Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Anyone tried hypnosis to improve piano playing?

This may seem like a weird question, but the thought occurred to me earlier and I thought I'd ask. I'm not talking about subliminal CD's or "self hypnosis" CD's that you can get on ebay or whatever (such things strike me as being of very dubious value). But I'm just wondering if working with a real hypnotist would possibly lead to improved playing or better practice. I could imagine a hypnotist helping you train your body to relax, or to increase your concentration when you sit down at the piano, or to give you more confidence when you play in front of others, maybe improve sight reading, etc...

I'm just curious if anyone has tried anything like that. And if so, did you find benefit from it?

To me, hypnosis is a useless art. That is because it doesn't work (mostly). I think it would be more advantageous to work on technique (not necessarily meaning your pianistic technique, but perhaps your practicing routine/technique), than to practice hypnotizing yourself. One seems to be oriented in working towards your ultimate goal, while the other seems to be a "quick fix so you don't have to do the work" approach.

I don't mean to say that's what you're attempting, but that is certainly the way it sounds. It's like people who try to hypnotize themselves into eating less so they can lose weight. You don't need hypnosis. Just eat less. Accomplishes the same thing without wasting your money on hypnosis.

I slept with my head on a piano book to test osmosis once. In the end, I learned nothing and just drooled all over the book.



I've found this all really just comes with time, practice, and familiarity.

I can relax because I'm familiar with the piece and the piano. I'm familiar with the piece and piano because I practiced it, and many like it. I practiced these pieces because I've been learning this thing for a relatively long time. etc...

There is no magic potion or hypnosis that can replace what good ol' practice can do.

Learning and practicing piano is really a long term endeavor.

Look deeply into my eyes, and start practicing every day, with a 5 year goal of completely surprising folks you know with mad piano skills you learned while they weren't paying attention.

*snap*

How about zen and meditation? Working the ability to focus your mind and energy.

Well, let's examine the question. Let's pretend it's ultimately for assisting in a performance of a piece of music. First of all, what factors go into how the performance turns out?

1)Presence of nervousness and the degree (this could include, but not be limited to, experience in performing as well)
2)Interpretation of a piece of music
3)How that piece of music was practiced, broken down, and memorized

With this understanding in mind,

1)Hypnosis in theory could feasibly help with nervousness possibly directly through maybe helping you relax both physically and mentally or indirectly by helping you stick to (but not develop) better - possibly more public - practice regimens.
2)An interpretation of a piece of music and how you thus think it should be presented/performed is your own unique conception. It is thus unlikely that hypnosis or hypnotherapy (which is designed to help induce changes of behavior or habits) will do anything to enhance this. Could you "hypnotize" - in the cliched sense of the term - yourself to better like aspects of certain other interpretations? Perhaps, but this isn't the question. Just listen to more music and a wider variety of interpretations for this result.
3)Number three is interesting. Will hypnotherapy give you better practice methods? Not directly, no. If hypnotherapy could enhance your ability to focus (this is all conjecture), then it could help your practice methods indirectly. Your time is better off spent learning how to improve these practice methods and how to integrate them into your specific lifestyle and time constraints rather than look elsewhere for results. If you've already developed a professional technique and mastered a mountain of impressive repertoire and seek the assistance of hypnosis to calm yourself in performance, then that's one thing, but there's really nothing other than high-quality practicing and high-quality devotion that will yield results.


You bring up an interesting question, but what it ultimately all comes down to is discipline - whether it's to always strive to try something new and better or to just stick to a time-tested routine you've already had success with.

edit: oh, and the sight-reading doesn't make sense. Hypnosis isn't going to teach your brain things it doesn't already know like how to digest and translate into fingerings and an interpretation a large mass of musical notes on a page you've never seen before - only being taught how to practice and overcome various difficulties and then a heck of a lot of practicing.

I have no idea if this would work and if the results would be stable.

I read a few amazing reports of people that suddenly played very good after hypnosis.

There is even a CD that does what you suggest

http://www.stevegjones.com/playingpianoselfhypnosiscdmp3.htm

I . highly . recommend . hypnosis . It . has . helped . me . a . great . deal. . cluck..


