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PRACTICE TIPS #60: Please Remember to Forget . . .
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Brent Hugh
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Mar 24, 2001 08:30 PST
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PRACTICE TIPS is an occasional email newsletter with practical
piano practice tips and ideas, by Brent Hugh
You are receiving PRACTICE TIPS because you subscribed to PRACTICE
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PRACTICE TIPS #60: Please Remember to Forget . . .
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Last week I quote from an article summarizing recent learning
research. The key sentence: "An experiment has found that people can push
an unwanted memory out of their minds".
How does this research apply to our piano practicing?
We know that one way to more quickly train your mind and reflexes is by
*continually evaluating your playing*.
I have suggested many times in this forum a practice scheme like this:
1. Play a section of a piece
2. Stop playing. Put your hands in your lap.
3. Evaluate what you just played. Try to be as specific as
possible in your evaluations.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 in a particular section until you are
satisfied with your performance of it.
The new research quoted above partly explains why this type of practice is
so effective.
The important step is Step 3, in which you stop and evaluate. This step
helps your brain *forget* the repetitions of the section that were wrong
(and/or the wrong aspects of a particular performance).
We know from other research that the other side of the coin is important,
too--when you evaluate a particular performance (or aspect of a
performance) as "good", you remember that performance (or those aspects of
the performance) more clearly.
In practical terms, you are helping yourself to make memories of the way
you want to play and to destroy the memories of the various ways you have
tried, that you don't want to remember.
So don't forget . . . FORGETTING is an important part of LEARNING!
And don't be afraid to try a variety of different, strange, unusual, and
even "bad" and "wrong" ways of playing. You can always "forget" the wrong
ways, and there's strong evidence that generating a lot of ideas and then
eliminating the unsuccessful ones leads to a much more successful and
creative outcome, than does generating just a few good ideas and then
standing pat.
Happy Practicing!
--Brent
Note: MWSC Piano Camp 2001, for students currently in 6th-12th grade, is
June 15-20, 2001. Please visit http://www.mwsc.edu/~pianocmp/ for more
information.
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PRACTICE TIPS is by pianist, teacher, composer, and internet nerd
Brent Hugh. Brent knows about practicing mostly because he *does*
it, and in fact is toddling off to do some of it just about now . . .
Please remember that this tip is but a small brown hair near the
elephant's left rear knee--it's not even close to the whole
elephant that is "how everyone in the whole world should practice
the piano".
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+++++++++++++++++ Brent Hugh / bhu-@mwsc.edu +++++++++++++++++
+ Missouri Western St College Dept of Music, St. Joseph, MO +
+ Piano Home Page : http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh +
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