MORE EFFECTIVE PRACTICE......(who knew?)

As I was writing my silly page about practice, I found a great resource. I asked nicely, and was given permission to use some excerpts and to summarize it, and give a link to the site. Please go there and sign up for the ezine. It's free, and lots of good information is there.

REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN TO PLAY YOUR CHROMATIC HARMONICA THE WAY MUSICIANS HAVE LEARNED TO PLAY REAL INSTRUMENTS SINCE FOREVER

http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/why-the-progress-in-the-practice-room-seems-to-disappear-overnight/

I'll put the headings of the article here and a few excerpts and suggest you visit the site for more. It's pretty good, and my excerpts will not do the article justice. I'd like to  put the entire article here, but, Fair being Fair, it's good to get you connected with that site.

Why the Progress You Make in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight
Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that you can take a difficult passage, work on it for a bit, get it sounding pretty good, but return to the practice room the next day to discover that you’re back at square 1?

<<<Visit BulletProofMusician site for more of this, and the Full Explanation.... it's worth a look.

Is there a different way to practice that can make these improvements more permanent?

Making the most of your hours in the practice room:
One simple change that could drastically increase your productivity

<<<Visit BulletProofMusician site for more of this, and the Full Explanation.... it's worth a look.

Repetition, babies, and brain scans
Early on in our musical training, we are taught the importance of repetition. How often have we been told to “play each passage ten times perfectly before moving on”? The challenge with this well-intentioned advice is that it is not in line with the way our brains work.

<<<Visit BulletProofMusician site for more of this, and the Full Explanation.... it's worth a look.

Blocked practice schedules
In the field of sport psychology, the continuous repetition discussed above is called blocked practice. In a blocked practice schedule, all repetitions of one activity are completed before moving on to a second activity

The problem with this kind of practicing, however, is that the positive results we feel in the practice room today do not lead to the best long-term learning tomorrow. Practicing in a way that optimizes performance in the practice room does not optimize learning.

<<<Visit BulletProofMusician site for more of this, and the Full Explanation.... it's worth a look.

Random practice schedules
In a random practice schedule, the performer must keep restarting different tasks. Because beginnings are always the hardest part, it will not feel as comfortable as practicing the same thing over and over again. But this challenge lies at the heart of why random practice schedules are more effective.

<<<Visit BulletProofMusician site for more of this, and the Full Explanation.... it's worth a look.

How to use a random schedule in the practice room
Rather than spending long uninterrupted periods of time woodshedding each excerpt or section of a piece, pick a few passages you would like to work on and alternate between them.

At its most basic level, random practice might look like this:

Practicing passages in different rhythmic variations is a great way of introducing contextual interference on a smaller scale. But instead of doing all rhythmic variations on a single excerpt before moving onto the next, do one variation on excerpt A, one on excerpt B and then return to excerpt A for a second variation etc. Technique can also be interspersed into the random schedule, instead of doing all of it in one long block. An example of a more complicated random practice session might look something like the following:

	MATERIAL TO PRACTICE
2 minutes	Long tone, scale, long tone, scale…
3 minutes	Excerpt A (using first rhythmic variation)
2 minutes	Third progression, arpeggio, third progression, arpeggio…
3 minutes	Excerpt B (using first rhythmic variation)
2 minutes	Long tone, scale, long tone, scale…
3 minutes	Excerpt A (using second rhythmic variation)
2 minutes	Third progression, arpeggio, third progression, arpeggio…
3 minutes	Excerpt B (using second rhythmic variation)
	ETC

The permutations are endless and the exact division of time is not important. What is crucial is that you are keeping your brain engaged by varying the material. More engagement means you will be less bored, more goal-oriented (you have to be if you only have 3 minutes to accomplish something), and substantially more productive. Most importantly, when you return to the practice room the next day, you can start from where you left off. This type of practice sticks.

<<<Visit BulletProofMusician site for more of this, and the Full Explanation.... it's worth a look.

 

 

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