The Bulletproof Musician

We've probably all had teachers who told us that their goal is to help us learn how to teach ourselves. But how do we do that exactly?

A 2006 study lays out a 3-step self-coaching process that we can use to become better teachers to ourselves. Or even share with our students as kind of a how-to-become-a-better-practicer cheat sheet.

Having a Bad Practice Day? Turn It Into a Good One With This 3-Step Self-Coaching Technique.

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Pianist, educator, and music psychology researcher Adina Mornell shares insights on the four component of stage fright (and what to do about each), and describes some of the key takeaways from recent studies she has done on how to not only practice more effectively, but prepare in such a way that we can enjoy ourselves more on stage too.

Adina Mornell: On Learning How to Practice in Such a Way That Performing Can Be Something We Enjoy, Rather Than Fear

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

When we think of optimizing learning, we tend to think of practice strategies and how to make our time in the practice room more effective. But much like working out and building muscle, a good bit of motor learning actually occurs outside of the practice room, BETWEEN practice sessions.

So what can we do to maximize the motor learning that occurs between practice sessions?

How to Get Your Brain to Do More Learning BETWEEN Practice Sessions

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever have one of those days where you just can't get yourself to practice? Or maybe that's a little bit how every day feels?

Turns out there's an intriguing motivation "hack" of sorts that could make it easier to start practicing, and naturally increase your motivation to do so. It even has a cool name - the "Zeigarnik effect."

How to Get Yourself to Practice When You Don't Feel Like It

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever find yourself in the middle of a practice session, take a moment to check your texts, and then realize an hour has gone by as you got sucked down some random internet rabbit hole or another?

Why does this happen? And what can you do to prevent this without resorting to the nuclear option of airplane mode or an app that blocks you from the internet for a set period of time?

Why You Get Sucked Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole When Practicing (And How to Prevent This Without Having to Break Up With YouTube)

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder what's going through the mind of a conductor, in rehearsal or in a performance?

Conductor Joshua Weilerstein shares his own journey from violinist to conductor, and sheds some light on what a conductor is thinking about in the practice room, in rehearsal, and in performance. And why it might be kind of awesome if every musician had a chance to conduct for a day.

Joshua Weilerstein: On a Conductor’s Journey, and Why It Might Be Awesome if Every Musician Spent a Day in a Conductor’s Shoes

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Learning a bunch of practice strategies can elevate the effectiveness of your practice, but a 2015 study of college music students suggests that supplementing this with additional self-regulation strategies can elevate your practice effectiveness even more!

And what are self-regulation strategies, exactly?

Check out the episode to learn more about a couple simple and effective - but easy to neglect - self-regulation strategies.

Research-Tested Practice Strategies That Will Help You Learn New Pieces Faster

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We all have an inner voice. Sometimes it's a supportive presence, but often, it can be pretty critical and even a little abusive at times.

Research suggests that the way we talk to our students and provide feedback may actually be able to shape their inner dialogue - for better, or for worse.

How the Things You Say to Your Students Can Change the Positivity (Or Negativity) of Their Inner Voice

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There are a lot of articles on the internet suggesting that perfectionism "kills" creativity. But is that really true?

A team of Canadian researchers were curious about this exact question, and put together a study to find out if there was anything to this. And if so, what a better, creativity-optimizing alternative might be.

Does Perfectionism Really “Kill” Creativity? If So, What’s the Alternative?

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Do you get bored of doing lots and lots of repetition in the practice room? The good news is that there's a better (and more interesting) way to get your repetitions in. A way that at least in one 2016 study led to a 2x performance improvement in the same amount of time!

A Practice Strategy That Could Potentially Be Twice as Effective as Regular Practice?

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Looking for some new ways to freshen up your practice routine, get off of a plateau, or find some new inspiration for 2022? Try some of these tips and insights from 2021's podcast guests - Kristian Steenstrup, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, Merry Peckham, Daniel Matsukawa, Ann Bergeron, Natasha Brofsky, Roger Tapping, Lori Schiff, Timothy Kantor, Paul Kantor, Virginia Weckstrom, Astrid Schween, and Kris Chesky.

