Does this mean you can practice without an instrument?
Mmm!
Does this is mean you can practice even while
sleeping and eating,
and not in your violin?
Welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin.
We decided to tackle, I guess, to see if it's a myth or not,
The idea of mental practice, so...
Actually there was a study.
There was 21 basketball players,
and they got 7 of them — 1/3 to not practice at all.
1/3 of them were to practice free throws,
and 1/3 of them were just to
visualize themselves doing free throws,
so mental practice.
"When you actually visualize,
you're actually using the same part of the brain,
as if you were doing it."
Apparently the end result,
the ones who didn't practice did the worst,
and the ones that did mental practice...
...basically scored the same
as the ones that actually practiced.
So,
does this mean you can practice without an instrument?
Mmm!
Does this mean you can practice even while sleeping
and eating and not in your violin?
- In your violin. - In your vio—
Does this mean you can practice at school?
Does this mean you can practice on the bus?
This would get rid of all your excuses.
Time to find out.
Time to find out!
We're going to give ourselves 5 minutes
to mental practice.
A uh...the Ysaye Duet.
- Which is pretty hard. - We've never played it before.
We've never played it before.
- Never even looked at the music, and uh... - Yeah.
Just to give you guys a basic understanding,
We're going to sight-read the first 3 pages,
- And then... - 3 pages?!
And then after that we're gonna mental practice for 5 minutes,
and see how it sounds.
Alright, let's do it.
What the...
So!
Time to see if mental practice...
(both) Actually works.
- Alright, let's set a timer of 5 minutes. - Alright.
And we're just going to....
Look at it. Not touch our violins.
Yeah.
3, 2, 1, go!
Damn!
Oh!
Time's up!
Hello, guys!
We just have a page set-up, and we have a page turner.
Pianist and violinist as well.
- So this is purely off five minutes of mental practice. - Yeah.
*chuckles*
"Interesting."
What do you rate it guys?
Cuz I rate it interesting out of 10! *laughs*
I N T E R E S T I N G !
So what do you think of that?
- I thought it was amazing. - I think it's pretty good.
It was effective, except my violin was on the side,
so [it] didn't feel effective.
I think the question is...
- It definitely sounded better than sight-read, right? - Mm-hmm.
- So just going off that, it does mean mental practice has some validity. - It does—yeah.
Now, the question will be...
Whether it's as effective as actually practicing, right?
- That's true! - So, it's like if you spend...
So mental practice is better than no practice,
- Which we just proved. But... - Uh-huh.
What if you have 5 minutes of mental practice
- versus 5 minutes of...actual practice? - Actual practice.
Which is what we'll find out now.
So, we're going to do a little bit of a Paganini.
- Just...half a page. - Half a page. Half a page of Paganini. Alright.
[We're] Playing concerto No.1.
Scissors, paper, rock.
- Uh... - Loser has to mental practice.
All right, loser has the mental practice.
Scissors, paper, rock!
Ohh.
Scissors, paper, rock!
Yeah!
S***. All right!
Goodbye, guys! I'm gonna practice.
So you can go to the other room and do mental practice.
- Uhh, actual practice. I'll do mental practice. - Okay.
*timer goes off*
Yo, Brett!
You're still practicing.
Grr!
- Alright guys! - Do you wanna go first?
Nah, you can go first.
- Alright, scissors, paper, rock? - Alright, scissors, paper, rock.
(Both) Scissors, paper, rock!
*nervous chuckle*
I'm so screwed.
Ohh...
*laughs*
Let me try that again. I'm just laughing.
I can't play it fast.
Dude I don't think I can do it.
Dude, that's harmonics! Whoops.
*laughs*
*sighs*
*laughs* Dude, I think this is just a hard part.
Yeah, I think that...
To be honest, come on, that...ok...yeah.
But to make a point...!
- No, no! Let me try again. - Try again.
Woah...!
Focus.
*laughs*
It's so con... *laughs*
I don't think... *laughs*
All right, the conclusion is...
When there's no double stops...
- It works. - Mental practice works!
But if there's thrids...
You might want to touch your instrument.
What do you think, Bach?
"I don't know, man."
"But uh, you guys suck."
Alright.
Let us know in the comments below
what you guys think.
Do you guys have...
experience doing mental practice?
We heard stories of people that mental practice
on their train ride to a competition and won, so...
Let us know what you think, and uh...
Yeah, until next time.
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