How to Quiet Your Mind

Easy to say, difficult to do… Hahaha – Right? Keep calm, I have a plan!

There is a lot of research focusing on how social media and the internet distract us. The act of scrolling through social media on our phones undermines our ability to focus. Too much unnecessary information bombards our eyes, and even if we scroll quickly, the images linger in our minds. After a while, it becomes overwhelming, and we give up paying attention. Through repeated actions like this throughout the day, we inadvertently teach our brains not to focus. This is just one example of many, but it has a significant impact.

After many years in the orchestra, I realized that my biggest struggle wasn’t the amount of repertoire to learn but maintaining focus for the duration needed in rehearsals or concerts. Mistakes usually occur not because we can’t play but because we are distracted. Drifting in the mind might be helpful as long as it doesn’t negatively affect the performance. The problem arises when distractions lead to mistakes and self-judgment.

Dealing with mistakes is a big topic that I’ve addressed in another article. But how do we create a space of calmness in our minds to achieve full focus?

There are focus exercises from Don Greene, such as the Orange Exercise.

Place an orange or apple on the table in front of you, close your eyes, and try to imagine its shape, color, smell, and feel its skin with as much detail as possible. Why is this method helpful? If you’ve been practicing mental training as I advised in previous articles, you’ve probably noticed that your attention span is quite short. For one phrase, two? If you’ve practiced for a longer period, maybe a page or two, or even a movement of a concerto for weeks, you might be able to play it in your mind. It takes effort, but it pays off directly. If you can pay attention in your mind, you’ll easily do so in real performances under pressure.

After practicing a piece using these methods for the first time, I discovered during mock auditions how much support I felt while performing. It’s like someone is pushing you from behind, saying, “You can do it! Be confident.” This feeling only grows with time and stays with you forever.

The best part of mental training is that its benefits persist even when you switch to practicing other pieces. The self-confidence you gain remains, making you want to practice using these methods even more because nothing provides as much support.

Returning to the topic, quieting your mind raises the level of your focus. You can do this by practicing breathing techniques or exercises like the Orange Exercise. We also need to learn to control and eliminate distractions from both outside and inside.

Let’s start with the easiest distractions – those from outside. What is distracting us? Someone entering the room, mistakes in accompaniment, a cough in the audience, a phone ringing during a concert? There are many. Some things we can’t control, but it’s easy to ignore them. Simply tell yourself you’ll ignore them, and it works.

In my opinion, the essence of mental toughness is the ability to replace negative thinking with thoughts that are centered on performance cues or that contribute to improved self-confidence.

10-Minute Toughness
by Jason Selk

Exercise to practice dealing with outside distractions:

Sit close to the TV, put on a program with music, and start practicing your own piece. The next step is to put on a program where people are talking (this is more difficult), especially if it’s something that interests you. After two weeks of practicing like this, you’ll become a master of not paying attention to outside distractions. The next level is from the Juilliard program. Ask a friend or family member to perform for you, and have them try to distract you. If they know you well, they’ll know what to do or say to distract you. At Juilliard, teachers throw pencils at students and ask them to play while staying focused. It’s very distracting, but shortly after exercises like that, you become completely unaware of what’s happening outside.

Why is this important?

When playing in the orchestra, I was always distracted and suddenly extremely nervous when the instrument right before my solo or important movement made a mistake. I was so affected by others’ mistakes that I couldn’t focus on my own playing, leading me to make mistakes as well. What consequences result from this? After practicing to control distractions, I’m better able to listen to my colleagues, understand the mood and color of sound, and get supported by their well-done work. If they make mistakes, I’m not affected by them anymore; my mind simply adjusts the music in my head, allowing me to stay calm and break the avalanche of mistakes. This skill is highly valued in major orchestras, as it demonstrates the ability to control situations under pressure and in extremely stressful circumstances, cultivating the best principals.

Now, let’s talk about internal distractions.

What are they? It’s the inner commentator – constantly talking, approving, or criticizing what we’ve done. During performances, we often engage in this self-talk, but the process of changing it begins in our practice rooms. You need to know that constant judgment takes you away from the goal of a good performance. The mind must be quiet.

The first step is to change your criticism into positive judgment. But the second step is to stop confirming that you’ve played well. You don’t need to do that. If you’ve made a mistake, it’s not the time to judge it because you’re still playing, and the next phrase needs attention too. The inner commentator is a big false friend.

One method that profoundly changed my playing and practicing was realizing that we’ve been taught by the wrong methods from a young age. From a very young age, individual lessons to play an instrument follow a similar pattern: you play some music, and the teacher, with good intentions, tells you what was wrong and what needs improvement. They focus on how to improve, and much of the lesson revolves around the less-than-perfect parts of your performance.

Consequently, when you practice at home, you’re waiting for the moment when it will be bad so you can improve it. Sports psychology calls it “focus on your strengths – forget your weaknesses!”

As you begin to speak to yourself in a language that focuses on results rather than blame, on choice rather than have to, on what is rather than what you think should be, you will find that your body and mind cooperate by providing a level of positive energy free from the unnecessary struggles of the past and negative comparisons with the future.

The Now Habit
by Neil Fiore

So, what should we do during our practice?

Focus on our strengths. Change your mind, and your playing will change! If you start focusing on the small good things you’ve done and try to ignore the negatives, those good things will start to grow. It’s challenging at the beginning, but after 21 days, you’ll see a difference. Your playing will never be better. Why? Because the good parts become wider and stronger. They expand before and after, creating long phrases of great playing at their best quality. You’ll feel unbelievable comfort and self-confidence to make music. The feeling is strange at first; you’re very aware that you’re ignoring intonation, bad sound, articulation, etc. You might think you’re wasting time, but soon you’ll notice that you’re focusing more on your strengths, and good sound, intonation, and articulations come easily and naturally because you’re the one creating them, planning them, and performing them. Mistakes appear less frequently, and suddenly, they’re not important anymore. That may happen, but no one cares anymore because the surrounding parts were so great!