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A Book on Learning - profoundly changed my practice routine


CaptainUnderpant

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I received my copy and have been reading it. As anyone here would have suspected, there's really nothing that argues for or against practicing scales in the book, because it's not specific to any particular field, music or otherwise.

 

The point that the book seems to be making is, whatever you're doing to practice, you've got to keep the brain engaged. If, for example, you've been practicing the same sequence of scale exercises for 10 years, you're probably not fully engaged, mentally, in the practice and you're probably not progressing as quickly as you would have if you'd used the principles of interleaving, spacing, etc.

 

Still more to read for me...

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I recently posted about my regimen of playing Hanon book III daily at least once, sometimes more. The purpose of which is not to become proficient in playing exercises, but to develop sufficient facility to allow me to give voice to my musical ideas. In other words, to develop killer chops. Practice necessarily means drilling and repetition, just as when baseball hitters take BP. Their not hitting game caliber pitching during BP, their taking reps and developing their stroke and timing in order to handle to game intensity pitching. What once where near impossible exercises are now a breeze, and the chops I've acquired are now displayed when I play jazz, boogie, or blues piano. Practice should be divided between exercise and working on playing your music and developing musicality. Exercises are to pianist what conditioning is to athletes: They make you strong enough to perform your best.

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Practice necessarily means drilling and repetition, just as when baseball hitters take BP. Their not hitting game caliber pitching during BP, their taking reps and developing their stroke and timing in order to handle to game intensity pitching.

 

The book mentions research done on baseball hitters. One group practiced a bunch of reps against fastballs, then a bunch of reps against curve balls, etc. The other group practiced against a random selection of pitches.

 

The 2nd group initially appeared to lag behind the first group. Over time though, they became the superior hitters in real game situations. They had gotten used to not knowing which pitch was coming, and having to deduce it on the fly.

 

It was a good illustration of interleaved practice vs. massed practice, practice with the brain always engaged vs. practice in which the brain is allowed to zone out, practice that emphasizes long term memory over short term memory (frequent testing vs. rote memorization), etc.

 

I haven't finished reading the book, but extrapolating to practicing Hanon, the pianist version of the baseball example above would be:

 

A. Group of pianists who practice 10 reps a day of each of the first five Hanon exercises, and always in the key of C.

 

B, Group of pianists who practice 10 reps of each of five randomly selected Hanon exercises, in randomly selected keys (not always C!).

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I recently posted about my regimen of playing Hanon book III daily at least once, sometimes more. The purpose of which is not to become proficient in playing exercises, but to develop sufficient facility to allow me to give voice to my musical ideas. In other words, to develop killer chops. Practice necessarily means drilling and repetition, just as when baseball hitters take BP. Their not hitting game caliber pitching during BP, their taking reps and developing their stroke and timing in order to handle to game intensity pitching. What once where near impossible exercises are now a breeze, and the chops I've acquired are now displayed when I play jazz, boogie, or blues piano. Practice should be divided between exercise and working on playing your music and developing musicality. Exercises are to pianist what conditioning is to athletes: They make you strong enough to perform your best.

 

Exactly but a lot of musicians don't get that.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

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I use the practice method like Kenny Werner shows in his videos... I practice very softly in slow motion, sometimes just a few notes over and over, and in the zone : one goal at a time... I know exactly what my goals are and what I want to develop.

 

My goal is not to play Hanon so I don't. It is utterly lacking in creativity.

I practice melodic embellishment for improvisation and I practice new voicings and tunes I love. And left hand styles since I am primarily a solo pianist.

 Find 660 of my jazz piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

 

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You have to get the brain focused and relaxed: in the zone. Is that what the book means by engaged?

 Find 660 of my jazz piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

 

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You have to get the brain focused and relaxed: in the zone. Is that what the book means by engaged?

 

Partly. Another key element is exercising memory retrieval, to strengthen the long-term memory. That is why frequent testing (either testing oneself, or being subjected to quizzes by one's teacher) was found to be an essential element of effective learning.

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Practice necessarily means drilling and repetition, just as when baseball hitters take BP. Their not hitting game caliber pitching during BP, their taking reps and developing their stroke and timing in order to handle to game intensity pitching.

 

The book mentions research done on baseball hitters. One group practiced a bunch of reps against fastballs, then a bunch of reps against curve balls, etc. The other group practiced against a random selection of pitches.

 

The 2nd group initially appeared to lag behind the first group. Over time though, they became the superior hitters in real game situations. They had gotten used to not knowing which pitch was coming, and having to deduce it on the fly.

 

It was a good illustration of interleaved practice vs. massed practice, practice with the brain always engaged vs. practice in which the brain is allowed to zone out, practice that emphasizes long term memory over short term memory (frequent testing vs. rote memorization), etc.

 

I haven't finished reading the book, but extrapolating to practicing Hanon, the pianist version of the baseball example above would be:

 

A. Group of pianists who practice 10 reps a day of each of the first five Hanon exercises, and always in the key of C.

 

B, Group of pianists who practice 10 reps of each of five randomly selected Hanon exercises, in randomly selected keys (not always C!).

 

Exactly!

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