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Why the Progress You Make in the PracticeRoom Seems to Disappear Overnight

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1 of 14 10/13/2013 11:36 PM

by Dr. Noa Kageyama · 18 comments

Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that you can take a difficult passage, work on it for a bit, get itsounding pretty good, but return to the practice room the next day to discover that you’re back at square1? That nothing has really changed? And despite how good it sounded yesterday, now it sounds just asbad as it did before you worked on it?

Most of us can live with “two steps forward, one step back.” It’s the “two steps forward, two steps back”that makes us want to tear our hair out.

So what are we to do?

Are we just supposed to keep at it and learn how to be more patient? Or is there a different way topractice that can make these improvements more permanent?

Enter Christine Carter

Dr. Christine Carter is a clarinetist who teaches at the Manhattan School of Music, and did herdissertation on the contextual interference effect – a phenomenon that can help you make your dailyprogress in the practice room actually stick. In this post, she shares a few suggestions on how we canmake the most of our practice time.

Take it away, Christine!

Making the most of your hours in the practice room:

One simple change that could drastically increase your productivity

When it comes to practicing, we often think in terms of time: How many hours are necessary to achieveoptimal progress? While this is a valid concern, a more important question is how we can make each hourcount. What is the most efficient way to work so that what is practiced today actually sticks tomorrow?There is nothing more frustrating than spending a day hard at work only to return the next day at thestarting line. Unfortunately, our current practice model is setting us up for this daily disappointment.

Repetition, babies, and brain scans

Early on in our musical training, we are taught the importance of repetition. How often have we been toldto “play each passage ten times perfectly before moving on”? The challenge with this well-intentionedadvice is that it is not in line with the way our brains work. We are hardwired to pay attention to change,not repetition. This hardwiring can already be observed in preverbal infants. Show a baby the same objectover and over again and they will gradually stop paying attention through a process called habituation.Change the object, and the attention returns full force. The same goes for adults. Functional magneticresonance imaging has demonstrated that there is progressively less brain activation when stimuli arerepeated. The fact is, repeated information does not receive the same amount of processing as newinformation. And on some level, we all know this. Constant repetition is boring and our boredom is tellingus that our brains are not engaged. But instead of listening to this instinctive voice of reason, we blameourselves for our lack of attention and yell at ourselves to “focus!” Luckily, there is an alternative.

Blocked practice schedules


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In the field of sport psychology, the continuous repetition discussed above is called blocked practice. In ablocked practice schedule, all repetitions of one activity are completed before moving on to a secondactivity. For example, a baseball player who must hit fifteen fastballs, fifteen curve balls, and fifteenchange-up pitches in practice would complete all of the fastballs before moving on to the curve balls andso on. This most resembles the way the majority of musicians practice, especially when it comes tochallenging passages. We work on one excerpt for a given amount of time and then move on to the nextexcerpt until all tasks for the day are complete. A blocked approach seems logical. Muscle memoryrequires repetition and why wouldn’t we do all of the repetitions in a row? After all, if we are working ona difficult passage, it feels a lot more comfortable 10 minutes into practice than at the beginning. It isprecisely this feeling of comfort and improvement that reinforces our reliance on blocked practice. Theproblem with this kind of practicing, however, is that the positive results we feel in the practiceroom today do not lead to the best long-term learning tomorrow. Practicing in a way that optimizesperformance in the practice room does not optimize learning.

Random practice schedules

What if we took the blocks of practice on particular tasks and broke them down into smaller segments oneach task? In the baseball example above, the players could hit the three different types of pitches in analternating fashion, instead of doing all of one kind in a row. Two breakdown options are a repeatingorder (e.g., abc abc abc…) or an arbitrary order (e.g., acb cba bca…). In either, the net result will still be15 practice hits of each of the three types of serve, exactly the same as the net result in the blockedpractice schedule. The only variable that changes is the order in which the pitches are practiced. This typeof interspersed schedule is called a random practice schedule (also known as an interleaved practiceschedule).