Meditation is good, clears the mind to help concentrate on one thing at a time.

I don't know if this classified as hypnosis but before my grade 6 exam, for the fun of it, I went to YouTube and watch this entire "self hypnosis" clip that basically just shows text like you will do well, you will succeed, over and over again. Anyway I got an A for that exam. The next exam I didn't do that and I got a B+. Before a yearly recital, I was looking at piano fail videos, chucking a good laugh, and during the recital I completely stuffed up and made a fool out of myself that I could have fittingly appear in the fail videos myself. I don't know whether this is all just a coincidence but perhaps it may affect your confidence at the very least.

Edit- ok just read the original post properly so ignore my rambling. I never had experience with a proper hypnotist before.

Ouch... $25,000 for a 1 hour private session! Imagine how many years of lessons you could get for that

On a more positive note, there's not much difference between self-hypnosis and one done by a therapist. Both aim to relax you and instill positive mental images and behavioural suggestions. It is worth an honest try, to supplement or assist in learning; but I highly doubt that its a quick path to mastery.

We spend all day suggesting things to ourselves in that incessant mental verbiage. Just think of what you tell yourself when you practice and make mistakes... some make no big deal out of it, others will call themselves by all sorts of names. Reminds me of a phrase I read in Kenny Werner's book: "if you think your instrument is hard, then it will be"; or Henry Ford: "Wether you think you're right or wether you think you're wrong, you're rignt". Its all self-suggestion or handed down by people one has faith in.

John

Oh, I never thought that it would be a quick path to mastery, or even a shortcut. I don't even know if it has any value at all. I was just curious if anyone had explored it before. I know sometimes I sit down to practice and everything just clicks. My fingers do exactly what I want when I want. Other days I sit down and it's like someone secretly replaced my 8 fingers with thumbs or something. I wonder if hypnosis would help me have more days like the former and fewer days like that latter.

The most useful hypnotic suggestion might just be to practice more. "The piano is love ... go the piano ... the bench is your safe place ... the keys are your friends, you want to greet them every day ... play ... play ... play ... practice is good ... the piano is love ..."

Seriously, I believe that anything that helps us relax and focus more effectively at the piano is worth exploring, and certainly hypnosis can be a tool in reducing performance anxiety, etc. But the real key to becoming a better player/performance is thoughtful, focused practice. Not that I'm any expert ... I'm the world's worst at not putting in enough time on the bench. *sigh*

Where did you say you found a hypnotist?

I have the same problem with "on" and "off" days. If you ever find the solution, I'll give you 10 thumbs up.

Hi Piano_deb. Small world, I'm from Memphis too Yes, I agree that nothing can replace focused, thoughtful practice. I just wonder if maybe hypnosis could help make more of our practice be that way. I also think your idea of using hypnosis to want to practice more is interesting. Some days it really does feel like a chore to make time for the piano (yet oddly once I'm there it doesn't feel like a chore any more . Though one of the reasons I said I wondered about a real hypnotist (as opposed to self hypnosis cd's) is that a real hypnotist could customize your sessions to work on specific things whereas a CD is more cookie cutter (and I don't know if those CD's actually hypnotize you or not...they seem more like they would be guided visualization than hypnosis to me). Anyway, if I ever do figure out the solution to off days I'll be sure to drop you a line.

Some people seem to spend their time figuring how to try to do something [ likes losing weight or playing the piano] rather than using that time to get in there and do it. Time is not a luxury.

rada

I have no experience with hypnosis, but as a few others have said, I've gotten a lot of benefit from meditation (Kenny Werner's book can be a great help with focus and relaxation).

My guess is that self-hypnosis might actually be more effective than a pricey hypnotist. There are similarities to meditation, in that you want to condition yourself to have the automatic reactions you want (relaxation and concentration) rather than the reactions you don't want (tension, anxiety). The thing is, this takes consistent practice--which could run into a lot of money if you're paying someone else to do it.

Hypnosis might help with performance anxiety.

