Walking Backwards

 

I've just read an article about walking backwards. Specifically, it has benefits for the muscles (such as the hamstrings) due to the difference of how you place your foot down (toes first versus heel first in normal walking). But what's more interesting -- to me, at least -- is the benefits it has for the brain. (You can find the article on bbc.com's Just One Thing.) The article says the Chinese have a saying that 100 steps backwards are worth 1000 steps forward. 

What does this have to do with playing the piano?

Apparently there isn't much research on the brain benefits of backwards walking yet, but it may boost memory. This comes as no surprise to me. Anytime we do things in a way which is different from our habitual ways, the brain must forge new neural pathways, and that's always a good thing. More pathways = more brain power. I view it as  similar to many of the techniques I use myself and recommend to my students, such as playing hands crossed, playing with eyes closed, and transposing. These are all challenging and require the brain to work hard. That's why I call them "desirable difficulties."

Many people mistakenly believe that practice time should be spent playing through pieces, perhaps some extra work on certain difficult spots by employing lots of repetition, and maybe some technical exercises, also with lots of repetition. Or maybe it's not so much that they believe it, it's just that no one has helped them to see other possibilities. Although you will possibly see improvement in your playing from this approach, it is also likely that at some point you will reach an impasse, a plateau in your progress, and it may seem like you're stuck and and go no further in developing the mastery of the music. This is almost certainly because the brain is in a rut; it just goes down the same pathways over and over. In addition to this type of practice being less beneficial, it can also be boring and make the practice time feel like a chore.

When I observe a student struggling with a specific passage in the music, I have many tools in my toolbox to try (a few of them are mentioned above.) Sometimes I just try something really out of left field, something that just pops into my mind at the moment. (You can imagine the looks I get from my students.) The goal is to experience the passage in a new way, mostly physically, but that also means the brain is working differently. It's amazing how often it helps.

I've done my backwards walking today, and plan to continue. My recommendation: do it indoors to start with!