice ​- if you feel singing in you".

Mental practice is also about mastering the ability to identify structure within a piece.

That's to say, the length and contour of motifs, phrases, sentences and elements of form.

“All this should be better structured. I think the more a ​piece of music has many different characters, colours and ​attributes, the more it's important to think of it ​strategically. In other words, to know that because of this ​and that I am going here. So you never find yourself in ​the situation where suddenly you are manipulated by the ​music. When you have a clear, new beginning of a ​sequence, like when you write and you start a new ​paragraph, it has to be very clearly enunciated".

“The next step would be not to phrase in a childish ​way. Child phrases are short. Like children recite ​poetry. Instead of separating the phrases, now connect ​them".

Mental practice is also about feeling the different levels of energy in each section

when you approach a new piece of music.

Nurturing this ability to create, feel and express different ​colours and intensity of energy is generally something that ​has been missing in piano training.

Instead, it has often been replaced with confusing advice to ​play with more emotional intensity which in turn creates ​compulsive tension in body and mind.

"Sometimes I am missing a pulse. You have the ​beginning element, which even though it is ​pianissimo and it's only an arpeggio, it must ​have already a substance. There is a basic pulse ​which you can alter as the music requires, but ​I think if you find it in a strict sense than all ​the expressivity will be even stronger".

Mental practice is also the simple ability to choose and ​feel the correct pulse throughout a piece, and being able ​to 'pull and push' timing without losing the heartbeat of ​the music.