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Happy 2025! To start off the new year, I am delighted to join one of my best friends, Christina Butkiewicus, whom I knew from my figure skating days, to talk about the invaluable life lessons we learned from pursuing our passions in piano and figure skating. It is so easy to get lost in the… Read more
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In the previous post, we discussed the implications of positive and negative framing for the learning process. In this post, we carry the principle of positivity over to the performance situation. To set the stage (no pun intended), let’s start with a literature review of a research paper on “choking under pressure”, before discussing how… Read more
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Since starting this blog, I have been meticulous about avoiding any language containing negative instructions and internal focuses of attention. How hypocritical would it be for me to say, “don’t use negative instructions!” We are all too familiar with negativity. Don’t rush! Don’t raise your wrist! Don’t be stiff! Not too loud! But not too… Read more
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Since starting this blog, I had spent a good deal of time expanding my knowledge of the motor learning literature and music pedagogy, and pondering on my readings inspired me to experiment with new ideas that I’d discovered along the way. Today’s post is my learning diary. Taking a brand new piece, I journal the… Read more
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The wrist is very agile at rotating freely around the axis of the forearm. Rotational motions of the wrist permeates all of piano technique, and is a very potent ingredient when appropriately combined with the other axes of the wrist’s motion—horizontal (medial/lateral) and vertical (flex/extend). Wrist rotation may be used in combination or exclusively, depending… Read more
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“Your wrist is stiff.” Such was a comment I received from a jury member at the last competition I took part in. A known but unsolved puzzle for me at the time. Now armed with motor learning theory knowledge and external focus tools in hand, I began the quest to reprogram my wrist motions. To… Read more
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External focus, imagery, autonomy, self-efficacy. Now that we’ve covered the major concepts in motor skill learning in my initial blog series, “A First Look at Motor Skills,” it is time to take a more formal look at the literature. We’ll review the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning [Wulf & Lewthwaite (2016)], a unified framework proposed… Read more
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By the end of a long and satisfying practice session, your fingers are flying, your piano is singing with nary a misplaced note, your mind and body are fully aligned with the music (and the stars). You’ve unequivocally conquered the piece. The next day, you come back and cannot play a correct note to save… Read more
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“Technique is the ability to play what the inner ear hears.”Anon. I love this quote that I heard a long time ago, by a (possibly famous) pianist, because it beautifully propounds the notion that the music conjured by the musician in her mind acts as the lodestar for the mechanics of technical execution. To be… Read more
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I’m excited for today’s topic, the inspiration for my blog name. levitate verb. rise or cause to rise and hover in the air, especially by means of supernatural or magical power. Imagine you are levitating. From your seat, your head begins to be drawn towards the ceiling, your neck elongating to follow. Your rib cage rises… Read more
Levitate!
Imagery and focus at the piano | A (self-)exploration of motor skill learning theory for practical music making
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