Excellence, music, concentration and the brain

 

Music is a language, and like any other language, the musician is required to practice copiously to master it properly and achieve excellence. He must command notes reading absolutely, turn pages while playing, operate accurately and in a perfect timing the body organs needed to control the instrument, and make quick passages of strength and speed during playing, using the right pauses and intervals between Sounds. These passages require high control of attention and concentration skills and higher-order brain thinking skills, such as the sequential thinking, auditory memory, visual memory, working memory and more.

 

This complexity is intensified during a performance and playing in ensemble, when a musician has to face new challenges: to overcome excitement and apprehension, listen simultaneously to the music he and his fellow musicians produce and to distinguish between them, ignore the distractions of the crowd, and often follow the conductor's instructions and implement them.

 

 

Infinity Mind and training for musicians

 

Neuro-cognitive training at Infinity Mind was developed on the basis of awareness of this complexity, and in order to strengthen the cerebral skills necessary for musical excellence. The most effective way to strengthen these skills is by using a neurological phenomenon called "cross-modal influences". This phenomenon is the reason why in certain skills, such as musical skills, practice one part of the brain is also beneficial to the others.

 

As Dr. John Ratey, a neuro-psychiatrist of Harvard University puts it: "when a man wants to change the neural wiring of some skill, he must engage in a new and unfamiliar activity, but one which is associated with the skill he wants to improve. Simple repetitions on the skill will merely preserve existing connections. To strengthen his creative circle pattern, Albert Einstein played violin and Winston Churchill painted landscapes".

 

These research insights construct Infinity Mind's training system. The training's base is sensomotoric and it combines attention and concentration skills with thinking skills in unique patterns, this way stimulate the brain to create connections and sub-structures, essential for creation. The parallel combination between the motor system and the high order systems in the trainee's mind is what makes the neuro-cognitive training so effective.

 

 

Tailor-made neuro-cognitive training

 

Infinity-Mind's training is suited to the musician's individual characteristics, to enable him to make the most of it:

 

Musicians with inborn musical talent and advanced performance skills will benefit from the training by speeding up the development of their musical abilities.

 

Talented musicians, who find it difficult to actualize their potential, due to ADHD and high thinking mechanisms difficulties, will be assisted by Infinity Mind's neuro-cognitive training in treating the difficulties they face. Treatment will enable them to develop skills that will assist them to realize their true potential and achieve excellence. Only when the player will be focused, will his distribution of attention and his cerebral passages ability improve, and he will be able to play and create in the full sense of the words.

 

Musicians, who are dealing with stress, will be assisted by Infinity Mind's training to develop Self-awareness and to find useful solutions for effective self-regulation, with Anchors, relaxation and breathing exercises to help them cope with anxiety and stress.

 

 

Training results

 

• Attention improvement of the musician, to himself and to other musicians

• Improving the ability to perform a number of parallel activities, such as reading music, playing and listening

• Empowering focus and increasing the ability to filter out background noise and disturbing thoughts

• Overcoming ADHD Disabilities

• Improving passages, the ability to control the passage and increasing operational flexibility

• Empowering virtuosity and performance speed

• Developing self-awareness and ability to find solutions for self-regulation

• Increased self-confidence, expression force and stage presence

• Dealing with difficulties in reading the notes