How to Be a Little More Awesome in 2022? Try These Top Tips and Insights From 2021.

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

I stumbled across a home video of me practicing as a young child the other day and was horrified to hear how completely unorganized, unthoughtful, and un-deliberate my practice was at that age. Which made me wonder - can young kids be trusted to practice effectively?

A 2010 study provides some clues on what happens at home during the week between lessons, and a couple things teachers can do to make sure this time is being spent making things better, not worse!

Why Practicing Practicing from an Early Age is So Important

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Some people seem to have a really easy time with memorizing new pieces. Or at least, they seem to be really confident and secure in their memory. Is there something they know that we don't? Are they doing anything differently in the practice room?

https://bulletproofmusician.com/musicians-seem-memorization-naturals-can-become-one

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

We've all heard stories of athletes and musicians using visualization or mental practice to enhance their learning or performance. But how exactly are we supposed to do it?

In this episode, you'll learn about PETTLEP; a 7-point "how-to" set of guidelines, developed by two British researchers, drawing from the research in performance psych and neuroscience.

Not Sure How to Do Mental Practice? Here's a 7-Point "How-To" Guide

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever wondered why solfège is such a constant in most music curricula? Or why teachers often ask us to sing in lessons? And if any of this is ever going to pay off in meaningful ways?

A recent Danish study suggests that integrating a bit of singing into one's practice might indeed have some real worthwhile benefits. Lead author and trumpet professor Kristian Steenstrup drops by to chat for a bit and shares more details on what they found, plus an intriguing 4-step process for learning new music a little more efficiently.

Kristian Steenstrup: On Singing, Solfège, and Cultivating a More Efficient Approach to Learning New Music.

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

We've all been told that slow practice is important. And while it's certainly an important tool to have in your toolbox, there is research which suggests that slow practice can potentially cause problems too, if we are too focused on slow, accurate playing in the early stages of learning something new.

What?!

In today's episode, you'll learn why this is, and two strategies to help you learn a new piece at the goal tempo from day 1.

Struggling to Get a Tricky Passage up to Tempo? Why Slow, Accurate Practice May Actually Be the Problem.

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

The traditional method of learning is to try to learn the correct "textbook" way of performing a skill, and to do lots and lots of repetitions of that exact movement. But there's some increasing research in the last 20 years which suggests that this may not always lead to the best learning or performance.

And that doing a bunch of goofy "wrong" repetitions that one would never do in performance could actually lead to more consistently and high-level execution of that skill.

What?!

Evidence That Too Much Consistency in Practice Could Potentially Hinder the Learning Process (What?!)

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I know we've all been told (and experienced first-hand) that cramming doesn't work, and learn better when our practice or study sessions are spaced out over time. But why?

What's actually happening in our brains, that makes spaced practice more effective?

Why Too-Short Practice Breaks Could Undermine Your Learning

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Whether you're a pianist, a singer, or instrumentalist, I'm sure you've had the experience of feeling a sort of musical "chemistry" when collaborating with other musicians.

In this month's conversation, pianist and educator Vivian Hornik Weilerstein shares insights on how pianists can be better listeners, leaders, and collaborators with their music-making partners. And though I originally approached this episode with pianists in mind, I think you'll find that everything Vivian talks about applies to non-pianists who wish to collaborate more effectively with their keyboard colleagues as well!

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wish you could be a fly on the wall of the practice room of a well-known performer and watch or listen to how they practice?

A team of researchers did something close to this - they videotaped expert and intermediate-level athletes practicing for the same exact amount of time, measured their improvement (the experts improved more), and then traced this back to specific differences in what they each group did with their practice time.

There were four key differences - differences that I think musicians (or athletes) at any level could benefit from!

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

I think we all go through moments in life where we feel like failures. But has this ever gotten to a point where even though on paper, you are not at all a failure, you still feel like one? And even when everyone else seems to think you're pretty terrific?