In a random practice schedule, the performer must keep restarting different tasks. Because beginnings arealways the hardest part, it will not feel as comfortable as practicing the same thing over and over again.But this challenge lies at the heart of why random practice schedules are more effective. When we comeback to a task after an intervening task, our brain must reconstruct the action plan for what we are about todo. And it is at this moment of reconstruction that our brains are the most active. More mental activityleads to greater long-term learning. In the blocked schedule above, the baseball players must onlyconstruct the action plan for each type of pitch once, at the beginning of each block. In the randomschedule, they must construct and later reconstruct an action plan fifteen times for each pitch. Although ablocked schedule may produce superior performance during practice, study after study has shown that arandom practice schedule consistently produces superior retention following practice a day or more later(i.e., the amount actually learned). This phenomenon is called the contextual interference effect.

How much better is a random practice schedule?

It turns out that the hypothetical baseball example used above is not hypothetical. In a 1994 study byHall, Domingues, and Cavazos, elite baseball players were assigned to either the blocked or randompractice schedules discussed above. After twelve practice sessions, the baseball players in the randompractice schedule hit 57% more of the pitches than when they started. The blocked group only hit 25%more of the pitches, meaning that the random practice schedule was almost twice as effective, even thoughthe two groups hit the same number of practice pitches. Similar results have been found across a widevariety of fields. Most pertinent to our interests as musicians, my preliminary research at the Brain andMind Institute in Canada provides empirical support for the use of a random practice schedule in music.Not only does this research suggest that a random practice schedule is more effective than a blockedschedule for practicing musical passages, participant interviews also reveal that random practice haspositive effects on factors such as goal setting and focus.


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How to use a random schedule in the practice room

Rather than spending long uninterrupted periods of time woodshedding each excerpt or section of a piece,pick a few passages you would like to work on and alternate between them. If you want to spend a total of30 minutes on a particular excerpt, practice in shorter segments, continually returning to this excerpt untilyou have achieved your 30-minute goal. Experiment with lengths of time. If you are practicing excerptsthat are very short, you may be able to switch between them at a faster pace than would be required forlonger sections. You can use a small alarm clock to time specific intervals or switch after each repetition.At its most basic level, random practice might look like this:

Length Material to Practice

3 minutes Excerpt A3 minutes Excerpt B3 minutes Excerpt C3 minutes Excerpt A3 minutes Excerpt B3 minutes Excerpt C

Etc.

Practicing passages in different rhythmic variations is a great way of introducing contextual interferenceon a smaller scale. But instead of doing all rhythmic variations on a single excerpt before moving onto thenext, do one variation on excerpt A, one on excerpt B and then return to excerpt A for a second variationetc. Technique can also be interspersed into the random schedule, instead of doing all of it in one longblock. An example of a more complicated random practice session might look something like thefollowing:

Length Material to Practice

2 minutes Long tone, scale, long tone, scale…3 minutes Excerpt A (using first rhythmic variation)2 minutes Third progression, arpeggio, third progression, arpeggio…3 minutes Excerpt B (using first rhythmic variation)2 minutes Long tone, scale, long tone, scale…3 minutes Excerpt A (using second rhythmic variation)2 minutes Third progression, arpeggio, third progression, arpeggio…3 minutes Excerpt B (using second rhythmic variation)

Etc.

The permutations are endless and the exact division of time is not important. What is crucial is that youare keeping your brain engaged by varying the material. More engagement means you will be less bored,more goal-oriented (you have to be if you only have 3 minutes to accomplish something), andsubstantially more productive. Most importantly, when you return to the practice room the next day, youcan start from where you left off. This type of practice sticks.


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Additional resources

Dr. Robert Bjork on the benefits of interleaving practice @ Go Cognitive (6-minute video)

About Dr. Christine Carter

Dr. Christine Carter is interested in how musicians can be more effective on stageand in the practice room. She has conducted research at a number of brain imaging and music psychologylabs and is currently a visiting scholar at Western University’s Brain and Mind Institute.

