Musicians' quotes on practice

Buco

@Matteo I like your take on it a lot.

Matteo

Thank you for your kind words. I'm really just speculating. I don't know much about him, have never met him. But I have his method book and I think that it is excellent. And very structured, som I'm probably completely wrong ...

Buco

It could be related to the concepts from the book Make it Stick, succinctly explained in this video to which @geese_com alerted me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfylloWuuZU

I can now see how Stephanes point. And again, you pretty much nailed it in your earlier comment @Matteo Very similar to what's in this video.

billyshakes

Great video, Buco.

I've taught the Spaced Repetition concept to many of my students preparing for grad school exams. I've found it especially useful in building vocabulary acquisition in both advanced level English, as well as foreign languages. Here's a chart that illustrates that concept and might be one I've shared before on a similar post topic.

That said, I don't think I've ever thought to apply it to my guitar practice. So, synthesizing this information, perhaps I should group learn 3 songs with similar structure (either same key or similar chord structure). Maybe quiz myself by having a hat with song names in it. Pick a random song and then play it. As I learn more, I keep the song names in the hat. As I learn more, this form of self-quizzing will get me to review lesser played songs that I might otherwise forget. I think the community jams that we do, where different people call different tunes, supports this "quizzing effect." One could also learn licks through spaced repetition, until they come into your soloing vocabulary.

Matteo

Well how about that! Yes, @Buco, my way of studying Django solos is similar to the concepts of interleaving and spacing in that video. What a surprise! I thought the way I did this had something to do with my own particular personality and preferences. But it may in reality be a universally recognized strategy for effective learning. Very interesting. Well, I guess I should just keep going?

Lango-Django

Matteo, not to change the subject but wow, your written English is flawless, just as if you were a native speaker...

My compliments!

Will

Matteo

Thanks @Lango-Django. That's very kind of you to say so. I know the basic grammatical rules quite well, but my vocabulary is pretty limited, I'm afraid. And I seldom write in English nowadays so I don't get much training. What saves me, I think, is having a lot of experience in writing, in general. I am trained to quickly find solutions and workarounds when I get stuck and don't find the right word. I wish it was the same with my guitar playing. Which leads us back to the topic again ...

billyshakes

@Matteo As a person who has spent over 20+years working in the international arena, I will second Will's compliment. I do not detect ANY indication of a non-native speaker in your writing. The workarounds you discuss may be normal circumlocutions used even by native speakers when they can't think of the correct word. I know that as my foreign language vocabulary has increased, my active English vocabulary has decreased as I'm often thinking of a word in a different language. Furthermore, most native speakers of English only have ~50% of their word knowledge as "active vocabulary," meaning words they frequently use and come to mind routinely when carrying out conversation (avg. 20,000 words). The other 50%, or "passive vocabulary," range from words that are known but not commonly used to words that one has seen or heard before, but might not have anything other than an impression of definition.

I guess it shows you have done a lot of woodshedding in your writing. Lots of practice....bringing us back to the topic as you say! ;-)

Buco

@billyshakes that's similar to how I was learning all those songs at one point. Several tunes at one time. Do I quick look at the chord chart, play through until I can do it without looking at the chord chart, then continue to the next. The next day I'd quiz myself and wouldn't look at the chart until I really sort of exhausted my brain/ear power.

@Matteo yes, it sounds like you should continue doing the same. I don't that it's universally recognized. If it were, they wouldn't write a book about it. I'm sure some people, such as yourself, instinctively learn that way.

This all reminded me of another article. It by this woman, Barbara Oakley, who became an expert and received a doctorate in math but only after she reached adulthood following flunking math and science throughout elementary, middle and high school. She did have affinity for languages. So she ended up applying the same concepts that helped her with learning a new language, to math. And it worked.

And a lot of it, I feel can be applied to the music, especially improvisation learning. The way I remember it, it's related to (at least partially) to learning a new word and then putting that to use in different situations, learning all kinds of different ways to use it. She also stressed out the importance of learning when not to use it....etc. There's much more to it and it's super interesting article to read. It also challenges the notion of whether it's possible to acquire a highly complex skill relatively late in life. She was 26 when she put herself on the path to becoming good in math.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math

Matteo

@billyshakes Yes, woodshedding and a serious interest. Still, I know how little I know. A Swedish linguist (who is also an author, comedian and tv show host) made this point: many swedes think they are very good at English, but you only need to put one in a kitchen and ask him or her to name the different kind of tools you find there to reveal how limited their vocabulary really is, compared to a native speaker.

@Buco I see, I went a bit too far in my excitement. So let's call it an acknowledged method, to some degree, because of that book. I was just so surprised to see the similarities to what I was doing and that someone was actually proposing it as a part of a method for learning. And that other book seems very interesting indeed. I very much look forward to reading the article when I get the time. Thanks!