Pedagogical Potential of Mental Practice in Teaching Brass Instruments at University

At any level of musical education, it is very important to improve one’s musicianship skills, which can only be achieved through consistent training and playing their musical instrument. Physical training is a very important part of the learning process; however, its combination with mental practice has been proved to be much more effective. Although such an approach is important at all levels of musical education, the paper addresses it in the context of higher education. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine the pedagogical potential of mental practice in the process of teaching music in higher education. The research was implemented in two stages. First, a survey was conducted to gather information about the respondents’ habits when learning musical pieces. At this stage, the study involved 68 brass students from different universities around the world between the ages of 19 and 25. The second stage of the research comprised the development of the program of mental practice (PMP) with structured observation as a method and 7 participants from Latvian and Norwegian higher music education institutions. The obtained results allow to conclude that the inclusion of mental practice in the practicing routine significantly improves the overall level of concentration and stability both in the process of training and during performances. Mental practice also provides an opportunity to increase the duration of training as well as enhances the overall effectiveness of practicing and concentration during performances.