Practicing music with an external focus of attention –
demonstration of playing music with different foci of attention. Assessments by the audience.
Frank Bakker and Valle Gonzalez Martin
Practicing with an external focus of attention (as opposed to an internal focus) has been shown to be valuable in sports. Valle will focus her attention on technical aspects of her playing (more internally focused) and focus on an expressive performance, creating a particular atmosphere while playing (delight or sadness; instruction partly taken from Van Zijl & Luck 2012). The audience will be asked to assess the performance, specifically in order to find out whether they recognize the instructions or not. The main results immediately after finishing the Study Lab and after 1 – 1½ years will then be presented. The session will close with a discussion with the audience.