01/06/2024
The subject of skill acquisition is something that has fascinated me since being introduced to the book Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. The way we interact with information determines how well we retain it.
The following text is taken from an advertisement. It captures something quite essential about skill acquisition:
From ‘forgetful’ to ‘flawless’ - here’s how musicians use neuroscience to memorize pieces quickly (and remember them forever).
After taking hundreds of musicians from forgetting music - to quickly memorizing (and retaining) pieces…
I’ve seen that the key is not ‘musical ability’ or ‘a great memory’…
But understanding how the brain works.
See, so many musicians are still trying to memorize the old-fashioned way…
They’ll play a piece again and again and again. And at the end of the session, they’re finally hitting everything and feeling great.
But then they come back to it a few days later, and…
It’s gone.
Maybe they’re dreading a ‘memory slip’ during an upcoming performance. Or maybe they simply wish they could play freely without being chained to the sheet music. Either way, their memories fail them.
It seems like memorizing music is pouring water into a bucket full of holes. And the only way forward is to play the piece several dozen more times (and cross their fingers it sticks).
But modern neuroscience has great news for these musicians. Recent breakthroughs have shown exactly how the human brain processes information…and captures it in permanent memory banks.
I’ve seen that once musicians adopt a science-based ‘long-term storage’ approach, they’re now quickly memorizing pieces - and retaining them forever.
Here’s how it works…
We actually have multiple ‘streams’ of memory.
Part of our brain retains the physical sensations of playing.
Part of our brain retains the sound of the piece we’re trying to memorize.
And a part of our brain retains the concepts (like chords, note names, etc).
When we practice in a very specific (and very unusual) way, these memory streams are ‘combined’ so that we form memories faster - and our brains lock in that information for the long term.
When most musicians play a piece again and again, they’re doing a poor job of encoding information on those three streams. That’s why memories fade and pieces are ‘gone’.
Instead, my method is to split out the three streams. For instance, a guitarist or violinist could detune their strings and play a piece.
This makes it sound completely wrong, but I would instruct them to focus on the physical sensation of their finger placements instead. This sends a strong signal to the “physical memory stream” in our brains.
And that’s just one possible tactic. With a few more techniques, we can isolate the other memory streams so our brains gain a deeper understanding of the piece - and our long-term memories ‘lock it in’.
Using this method, I’ve seen hundreds of students start playing whole pieces from memory for the first time ever.
I’m passionate about seeing other musicians achieve that freedom.
And so am I!