It's not a silver bullet, but the "directed abstraction" technique could help all of us become a little more confident and cultivate a stronger belief in ourselves.

What to Do When Everyone Thinks You're Great - But You Feel Like a Failure

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Mistakes may be inevitable, and there sure are lots of inspirational quotes out there on how important it is to learn from failure... But is that really the best way to learn? Is there any value in learning from successes? Is one better than the other?

If We Want to Maximize Learning, is It Better to Focus on Our Failures? Or Our Successes?

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Sometimes we don't have the luxury of time, and just have to get new repertoire into our fingers quickly, and up to a playable level asap.

When that's the case, can listening to a recording really help to accelerate that process? And by how much?

A 2014 study provides some clues on how much of a difference this might make in accelerating the learning process.

Evidence That Listening to a Recording Could Accelerate the Learning Process for New Repertoire

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Navigating ensemble rehearsals can in many ways be trickier than figuring out how to practice effectively on your own. But it can be so much fun and incredibly rewarding too! Given that many musicians are returning to ensemble rehearsals after many months away, I thought I'd ask cellist and Cavani Quartet founding member Merry Peckham to share some of her insights on effective rehearsal techniques, score study, and how to not turn on each other in your next rehearsal!

Merry Peckham: On Rehearsing, Performing, and Growing as a Musician (And Person!) in Chamber Music

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• Live and self-paced courses

Ever notice how learning new things seems to get harder (and slower) as you age?

It's not your imagination - but there do seem to be some strategies that could help us offset this a bit.

One is a learning "metastrategy" simply called the "Five-Step Strategy" and has been shown to enhance learning in both young adults and older learners (~65 years) as well!

A 5-Step Strategy for Enhanced Motor Skill Learning (Especially if You're an Older Learner!)

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• Live and self-paced courses

Whether it's an upcoming performance, audition, or just life stuff, it can be difficult to stop worrying or ruminating about things that stress you out. But not only does this feel pretty crummy, it prolongs the stress response as well.

A recent meta-analysis looked through 10,000+ studies, and identified seven strategies that seemed to be the most effective in not only stopping worries and rumination, but contributed to better health outcomes as well.

Having Difficulty Turning Off the Worries? Here Are the Strategies That Research Suggests May Work Best.

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Getting back into the rhythm of "normal" life is something that I think a lot of folks are grappling with at the moment. And so if your motivation isn't where you'd like it to be, it turns out there might be an interesting motivation "hack" that may help increase your chances of getting things done, and possibly even put you in a slightly more positive headspace too.

Feeling a Bit Down and Unmotivated? This Motivation Hack Might Help You Get More Done and Perk Up a Bit.

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

In this month's conversation, Philadelphia Orchestra principal bassoonist Daniel Matsukawa shares insights on three things to focus on to become a better practicer, how to cultivate not just a good but a GREAT sound, and much more!

Daniel Matsukawa: On Cultivating a Great Sound, and Three Components of Becoming a Better Practicer

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep seems to be increasingly common in these pandemic times.

Which can not only have a negative on our physical and mental health and ability to learn and improve in the practice room, but can also just be plain annoying and frustrating too.

If you're tired of tossing and turning and clock-watching, the serial diverse imaging or "cognitive shuffle" strategy might be worth a try!

Difficulty Getting to Sleep? Try “Serial Diverse Imaging” - a Crafty Way to Trick Your Brain Into Going to Sleep.

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Gold medal-winning diver Tom Daley was recently in the news for being spotted knitting in the stands at the Olympics. He said that this was his "secret weapon" for staying calm, managing stress, and staying in a better headspace before competing.

Does he know something we don't? Could knitting be a viable strategy for managing pre-competition stress?

There is actually a tiny bit of research on this, and that's what we'll take a look at in today's episode.

Wish You Could Be Less Stressed on Concert Days? Try This Unexpected Activity, Used by an Olympic Gold Medalist (and Grandmothers Everywhere 🙂)

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• Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content.
• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

How many repetitions if a tricky passage is enough to get it securely into "muscle memory?"

