The Bulletproof Musician
Ever wonder why you can practice for hours, sound great in the practice room, and still be frustratingly hit or miss on stage? Join performance psychologist and Juilliard alumnus/faculty Noa Kageyama, and explore research-based āpractice hacksā for beating anxiety, practicing more effectively, and playing up to your full abilities when it matters most.
The Bulletproof Musician
A Hidden Reason You Forget Music on Stage
Mistakes on stage are never fun, but missing a note here or there, or playing out of tune is over and done with pretty quick. Having a memory slip on stage is a whole other level of discomfort. š³ Itās one of the things that makes many musicians most anxious about performing.
Researchers have taught us a ton in the last couple decades about how the best memorizers memorize music. And so I thought itād be worth taking a look at various aspects of memory in the next couple weeks.
Today, weāll take a look at research which explains why pianists may have a tougher time with memory than other musicians (spoiler alert: itās not because they have more notes), and what we can all learn from this to enhance our own memory security. Get all the nerdy details here:
A Hidden Reason You Forget Music on Stage
Wish you could perform more confidently from memory?
Memorization can feel like a mysterious process, but it's a more concrete and practical process than you might think. Iāve distilled a couple decades of research, and over a hundred studies, book chapters, dissertations, and case studies into a 5-module step-by-step course on memorization for musicians, that will be available for a limited public release from October 19 - 26, 2025. If youād like to get on the waitlist so you donāt miss it, you can do that right here: bulletproofmusician.com/memory
References
Mishra, J., & Backlin, W. M. (2007). The effects of altering environmental and instrumental context on the performance of memorized music. Psychology of Music, 35(3), 453ā472. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735607077838
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