What is integrated practice?

Integrated Practice is a newly developed method of practicing for musicians and/or music students.

Integrated Practice can be distinguished from ‘normal’ practicing through the following:

• More results are achieved in the same amount of time by the clever use of mental techniques.
• One learns to expand personal boundaries without going beyond the bounds.
• Tiredness and pain and the resultant injuries as a consequence of intensive playing are avoided.
• More space is created within the practicing process this produces a relaxed feeling.

Why the name ‘integrated practice’?

The method employed in Integrated Practice combines and integrates valuable techniques from various angles of approach and from differing domains in order to achieve the best possible result. Discoveries have been made, for instance, in different schools of thought in psychology, that are of interest and importance to musicians.

A number of patterns can be recognized, for instance, in how the motor power which underlies and supports learning processes can be stimulated.

In a lightly changed state of consciousness, people discover solutions more easily.

• Interest, challange and a playful attitude give rise to flow. Flow makes it possible to reach the height of one’s powers.
• Continuously changing the angle of approach increases brain activity (thus hastening the learning process).
• Alternating the focus of activities from the right to the left brain or vice versa increases the connection between these brain centres. This too hastens the learning process.

The exercises used in Integrated Practice are based on these insights for their constitution and their effectiveness in instruction.

How does this work in practical situations?

The way of working in Integrated Practice is the following:

1. To realize which passage does not feel good by concentrating on one’s own signals.
2. To analyze the type of problem.
3. To perform a series of specific assignments with the musical material.
4. To make use of guiding instruction directed at achieving and sustaining relaxation in the performance.
5. To repeat the same procedures until ‘moments of learning’ take place.

How long does this take?

The time needed for such an exercise is very much dependent on how deeply a certain motor pattern has become embedded in the behaviour or posture or psyche of the musician. This can vary from ten minutes to half an hour.

To replace the old with the new motor pattern, it is necessary to repeat the same exercises on each of three consecutive days for the ten minutes to a half-hour mentioned.

What can be efficiently achieved using this method?

• Excellent results combined with a feeling of health.
• Relaxation during instrumental practice.
• Constant concentration.
• Retention of pleasure in both the playing and the practicing.
• Time gain.

For whom can integrated practice be meaningful?

• Musicians and music students who have discovered through their own playing and practicing that they need to learn in a different way.
• Musicians who need to or want to practice intensively.
• Music students who feel pressured.