Mental practise ONLY for 4 years

[dontcheeseme]

So for 4 years I'll be at a job that requires me to do nothing lol, so I"m hoping how feasible and effective it will be to mentally practise only, since I will have almost no time to have contact with my dear piano. I plan on drilling scales, harmonies, chords, and visualize notes, and musical pieces into my head. I'm not sure to what extent I'll be able to improve my rather mediocre pianistic skills with this (been playing for a year), assuming even that it will actually help. And what can I expect from this, will it be better than 4 years of actual keyboard practise, or worse. I know that there are too many factors involved, but I have been hearing that mental practise is much more effective (when done properly) than actual practise with the piano. What are your thoughts on this, and I appreciate whatever advice you can give, or ideas that I can incorporate into my mental practise routine, or even how futile my efforts will be. I'm willing to overwork myself to death (I actually enjoy it, the headache that I get from 3-4 hours of MP feels pleasurable like going to the gym), but only if I'm informed beforehand that the efforts will pay off eventually.

[dogperson]

Mental practice is designed to be an adjunct to actual keyboard practice.. particularly for beginning pianists, as I understand you consider yourself.  While very useful, you need an actual keyboard to HEAR what you are doing, to workout fingering, and adapt interpretation.

I would strongly recommend that you find access to a piano for at least 30 minutes per day; and do not consider mental practice to the point of a headache to be a substitute.  You need to limit your expectations of what mental practice, alone without any keyboard time, can accomplish

You have posted multiple posts here about the effectiveness of mental practice; maybe you should review how others use this.

[dontcheeseme]

Thanks. I did managed to find a way to have access to a keyboard for one hour (a digital one) per day on certain days. My dream is to become a composer; music has always been a passion of mine since I was a child, but so many things got in the way, mostly mental illness. Now that I'm back on track I'm willing to do everything I can to make up for the lost years by gathering as much time and information as I can to get to my dream asap, and I dont want to waste any precious time at work, and after doing an intensive memory course which helped me build mental stamina, I'm very eager to incorporate your ideas into my 12-hour job/mental practise routine.

Waste no time. Carpe diem!

[dogperson]

Thanks. I did managed to find a way to have access to a keyboard for one hour (a digital one) per day on certain days. My dream is to become a composer; music has always been a passion of mine since I was a child, but so many things got in the way, mostly mental illness. Now that I'm back on track I'm willing to do everything I can to make up for the lost years by gathering as much time and information as I can to get to my dream asap, and I dont want to waste any precious time at work, and after doing an intensive memory course which helped me build mental stamina, I'm very eager to incorporate your ideas into my 12-hour job/mental practise routine.

Waste no time. Carpe diem!

You are certainly a quick worker--- your original post, less than 4 hours ago, stated you would only be able do mental practice, and now you have located a digital piano.  impressive!

[dontcheeseme]

Lol thanks but it was only a matter of one phone call. My best friend's father leads this Born-again church where I would be allowed to play the keyboard except on Mondays (when it's closed) on my way home from work. It's quite near to my workplace, which is extremely far from home.

[hardy_practice]

If you want to be a composer a golden opportunity has opened up.  Learn to read simple folk songs in your head.  Once that is accomplished learn to do two-part species counterpoint in your head - that's an amazing joy! and gets you into what makes polyphonic music.