Developing a literature

Mental practice refers to the use of imagery as opposed to the physical or motor skills used in physical practice. It is a strategy frequently discussed with regard to the acquisition of skills required for music performance, and recent scientific literature confirms the benefits of mental practice. However, a review of that literature reveals inconsistencies and a lack of clarity in the use of terminology. To better understand this problem of terminology, 33 current studies on mental practice in music performance were assembled and examined for both the quantity and quality of term usage. Terms were identified and recorded using terminology and classification methods from Cabré (1999), and The Pavel, Terminology Tutorial. Terminological records were created for each term appearing more than once in the literature for a total of 83 records. Issues related to frequency of use (repetition), use of multiple terms (synonymy), lack of term definitions, and the need for clarity in term usage (semantic vagueness and ambiguity) were then analyzed using these records. This terminology process resulted in the creation of a glossary of 21 terms and a corresponding hierarchical taxonomy (tree diagram). These tools were developed to clarify the terminology of mental practice in music performance in order to provide a foundation for a more systematic use of the terminology in future research, as well as to assist with comprehension of the existing literature