What do you do after a long, stressful day at work?

Have a drink?

Sit semi-comatose in front of the TV?

Go to the gym?

When I worked in the Corporate world I did all of these, but found that none of them really helped me switch off from dwelling on the latest dilemma. And – much as I love reading – I found I could rarely get lost in a good book as my mind would still be churning over the events of the day. Reading became a luxury that I saved for my vacations, where I was able to leave work behind for days at a time.

However – when my job allowed me to get home at a time that would not cause serious disturbance to the neighbours – I found that the most effective way to completely switch off was to sit at the piano and really focus on my practice for 30-60 minutes.

Like many with stressful careers, I’d often find myself awake at 3 or 4 in the morning, my mind on auto-pilot and firmly back in the office! But by visualising the playing of the piano (often testing myself on various melodic minor scales) I found I could calm my mind and soon drift off back to sleep.

The act of playing the piano – at whatever level – requires real concentration and full engagement of the brain. Depending on the type of practice, different parts of the brain may be used. Focusing on a difficult passage – through analysis, repetition and various technical exercises – will predominantly use the so-called ‘left brain’ – the logical and analytical thought processes which you engage to fully understand musical patterns and to utilise the best type of exercise to enable you to grasp it fully.

Playing through a piece with which you are already confident is a more creative act and therefore the ‘right-brain’ is probably dominant. You have already worked through the technical difficulties and can apply your own creative interpretation to your ‘performance’ – even if the only audience consists of your cats!