Is two perfect repetitions in a row good enough? Is 5 better? 7? Is aiming for 10 just a waste of time and energy?

Research on "overlearning" provides some clues on how many repetitions might be "enough."

Adequate Learning Vs Overlearning: How Many Repetitions Is Enough?

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• Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage.
• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Ever wonder what EXACTLY more effective and efficient practicers do differently than the rest of us?

A 2010 basketball study reveals two specific differences in the practice habits of good and bad free throw shooters. Differences that can totally be applied to music as well.

Two Things Experts Do Differently Than Non-Experts When Practicing

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever found it a struggle to take risks and learn effectively in lessons because it feels important to avoid mistakes and get things right? Even if you know your teacher is doing their best to foster a safe environment?

Director and choreographer Ann Bergeron explains how her experience training her dogs through positive reinforcement methods led to changes in her approach to teaching her dance students - and how perhaps we can all borrow a few things from those who teach our furry friends (wait...what?!).

Ann Bergeron: On Facilitating a More Positive Learning Experience, More Effective Skill Acquisition, and More Creative Artists

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• Live and self-paced courses

We know that spacing one's practice leads to better learning. And that sleep is an important factor in memory consolidation too. So what happens if we combine these two factors in a strategic way? Research suggests that this might lead not only to accelerated learning, but much more durable memory and recall too!

A Simple Practice Scheduling Hack That Couldn’t Possibly Be as Effective as It Seems

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever heard it said that trying NOT to think of something only triggers more thoughts of that thing? It makes sense, but is this actually true? And if so, and thought suppression really doesn't work, is there anything else we can do, to avoid thinking negative thoughts on stage?

Why Thought Stopping Doesn’t Work (And the Paradoxical Strategy That Might Work Better)

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• Live and self-paced courses

I think we all know that taking short breaks between practice sessions is a good thing. But a recent study suggests that to maximize learning, we also ought to be taking short micro-breaks within each practice session. Because it seems that most of our learning doesn't take place when our fingers are moving, but in the short rest periods between the moments when we're actively performing a skill.

Evidence That You Should Probably Be Taking Practice "Micro-Breaks," if You Want to Maximize Learning.

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• Live and self-paced courses

In this episode cellist Natasha Brofsky and violist Roger Tapping share insights on how to approach and practice new repertoire - from whether to begin from the score or a recording, to how to learn a composer's unique language, to cultivating patience in the practice room and how to prevent fear or cautious playing from transferring from the practice room to the stage.

Natasha Brofsky and Roger Tapping: On Learning New Repertoire and Getting to Know a Composer’s Unique Language

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever found yourself struggling to quiet those increasing doubts and worries and fears in the last week before a big audition or performance? Where even if you tell yourself you're prepared and things will be fine, the thoughts keep popping into your head, stressing you out, and making you kind of miserable, wishing the moment would just come so you could get it over with already?

A 2014 study provides some clues on a strategy that could help to reduce the repetitive negative thoughts, and make it easier for us to quiet our inner doomsday monkey.

Can’t Stop Worrying About an Upcoming Performance? Here’s Why Practicing More Might Not Be the Answer.

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

There are a lot of extrinsic motivators that naturally incentivize students to practice - like parental pressure, not wanting to let teachers down, seating auditions, recitals, competitions, and more. But there can be some negative costs of relying too much on extrinsic motivation. So...are there things we can do to increase students' intrinsic motivation to practice and hone their craft as well?

What’s the Best Type of Feedback to Provide, if the Goal Is to Increase Students’ Intrinsic Motivation?

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

You're probably familiar with white noise, which you may already be using to help you get to sleep at night. But recent research suggests that it might be worth experimenting with pink noise. Which seems to enhance slow wave activity during certain phases of sleep, and boost memory consolidation, which can help you retain more of what you learned or studied the day before.

Forget White Noise. There May Be a Better Type of Noise That Could Potentially Enhance Memory While You Sleep.

