I’ve always been fascinated by what it takes to be outstanding.

I loved reading the stories of great people throughout history. Following their successes and failures. And discovering how they achieved great things when others fell short.

The more I read... the more I realised that successful people from all fields were eerily similar. Musicians, artists, athletes, leaders, and more had lots in common. They all used the same strategies to achieve great things.

One of their most powerful tools was visualisation.

The first few times I heard about people spending huge amounts of time and effort on it I thought it was interesting… but irrelevant.

But when I realised that the top performers in every walk of life were mentioning visualisation over and over again, I started to sit up and take notice.

Famous names like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pelé, Jack Nicklaus, and many more credit visualisation as a vital part of their success. (I’ll explain the exact benefits it gave each of them in a bit)

Then, when I dug deeper, I found that it was used by all sorts of working pros at the top of their field. Fighter pilots, business executives, racing car drivers, athletes, and so on.

These people operate in high-stakes environments. You can bet that they wouldn’t keep using this unless it worked. But it turns out that there’s a lot of hard science to back up the effects of visualisation as well (I’ll share some of the most interesting studies with you later on).

It’s basically the “cheat code” they use to make faster progress...

At this point I decided I had to try it for myself. And that’s when I ran into a problem…

Turns out I’m not naturally gifted at visualising.

Luckily, that doesn’t have to hold you back. Even from the start, my first clumsy attempts still produced results.

But things really took off once I invested some time in training my ability to visualise.

It’s not one of those things where either you’ve got it, or you don’t. With the right training, anyone can improve their ability to visualise and get great results. (I’ll explain how a bit later…)

In the past, visualisation was hardly ever discussed… let alone taught. Almost all the top performers were visualising, but there was no standard path to learning it. If you wanted to be successful, you had to do all the work to discover it and master it yourself.

Recently, peak performers in the sports world have found practical ways to apply it on a consistent basis. They’re making huge leaps forwards as a result. It’s got to the point where visualisation is almost compulsory if you want to have any chance of getting to the top in sport.

But the information on how to use it is hard to find, difficult to understand, and aimed at people who are so committed that they’re willing to dedicate hours a day to this.

I want to change that.

Visualisation is such a powerful, multi-purpose tool that no-one who plays music should be without it. It’s easy to use and hugely effective – even if you’re a busy person with no more than a couple of minutes to spare.

Eventually, I believe that every musician will use it to accelerate their practice and reach higher levels when they perform for others. But right now, if you’re one of the first to get on board with visualisation then you’ll be giving yourself a massive unfair advantage…

In case you don’t know me already, I’m Mark Morley-Fletcher – a jazz guitarist and educator. I'll show you what I came up with in just a minute.

Before we get into that and all the incredible benefits that visualisation brings, though, I need to explain why it’s so effective…

Visualisation is a great tool to help you learn and master physical technique.

No matter how hard you try, you’ll never make your physical movements 100% perfect. However, when you visualise, then you’re completely in control. You can do perfect reps every time.

This gets you better results, faster.

The legendary golfer, Jack Nicklaus, often described the difference this made to his results:

"I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It's like a color movie.

First I 'see' the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I 'see' the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is this sort of fadeout, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images to reality.

I believe a few moments of movie-making might work some small miracles in your game" 

The science backs Nicklaus’s opinion up. And it shows that this sort of visualisation brings other rewards too. Alongside the straight performance benefits it increases your motivation and drive towards your goals.

Visualisation is also a powerful way to get better results when the time comes to perform. Physical technique is only one part of what’s needed for great performances – you also need to be in the right mental state in order to play your best.

You can use visualisation to deliberately change your emotional state before performance so that you play your best right from the start.

You can use it to:

• Calm nerves
• Get more energy
• Boost your confidence
• Connect with the emotion in the music you’re about to play
• Or any number of other things...

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Exactly what you aim for is up to you. But you might like to take inspiration from the great Brazilian footballer, Pelé. He was such a fan of this that he would arrive early before every single game he played in order to run through his half-hour visualisation routine.

Do you remember that I mentioned earlier how your brain can’t tell the difference between a vividly imagined experience and the real thing?

This is what makes visualisation the single best way to practice for performance. It literally gets you closer to the real thing than physical practice can ever do because you can simulate ALL the performance conditions and emotions (in a way that would otherwise be impossible).

And being mentally prepared like this means never being surprised by anything. When you use visualisation intelligently this gives you the best chance. You have already developed strong, positive responses for any challenging situations that may arise.

This only works IF you can visualise vividly, of course…

Don’t worry, though. This is a skill that anyone can deliberately develop. I’ll explain how that’s possible a bit later. There are a couple more benefits of visualisation to uncover first…

When you have clear goals, visualisation is one of the most powerful techniques for building self-confidence that you can achieve them. And it helps you fuel the determination to show up every day and do the work required to get you there.

Arnold Schwarzenegger credits visualisation with a big part of his success throughout life. Not only in his bodybuilding and movie careers, but also as he transitioned to become governor of California.

In each case, his very first action was to create a vivid picture of what it would look and feel like once he achieved the goal. Then he’d regularly spend time reviewing these visualisations as he moved relentlessly towards it.

When you can see something, then you can achieve it. It doesn’t sound like much, but the potential power of this is phenomenal.

For example, there were no South Korean women golfers on the pro tour in 1997. Then Se Ri Pak won two major tournaments in 1998…

Just over a decade later there were more than 40 South Korean women on the tour and they won one third of all events!

