Why LESS Practice Could Be MORE Effective (Neuroscience Music Tip)

Recent neuroscience research suggests a strategy that could make your music practice 20x more effective. The surprising thing is that it requires you to deliberately do LESS practice.
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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:15 The science behind the tip
00:40 What strategy did the researchers test?
01:16 How did this affect practice results?
01:36 What was going on INSIDE people's brains?
02:37 Why there may be additional benefits not captured by the research study
04:10 How to apply this idea in practice
06:03 What's the point of reflection, then?
07:47 An extra bonus way to accelerate your learning
08:19 What does Leonard Cohen have to do with this?
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[@PlayInTheZone]

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[@JustSayin53]

I watched this last week and tried it out. Started out doing just fingering new chord change progressions about ten times then taking a break and stretching. I'm 68 and started learning almost two years ago after retireing, so my brain doesn't absorb new things like kids. But, I do believe that it has helped. When I return to practice the next day it seems I've retain my learning better. Now I'm going to also try the recommendation from Glenn below. Thank You for this.

[@PlayInTheZone]

You're welcome. And great to hear that it seems to be helping.

[@Sullaban]

When I was practicing four hours per day, and did not have a clue what I was doing (I was NOT a thinker) my music teacher informed me the truth that he could get more done in one half hour than I could in four hours. He could do this because he had a brain, and mine was ( my brain) was shut off.

[@Rene1935]

This is interesting. I have essentially done the same thing, except I was using a much longer cycle. I found I could practice with hard concentration for about an hour. After that, my mind would sort of glaze over, and I couldn't "push" more into it. I would then go to my comfortable chair and just meditate. I found that the magic time for meditation seems to be around 45 minutes. After that time, I found myself just sort of floating up out of the meditative state and feeling mentally refreshed. I imagine that with the pressure of intense practice concentration, I'm sort of building up a force field in my brain, and then during a period of meditation, that force field is stimulating the growth of synapse connections in my brain, (an actual physical change in the brain.) The idea of much shorter cycles of practice and meditation hadn't occurred to me. I will try this.

[@PlayInTheZone]

You were definitely onto something, Rene. That's essentially what I'm talking about with the suggestion of a 20 minute rest period after a practice session. This recent research seems to suggest that the shorter and longer rest breaks allow your brain to do different beneficial things. So the most likely conclusion is that it will work really well to use both the 10 second breaks during a practice session AND the longer meditation periods afterwards.

[@absolventenservice]

I can confirm that it works for me. Thank you for giving me the scientific background!

[@PlayInTheZone]

You're welcome! Glad you found it useful.

[@MyJ2B]

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (e.g., MRI tractography) has opened up a window into our internal amazing brain function and "plasticity". Thanks Mark !

[@PlayInTheZone]

Absolutely. What I find really interesting is that it frequently confirms theories that good teachers have been using for years (or centuries?) but which have been lacking in proof up until now. And then it often suggests completely new ways that we could improve those strategies even further...

[@Lisanna61]

Thank you Mark! I'll put that into my practice ☺

[@raleedy]

I would be fully occupied just with the timing.

[@johnpomerleau9307]

I have found this helpful and interesting and looking forward to trying it out. Thank you

[@frankwielers729]

Very convincing! Makes perfectly sense to me. Going to try this out immediately. Thanks again, Mark, great stuff.

[@PlayInTheZone]

Great stuff, Frank. I'll be interested to hear how you get on.

[@paulonunesdemoura6653]

I found this video very informative and helpful, and this is because I have been focusing on learning a line at a time, playing several times, but felt that I needed a wee break, rather thank playing on a loop. Good to know that there's research indicating that this is helpful. I can't quite remember what my mind was doing during the wee breaks, but will become aware of this next time. I like the idea of using some of the breaks to think about nothing and to relax, while using other breaks to think about what I'm doing. I think that the idea is that you need the breaks to consolidate the learning. On a separate note, once I asked a sleeping expert whether gadgets that you play at night under your pillow to help you learn a language actually work, and he said that there was no evidence of that, but that sleeping itself helped you to consolidate the learning. Mark, many thanks for the video.

[@PlayInTheZone]

So glad you found this helpful, Paulo. I agree that it's satisfying when research ends up backing up something we suspeted but weren't quite sure about.

[@johncrbayley]

Genius tip! I have used it to get on top of tricky micro passages. I downloaded a free gymn interval trainer to do the timing for me. Many thanks Mark and best wishes John.

[@seethismusic3179]

Excellent! Great advice! This will help you.

[@PlayInTheZone]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kaeninfurious6470]

Great video man! Love that you're sharing valuable information.

[@PlayInTheZone]

You're welcome! When I come across really interesting and helpful information it's a pleasure to be able to share it with others. And by working out how I want to communicate it I deepen my own understanding of it at the same time.

[@fritzr5819]

Thanks for your inspiring totorials and Happy Holidays.

[@PlayInTheZone]

You are so welcome, Fritz! Happy Christmas to you too.

[@glennbauman2373]

This would pair well with square breathing for the 10 second break which introduces a mindfulness component: Step 1: Breathe in counting to four slowly. Feel the air enter your lungs. Step 2: Hold your breath for 4 seconds. Try to avoid inhaling or exhaling for 4 seconds. Step 3: Slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds. Step 4: Repeat steps 1 to 3 until you feel re-centered.

[@PlayInTheZone]

Really interesting idea, Glenn. I think you're absolutely right - thanks for sharing that! I think you could go further and say that this would probably pair well with ANY favourite short breathwork or mindfulness practice you already use. Potential added bonus effects here as well. You could boost your practice and increase the amount of breathwork/mindfulness exercises that you do regularly at the same time.

[@tullochgorum6323]

@@PlayInTheZone This is a very powerful idea - it could literally turn your practice period into a meditation...

[@rupost1]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[@PlayInTheZone]

My pleasure! Making these videos gives me a great incentive to think through topics like this. And that's a really helpful exercise for my own learning.

[@rupost1]

@@PlayInTheZone In many aspects you',re doing good work. Thx again. Very inspirational for ne also are Andrew Hunerman and the Bullitproof Musician.

[@alfredbellanti3755]

Thanks Mark! 😎✔️👍

[@PlayInTheZone]

Glad you liked it, Alfred.

[@dianegordon5366]

Wow! Before learning about this study, I read that practicing in one's mind causes the same changes in the brain as actually practicing. When we practice, we're causing changes in the cerebellum, obviously, the muscle memory part of the brain. How on earth does this happen without moving the muscles of the hands?

[@lestrum]

Health professionals from all disciplines would love this. Sure my chiropractor would.. Excellent advice. An issue many have are problems relating to our rush-rush, hurry-hurry society.The pressures of time constraints. Many of us often have all to do to cram in practice time with such busy schedules, thus will not take suggested breaks.

[@PlayInTheZone]

Yes. It's an added bonus that this should be helpful for good posture, releasing muscle tension, etc. All important things in their own right!

[@Sullaban]

Goodness. This is interesting, very interesting. Thank you.

[@PlayInTheZone]

Glad you enjoyed it, Lester!

[@Sullaban]

@@PlayInTheZone Lots of good information here. I will be back I am sure.

[@Sullaban]

When the Disney ad came on I took out the ear buds and did ANYTHING else but look at the screen. That's just me.