We have all heard the saying that only “perfect practice makes perfect” but most of the time we are left alone to find out how that perfect practice should look like.

Generic advice like practice slowly, be more focused or use metronome often are very well meant, but usually useless. What we need is more specific, more actionable advice.

With the development of sophisticated tools, there is a lot of new research that shines light on the way our brain learns complex motor skills such as music. Thanks to that we can eliminate much of the guesswork from the process of acquiring new skills.

Our brain is a fantastic tool, if only we know how to use it properly.

We didn’t get any users manual when we were born and so most people do not really understand how our brain works. That’s why they are not capable to operate it in a way that brings them desired outcomes. All they have is a trial and error approach to learning which mostly produces mediocre results. As cognitive psychologist Bennet Shwartz points out “in many situations, the way that we think is the best way to learn is not, in fact, the ideal way.”

One of the most common misconceptions amongst people is the notion that our brain works like a computer.

People believe that if they just install a new program into their brain once, they are done. If the program is running properly right now, it should also run perfectly tomorrow, right?

Not really.

If you are learning a new scale, you can get it right usually in 5 to 10 minutes. But will you be able to play it the same way also tomorrow? Most probably not and the reason why is pretty simple. What you are doing right now is stored in your short-term memory and most of it will be deleted once you start doing something else. As Dr. Bjork explain in the video below, current performance is a poor indicator of actual learning.

Another critical mistake that brings lots of frustration for aspiring musicians is their belief that most of the learning occurs during their practice time. This is false again. Most of the learning happens after we have finished our practicing, usually during the sleep. The quality of our sleep has huge influence on the learning process.

Description of a typical practice session

In order to better understand how we can improve our practice methods, let’s describe a typical practice session of many guitar players. Let’s imagine a fictional guitarist Tom who wants to improve his G major scale.

Tom wants to practice G major scale because the last time he was jamming with his friends he had troubles to play it in higher positions. He starts with first fingering and plays it up and down few times. Since he can’t do it without a mistake, he decides to repeat the same fingering over and over again. After about 15 minutes of doing this, he feels quite confident to play it and so he moves to second fingering and repeats the whole process again.

Maybe you are wondering what’s wrong with this kind of practicing, so let’s analyze it.

The reason why this approach is not optimal is that Tom moves to second position when he feels good enough about his current performance with position number one. But as we’ve learned above, current performance is a poor predictor of actual learning. We usually consider a series of perfect repetitions to be a signal to move on. This again lies on false assumptions. In the words of Dr. Bjork “people take that fluency is a measure of learning, when it’s not.”

The kind of practicing that was described in the above example is called massed or blocked practice. We talk about massed practice when repetitions of one activity are completed before moving to another one.

It looks something like this:

AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD

I believe that massed practice is one of the most common practice strategies not only among musicians but also in other areas of life. It just make sense for us to focus on one activity, do it right and then move to another task. But what if our intuition is not correct? What if there is a better way to learn complex motor skills?

A better way to practice?

The newest scientific research suggest that there is a better and more efficient way for our brain to learn difficult skills like playing violin or guitar. Scientists from various cognitive fields suggest that by mixing different tasks together we can achieve better long-term results. This kind of practicing is called interleaved or random practice and it looks like this:

ABCD CBDA DBAC BADC

If we apply this to our previous example with guitar player Tom, an interleaved practice session may look something like this:

3 minutes – 1 st position G major scale

position G major scale 3 minutes – 2 nd position

position 3 minutes – 3 rd position

position 3 minutes – 1 st position with rhythmic variations

position with rhythmic variations Etc.

The main idea behind random practice is to mix things up and allow multiple expositions of the same problem area. By doing this we take advantage of contextual interference effect which proves to be very valuable when acquiring motor skills.

In fact, one of the leading scientist in the fields of neuropsychology and neurophysiology Eckart Altenmuller suggest that “the more complex a task is, the shorter the practice time that should be scheduled in one session and the longer the breaks should be planned.“

Why does random practice work?

Even though there is no consensus why random practice is so effective, there are several reasons why this might work:

Our brain likes novelty and hates tedious repetitions. By mixing things up ever so often, we keep our brain more engaged and therefore we are better focused on the task at hand.

Re-starting or re-loading different tasks forces our brain to work harder and this helps with long-term retention.

By keeping different tasks in our working memory there is a greater chance to crystalize and separate tasks from one another.

Importance of a practice log

People who are used to practice in a blocked fashion usually don’t use a practice log because it is quite easy to remember what you are working on if you spend 20 to 30 minutes with one tasks. But how well can you remember various tasks if they are changing every 3 to 5 minutes?

I find it very difficult and counterproductive to rely on my memory when experimenting with interleaved practice. The inevitable consequence of this approach is that the number of tasks is much higher than what I was used to and once I started to incorporate different variations (rhythmic, key change, different positions, etc.) the whole process became impossible to remember. So I grabbed my old trusty practice log and begun journaling. It may seem like a daunting task but actually it is not that bad. It doesn’t take too long to jot down what you’ve been working on and once you start recognizing how valuable those data are, you will be glad that you did start with journaling.

To take your practice log into the next level, start planning your practice sessions in advance so when it is time to practice, you’ll hit the ground running.

Another reason why you need to keep a practice log is to prevent going from interleaved practice session into a chaotic one. In order to get the best results, you want to utilize spacing effect. You need to revisit newly acquired material just before you would forget it.

I recommend starting with daily revisions and slowly increasing the spacing between exposures. With some testing you can find what works for you. Remember, the more studying opportunities are spread apart, the better long-term retention.

What to watch for when implementing interleaved practice?

Even though interleaved practice is a great strategy how to boost your learning curve, there is a couple of things that you should keep in mind:

When you first start randomizing your practice routine, it can be quite confusing and messy. If you have never done something similar before, you may be surprised how mentally challenging can switching between various tasks be. Make sure to practice when you are in your peak state to get the most out of your practice session.

Interleaved practice is not a quick-fix solution for all your musical problems. It still takes time and effort to get extraordinary results. The advantage of this kind of practicing is that it better utilizes the way our brains work.

As I said before, it is crucial that you keep track of what you’ve been working on. For interleaved practice to be effective, you need to have multiple short expositions to the same problem area. You need to be deliberate with your actions and patient with the process.

When not to use interleaved practice?

Although interleaving various task is highly effective method for taking our learning into the next level, I believe that as a musicians we don’t need to use it all the time or restrict ourselves to just this method.

Let’s take songwriting as an example. This is one of those tasks where we do not want to be interrupted. I found out that when I am working on a new song, the best results usually come if I spend lots of time experimenting and having fun with the initial idea. These songwriting sessions can last up to an hour and I definitely don’t want anyone or anything to interrupt this process.

The same goes for improvisation and experimenting with instrument. I believe that these are very valuable activities for any musician. When we practice music, we should definitely apply scientific knowledge to get the best out of our brains but there is always a place for music as an art form.

With that said, we can radically boost our learning curve by using random practice for tasks that require lots of attention and focus so we can learn more in less time. This way we can free more time for activities like composition, jamming and any creative and fun actions.

Key takeaways

#1: We have faulty notion about our learning, our brain doesn’t work like a videotape recorder or computer.

#2: When learning new skill, multiple short exposures beat one long one. The more complex a task is, the shorter the practice time should be.

#3: Keeping a practice log will help you better organize your practice routine for maximum results.

#4: Mixing various tasks during a practice session can lead to a better long-term retention.

Now I am curious, have you ever used interleaved practice in your practice routine? What results did you get? Please share your experience and results.

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