Before Se Ri Pak’s victories there was no reason for South Korean girls to imagine themselves as top golfers. Once they had a concrete role model to guide their dreams, though, it was natural to visualise themselves in that position. It created the self-belief and drive they needed and that was enough to open the floodgates for their future dominance…

With the right instruction and guidance, you’ll be able to tap into this power for yourself at will.

What we’ve discussed so far only scratches the surface of what visualisation can do for your music. It’s all been about how it can accelerate your progress to things that are already possible.

And that’s a great thing…

But the real power of visualisation is that it’s not limited by reality!

Because it takes place entirely in your mind, you’re free to imagine things that are otherwise impossible.

Visualisation can remove blocks that you’re unable to get past in physical practice because your imagination isn’t restricted by your current physical limits. This allows you to jump ahead when you’re stuck – in a way that might take years of struggle with “normal” practice.

Or maybe you’d never get past that barrier without visualisation to help you…

As T. S. Eliot said:

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

The problem for most musicians has been that it was impossible to go “too far”. Now, visualisation removes that boundary and sets you up to discover what you’re really capable of…

But how do you actually learn to visualise? And can anyone do it?

Everyone differs in their natural ability to visualise. Some can picture vividly in great detail. Others can "see" and experience very little.

But the important thing to know is that visualisation is a skill. And the more you practice it, the better you’ll get. So – no matter what your ability is right now – you can improve significantly with the right training.

This starts with a clear understanding of what exactly you’re trying to achieve.

Thinking is not visualising. Simply delivering a running commentary in your head describing the scene you’re trying to imagine won’t get you results.

Instead, your visualisation should be rich in all the senses to the point where it’s like reality. You actually need to see the images… hear the sounds… feel the movements…

Even once you know that, there’s another trap that often trips people up…

It’s tempting to try and jump straight to including all of these senses at the same time. This is overwhelming and results in failure.

Instead, you want to work on the different components individually and systematically. When you start simple, and focus on just one modality at a time then things are manageable and you can progress quickly.

Anyone can develop their skills when the training exercises break things down into the right sequence of carefully ordered tiny steps. I’ll share the way I teach this in just a bit…

Yes, the “naturals” will achieve greater heights than those who struggle at first. But anyone who puts the right effort into this will end up at a skill level way above that of the general population.

(And if you still doubt your ability, consider this… If you’ve ever had a vivid dream, then that’s proof that your mind can visualise at a high level. All you have to do is learn how to access that ability at will)

So how do you train your visualisation skills effectively and tap into all those incredible benefits on offer?

I’ve put together everything you need to develop and apply your visualisation skills into a course called “Visualisation for Musicians”.

It works for any instrument (including singers) and any style of music. Musicians at all levels – from occasional amateurs through to teachers and full-time pro performers – have all taken the material in the course and used it to get outstanding results.

The key is that the course is specifically designed to make it as quick and easy as possible for you to get just the things you really need.

There’s a huge amount of theory that you could learn about visualisation – but that’s not what will actually get you results.

So the course gives you the bare minimum of theory and instead gets you straight into applying the concepts in practice. What’s more, all the exercises are set up with guided audio tracks to walk you through every step.

And if you want to go deeper, or take things in different directions from the guided audios then all the instructions are there for you to do just that.

There’s also the fact that visualisation can be used to improve in a huge range of different ways. This is one of its strengths, but it makes it easy to get overwhelmed.

The course is specifically set up to avoid this potential obstacle.

You don’t have to wade through all the information on every topic. Instead, it helps you identify which topic is most relevant for YOU and then allows you to jump straight to that individual section.

The ways in which you can use this to improve your music are endless. Here are just a few of the areas you could transform by applying the visualisations inside the course:

• Learn faster in practice sessions
• Improve your motivation and discipline to practice
• Strengthen the belief that you’re capable of achieving your long-term goals
• Break through barriers in your physical technique
• Reduce nerves before a performance
• Access your Ideal Performance State on demand
• And more…

You can focus on just a couple of areas which seem most appealing to you and ignore the others… Or use them all!

The choice is yours.

Check out what these musicians have to say about the course:

I’ve made it as simple as possible to reap the benefits of visualisation straight away.

You don’t have to study before you get started… And you don’t have to worry about remembering instructions correctly… I’ve done the work for you and created guided audio tracks that walk you through all the key visualisations.

All you have to do is sit back and listen.

In fact, it’s not only effortless to listen along to the guided audios – it’s a positively pleasurable and relaxing experience.

However, this isn’t just a “lazy” option. Even the most dedicated and serious student will benefit from including these in their visualisation toolbox. 

The guided audios included with the course cover a lot of ground. But there’s a huge benefit from exploring the possibilities when you visualise in ways that are completely unique to you.

You get all the tools and exercises you need to visualise on your own. These allow you to fine tune the small details to match your own exact preferences. And to create entirely new scenarios.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn:

You’ll see improvements in your music as soon as you start using visualisation. But investing some time in deliberately training your ability to visualise will multiply these results still further.

The course is specifically designed to make this as easy and efficient as possible. It breaks things down into bite-sized and highly targeted small individual exercises sequenced in the right order. This allows you to work on improving your skills whenever you have a spare minute.

It also makes the process much more efficient because it’s not all or nothing. You pick only the exercises that are important for you and ignore all the rest.

Here’s a small selection of what’s included:

How do I join Visualisation for Musicians right away?