Correct practice is the only way to truly get better at playing the piano.

I did use hypnosis many years ago to deal with a very stressful time in my life and to get over my fear of flying. I used a local hypnotherapist and the price for one session was about equivalent to what I pay for a one hour private lesson. I had great results. She recorded the session and gave you the recording to use at home so I only went about 3 times. I have thought of using it for performance anxiety since I have always struggled with that. I have no problem putting in the practice time. I love the piano and regularly practice between 2 and 3 hours a day. However, is frustrating when I can play a piece fine at home and then sometimes even in my lesson become nervous. Of course playing in a recital is much worse. I often practice at the studio where I take lessons for part of the time so my teacher hears me and I play fine when I don't know he's listening. He often jokes about doing my lesson from the hall. If I decide to have a couple of sessions to try to deal with the performance anxiety, I'll let you know how it turns out. However, I think results will vary according to the person and the therapist. For hypnosis to work well, you have to trust the therapist and the more you are able to concentrate and focus the more effective it will be.
Zillybug

rada,
That's a pretty unfair assumption, and as the OP of this question I can't help but think that your comments are directed at least in part towards me. I also think you're completely wrong in principle. Of course if you never practice (you're right, some people find any excuse not to practice), you'll never get better. As I said in another post, thoughtful, focused practice is essential to learning, there's no substitute for it.

But, Practicing without thinking is a good way to never grow as an artist. I may still be a beginner, but I practice a lot. I'm working my rear end off to get better. I even get up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to make sure that I have time to get a minimum of 1.5 hours of practice in every day. Some days that's a real chore, but I do it because I've fallen in love with making music and I know that consistent daily practice is the best way to get good at it.

But I don't just practice mindlessly. I evaluate how effective my practice is (that's why I get up so early, from my practice experiments I was able to determine that I do a lot better when I'm practicing early). I also have martial arts practice most nights which takes away time from my evenings. So I got a second keyboard for my office so that I could spend time practicing piano during my breaks at work.

So yes, I sometimes spend time trying to find out about what other players do so that I can learn from their discoveries and make my practice time more effective and more efficient or even more fun. Or sometimes I spend time trying to find better ways to do the things I'm doing. Now I will admit that the hypnosis thing is way out of the box, but that's exactly why I thought it would be fun to ask about it here. And knows, maybe someone has found it a useful too and is willing to share. I'm not sure why people assumed I was looking for some kind of easy fix or shortcut. But whatever.

And by the way, Losing weight is not as simple as "getting in there and doing it" either. If it were, a lot fewer people would struggle with weight. A huge majority of dieters lose weight only to gain back more than they started with. There are lots of reasons why that's true, but the point is that there's more to losing weight than simply dieting. Effective lifestyle change requires thought and planning as well as effort and discipline. It is possible to work hard AND think about things. Personally I often find it a useful combination.

Zillybug,
That's very interesting. I'm glad that hypnosis was able to help you with your fear of flying. That's pretty cool. If you do try hypnosis for your piano anxiety and find it efficacious, I'd be very interested to know about it. In my wonderings about hypnosis, my thoughts were that it would possibly mainly be good for relaxation and focus. Did you find the recordings of the session were actually able to put you in the hypnotic state the same as the in person hypnotist? It may be silly, but sometimes I imagine people watching me practice. I think it helps me get used to the idea of playing in front of others.

The recordings do help and with practice you can get into the same state. Actually, a very small percentage of people go into very deep hypnosis like you see in shows. Most of us only go into a state of deep relaxation that is similar to meditation but that can still be quite effective. The therapist told me to use the recordings every day for about 6 to 8 weeks for it to get the best results. The same therapist also led meditation groups that I joined. She taught different forms of meditation but started with a guided one since that is the easiest. I have always believed in the mind body connection and my experience in that group really reinforced it. i was having a great deal of difficulty with asthma the first night and thought I would have to leave as to not disturb the group. After she started the guided meditation, I stopped wheezing and coughing within about 5 minutes. I am thinking about going for a session for performance anxiety as I am tired of feeling scared every time I perform.