Musical tempo stability in mental practice: A comparison of motor and non-motor imagery techniques

Abstract

The ability to maintain steady tempos using two different mental practice techniques was assessed through measurement of excerpt duration fluctuations. Ten musicians of various voice and instrument types participated in a two-part experiment. First, I recorded participants’ metronomic performances of lyrical and technical excerpts, which were selected from their repertoire. Next, participants mentally rehearsed their two excerpts over a total of 12 trials. Participants attempted to imagine a steady tempo that reflected the tempo of their actual performance. During each trial, participants heard a 3-second prompt from their recorded performance; following the prompt, each participant continued to mentally rehearse the respective excerpt while using one of two strategies. Participants engaged in two types of mental practice: non-motor imagery and motor imagery. At the end of each trial, participants rang a call bell to indicate each imagined excerpt’s ending articulation. Analysis of the magnitude and direction of excerpt duration discrepancies showed no significant differences in mean tempo accuracy when using the two different mental practice strategies. Non-motor and motor imagery exhibited differences of tempo variance across the two excerpt types: non-motor imagery was more consistent internally across a broad range of tempos. I also observed two significant interactions between successive mental rehearsals: musical sophistication and excerpt note density. In addition, repeated mental rehearsals of a musical tempo seem to settle into a more precise tempo; and motor imagery might provide support for this phenomenon. Both motor and non-motor forms of imagery may have specific applications to different goals in the mental rehearsal of musical tempo.