BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
Sydney-based musician and charity worker Jessie Wang is a mental health advocate and studies psychology at the University of Sydney.
Learning new repertoire is an essential part of your musical journey.
You may be learning your very first piece, or a professional musician who can only afford 15 minutes of your time. Maybe you were always told to practice a certain way, or you’ve just figured out for yourself what some of the best learning methods are.
It doesn’t matter what stage you’re at in your career, because we’ve put together a resource that aims to help. Here is a list of principles from psychology that could place you a step ahead when learning your next piece.
1. Positive reinforcement
By rewarding ourselves, we’re more likely to repeat that action in the future. It also makes the process of performing the action more enjoyable.
Importantly, to gain the most out of rapid learning, the reward (reinforcement) should come straight after the behaviour has been performed. That way, your brain associates that reward with the behaviour (rather than with something else).
So, I think it’s okay to give yourself a bar of chocolate after you’ve achieved the goals you’ve set for each section of music!
2. Conceptual organisers
As humans, we want to make it easier for ourselves to process information. For example, if you’re reading a slab of writing, you would feel overloaded, and this limits the amount of information you can actually process.
The same thing goes with music: if you’re telling yourself to just learn the whole piece, you would feel overwhelmed. If you have a plan (and a visual one, too), it will be easier to see how each section or element of the piece fits in with the overall picture.
Having conceptual organisers also helps to see how sections or elements might fit with each other, too! Conceptual organisers can be as simple as colour codes or other symbols that help to break things down.
3. Overlearning
This basically means the good ol’ phrase ‘practice makes perfect’.
Overlearning says that we should have extra learning opportunities (such as performance workshops, or informal performances for peers) – even after you has demonstrated mastery of a task.
This not only increases the time the learning is retained, but also makes it more likely that your actions will become automatic (things that you don’t have to think about).
Once actions are automatic, you can then focus on other things. In a way, overlearning can therefore help you learn more things in the long term, without having to concentrate on everything in the short term.
4. Distributed practice (rather than massed practice)
Massed practice is when you practice a task continuously without rest; while distributed practice gives you intervals between practice sessions, so the whole practice process is spaced over a longer period of time.
In one study, volleyball players attending a course either kept practising (massed practice) or played and rested (distributed practice). The results? Volleyball players who had distributed their practice had also better retained their knowledge and skills.
In music, distributed practice sessions may not only result in better performance, but also reduce your chances of getting injuries such as RSI. It’s a win-win situation.
5. Modelling
According to this principle, when we observe what others are doing, we can also repeat that action. So if you’re having a lesson or a masterclass and your teacher is explaining a confusing concept, it might be helpful to simply ask them to demonstrate it.
Keep in mind that modelling (performing the behaviour), can also be accompanied by verbal explanations.
Bonus! Meaningful encoding
You can try all of the above principles and still not learn the piece if you were not paying attention while you were learning.
This is why it’s so important to remove distractions (phones, chatty friends) so you can concentrate on the very task that you’re doing: learning that piece.
Shout the writer a coffee?
If you like, you can say thanks to Jessie for putting together this educational piece. No amount too much or little 🙂
[purchase_link id=”14483″ style=”button” color=”orange” text=”Pay what you like”]
Pay what you like through PayPal. 80 per cent of your contribution will go to the writer who composed this piece, and 20 per cent to our volunteer editor. We protect your personal information.
Disclaimer: CutCommon does not offer formal psychological, medical, or mental health advice. Please contact your GP or a specialist for information tailored to you.
Featured photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash.
