Music Theory and Techniques

Firstly, do not try to practice through the frustration. This only increases it to unhealthy levels, and will cause you to associate that piece with large amounts of anger.

Instead, use these techniques to get rid of frustration and improve your practising experience.

Technique 1: Transforming mental energy into physical energy. Go for a run, and focus on distance, time, breath, and lots of other things that are not anger. Not only will this work off your mad energies, but it will get you into a better mindset. I actually have a dead tree stump right by my house, and I grab a random stick and whack it, focusing on all the wear and tear this tree stump will have, technique switching, arm switching, and trying to break off the tip of the stick. Once I am done, I launch into the next technique.

Technique 2: Fake it till you make it. Just try to pull yourself out of that anger, which is easier than you think. When we are mad, our first instinct is to climb deeper into our madness and wallow in it. But through all of this, remember, positive self-talk will pull you out like a fish on a fishing pole. Just try and disprove everything you’re saying to yourself that is destructive. (e.g. “Nooooo! I don’t HATE this piece! It’s just difficult and I need to learn it MORE! It’s suuuuch a good learning opportunity!”) As you insert all this false positivity, you create real positivity. That’s why this is called “Fake it till you make it”; you fake it untill you’ve created it.

Technique 3: Transfer the anger into your playing. When I was learning the little-known agitated section of Für Elise, my teacher was telling me to bring forth actual ANGER in order to make the expression REAL! But even though I was concentrating on past rages as much as I could, I just couldn’t make it seem real. That’s because past anger will wear off with time, and if you have that fresh, new anger, harness it, and PLAY. Slap those keys with your emotion, and you will find you actually become happier because of how real your expression sounds.

Enjoy emotionally healthier playing!