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• Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice.
• Live and self-paced courses

Having to suddenly transition to teaching online in March 2020 was quite a challenge for many (if not all!) of us. It's looking like we may be able to return to live instruction soon, but this seemed like a good time to reflect on what we've learned, and how we've grown in the months since.

To that end, here's Alexander Technique teacher Lori Schiff's story of how she went from believing that Zoom was not a viable medium for teaching Alexander Technique, to finding ways to adapt and grow as a teacher, discovering that she could indeed make online Alexander Technique lessons a meaningful experience for students.

Lori Schiff: On Adapting to Remote Instruction, and Learning to Teach Alexander Technique Online

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• Live and self-paced courses

Have you ever found yourself talking yourself up backstage before a concert, trying to quiet the last-minute doubts and boost your confidence?

Sometimes this works, but sometimes the words just don't seem to resonate or sink in. A 2012 study suggests that there might be a better way to shift our mood in a more positive direction than simply talking to ourselves in a more positive way.

Which Is Better - A Verbal Pep Talk or a Visualization Pep Talk?

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Even though we know that learning can and does continue throughout our lifespan, it often feels like it's more of a struggle to learn new things as we get older.

So are there practice strategies that could help to offset this a bit? A recent study tested out three different practice schedules, and identified one that leads to better retention, more flexible/adaptable skills, and more motivation too!

A Test of Three Practice Schedules, and the One That Works Best (Especially for Older Learners)

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I think we've all heard that mental practice can help us improve some aspects of our playing. But is shifting or leaping from one note to another one of those areas that visualization can help with?

A 2013 study of pianists provides a few clues...

Need to Work on Shifting or Leaps From One Note to Another? Here’s How Mental Practice Could Help.

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This episode is for all of the parents out there who worry when their kids don't practice, or who aren't sure how much to push when the child says they want to quit. There isn't one single correct way to approach any of this, of course, but if you've ever wondered how professional musicians might handle these situations, here is one family's recollection of how they navigated this tricky path.

The Kantor Family: On Being Effective Music Parents to Musical Children

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You've probably heard that it's helpful to make your own test questions when studying for a test or exam. But is this actually true?

A recent study suggests that there are a couple study strategies that could be more effective than the standard approach of reading/rereading/reviewing your notes and assigned readings for a class.

Finals Coming Up Soon? Here’s Why You Shouldn't Just Read and Review Your Notes.

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You've probably heard the saying that "practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect."

But is that true? Or just a myth?

Research on errors in learning suggest that error-free practice might actually hinder the learning process, and that how we respond to errors might be the more interesting factor to consider.

Is “Perfect” Practice as Essential a Thing As We Tend to Assume It Is?

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Ever have one of those performances that makes you cringe to think of it, even years after the fact? And discover that it still continues to affect you a little bit even in performances today?

A recent study identified a strategy that may not wipe your memory clean of the negative performance, but could help you move past it a bit more effectively.

Having Difficulty Moving Past a Particularly Distressing Audition or Performance? “Just Think Positive” May Not Be the Best Strategy...

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The "memory palace" or method of loci technique, is a strategy often used by memory champions to achieve some pretty impressive feats of memory. Like being able to memorize the order of a deck of cards in less than a minute, for instance.

Typically though, memory athletes are asked to recall the information relatively soon after encoding the information into memory.

So...does this strategy work for more long-term memory too? And could it be used for music too?

Does the “Memory Palace” Strategy Really Work? And Is It Something Musicians Could Use?

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Ever find yourself in a conversation that you think should have ended some time ago, but you're still hanging in there because you think the other person wants to continue, and you don't want to be rude? What if that person actually wished the conversation were over too, but is sticking around so as not to be rude to you?

A new study suggests that this sort of thing might be happening more than you'd think - and that we may all be a lot worse at knowing when to end conversations than you'd think.

Evidence That Most of Us Are Terrible at Knowing When to End Conversations

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• Live and self-paced courses