It sounds too good to be true, snake oil, quackery, but the science tells a different story. YOU CAN GET BETTER AT LEARNING.

I wrote a Five part blog series on how you can Practice Music Better. The inspiration for this series came after I read: "You Can Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential.” A wonderful and enlightening read, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read it. Cognitive scientist Andrea Kuszewski outlines some principles on how an individual can increase their cognitive potential. I immediately began to apply Kuszewski's conclusions to acquiring musical skill, and set out to find additional research to support her findings. Kuszewski’s assertions are

• Fluid intelligence is trainable.

• The training and subsequent gains are dose-dependent—meaning, the more you train, the more you gain.

• Anyone can increase their cognitive ability, no matter what your starting point is.

• The effect can be gained by training on tasks that don’t resemble the test questions.

Much like the Jamaican Bobsled team’s extensive training and experience in track and field made them competent bobsledders, so too can cognitive skills required for non-musical activities transfer to musical skills. Getting good at Sudoku, or dancing, or basketball, or carpentry, or ornithology will help you become a better learner in general.

How can I be a better learner?

Below you will find a brief summary and link to each of the five blog posts. Each post explains a different way to boost your skill acquisition potential!

1. Always be Learning

Your ability to learn is a skill and as such it can be trained and improved. If you don’t use your learning skill, it becomes weaker over time. USE IT OR LOSE IT. I also talk about how training your skill acquisition muscle in general by changing something about your familiar practice routine, or by practicing and non-musical skills. >> Link to article HERE.

2 Comfort Zone

Strengthen your learning muscle by practicing challenging music. Spend more time on unfamiliar music than easy songs you have already mastered. As soon as what you are doing becomes easy, your brain figures out more efficient neural pathways to accomplish that task.

Efficiency is great for learning a particular song or skill, but it is not good for keeping your learning skills sharp. You need to incorporate challenging and unfamiliar music into your practice routine to keep your brain primed for learning, or what I call, the “learning mood.” >> Link to article HERE.

3 Networking (but not the way you might think)

That word usually makes people sweat, but I am talking about a different kind of networking that I call, “making friends on purpose”. Every new person you come across has the potential to give you new ideas and approaches to music you may not have otherwise considered.

I talk about three kinds of networking: Face-to-face, Virtual, and Across Time. I also talk about the importance of learning new ideas from non-musicians. >> Link to article HERE.

4 Mentor (no, seriously)

I have found that a lot of people I talk to have the wrong idea about what mentors do. I clarify what a mentor does and how to cultivate a strong relationship with them. I discuss the difference between a teacher and mentor, and the HUGE impact of having a mentor will have on your musical mastery.

I provide some useful resources that illustrate what an effective mentorship ACTUALLY is, not what popular media makes us think it is. I also talk about how vulnerability will supercharge a mentorship and your progress as a learner. >> Link to article HERE.

5 Organize Your Learning

It may seem a bit antiseptic to think about music practice through a project management perspective, but doing so can greatly decrease the amount of time you practice, and maintain, if not, increase your progress gains. I talk about how having specific targets, and giving yourself time-limits in practice sessions can help you make every minute of your practice session be highly productive. >> Link to article HERE.

There you have it, 5 strategies to learn music better and develop the best music practice routine. Enjoy your time spent practicing and stress less over deadlines. Whether you are self taught, in music school, or a hobbyist, these tips will surely help you be a better musician and accomplish your goals with efficiency and with more joy.

ASK ME

I am a music teacher and have experience teaching my students

how to apply these principles in their practice.

If you want clarification or help with any of these tips