Christine is also an active clarinetist. Performances have taken her around the globe, including venues asdiverse as Carnegie Hall, the ancient cloisters in Avignon France, the Sydney Opera House, the HeritageTheatre in rural Newfoundland, and a Baroque Palace in the South of Germany. She completed herDoctor of Musical Arts at Manhattan School of Music, where she now teaches the Woodwind Lab.

photo credit: fmgbain via photopin cc

New to the blog? Here are a few reasons to sign up for free weekly email updates (plus your copy ofthe Bulletproof Musician practice hacking guide)!

Thanks for visiting!

Further Reading:

Nine Sources of Frustration in the Practice Room1.Yes Practice? No Practice? Why You Must Decide2.The Best Time of Day to Practice3.A Simple Strategy for Worrying Less and Practicing More Productively4.What to Practice When You Practice5.

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About Dr. Noa KageyamaPerformance psychologist and Juilliard alumnus & faculty member Dr. Noa Kageyama teaches musicianshow to play their best under pressure through live classes, coachings, and an online course. Based inNYC, he is married to a terrific pianist, has two hilarious kids, and is a wee bit obsessed with technologyand all things Apple.

Visit my website →

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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

Boyd October 13, 2013 at 4:48 am

This could be the answer I’m looking for!!! Thanks, great posts as always!

Reply

Sue Hunt October 13, 2013 at 8:27 am


6 of 14 10/13/2013 11:36 PM

How wonderful to see positive findings on the Random Method of Practice. I’ve used it for manyyears on myself and have noticed how well it works for my students. In fact many of the practicegames on my site are based on this principal. I just go one step further and include activities towake up the whole mind, so that the major subconscious part is being used as well.

Reply

Rebecca Kite October 13, 2013 at 10:18 am

Very interesting theory. I would like to mention a few things that I think are very important aboutthe repetitive practicing that you are discouraging. I didn’t see any mention about the element oftraining your mind to focus intently on what you are practicing when you become bored by therepetition. For me (lifelong professional musician, soloist, and teacher), when I spend timepracticing something I want to take to a higher level and use strict repetition, it does not get easierwith each repetition. It gets harder because it gets harder to concentrate. This training is veryimportant – that is – training both the mind to concentrate and the body to play correctly. Theresults of this practice show up for me on the next day. Of course, it is also important to mix upyour practice methods and this is just one tool in the tool box.

Perhaps it is more useful to describe many practice tools instead of setting up a false dichotomy.

Reply

Hunter October 13, 2013 at 12:17 pm

If it works better than the previously hailed methods, why would you not use it consistently?As a professional you should know that you don’t use a student instrument one day and aprofessional instrument the next day to “mix up your practice methods”. That is calledstupidity. You use the best method every single time because if you’re not, someone is, andthey are 100% for sure getting better than you.

Reply

Janis October 13, 2013 at 1:29 pm

The study left a lot of things unsaid — the whole assumption underlying it is thatrandom practice between three tasks works once you know the basic technique of doingthe three tasks. In order to get to the point where random practice is useful however,you will probably need to take techniques 1, 2, and 3 to the woodshed separately andclean them up. Then, and only then, once you know you can do them reliably well, doyou start to randomize things.

Mixing up practice methods isn’t stupidity. It’s an acknowledgement that all methodsaccomplish different things and most studies are limited. No one practice methodaddresses ALL practice issues. Method 1 addresses a set of issues, method 2 addressesanother non-overlapping set. Realizing this is sensible, not stupid. As I said in theabove example, repetitive practice builds a general awareness of the basics of a


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technique, whereas random practice helps burn it in in realistic situations … but onlyafter the initial repetitions have been completed.

In other words, the definition of “best method” changes depending on your situationand level of attainment. This may be frustrating, but it’s also life. Get used to it.

Reply

Maestro October 13, 2013 at 4:37 pm

I do agree with what you’re saying about the repetition being useful in certain contexts,however I think the article is very concisely addressing age old uncreative practise structureswhich we invariably apply to every aspect of music making and which quickly becomeredundant. Your comment about being a lifelong performer just reinforces this idea that “itworks for me and I’ve done ok” and with the greatest of respect this is an unhelpful attitudewhich sadly dominates instrumental instruction at all levels from pre school to conservatoire.

If I’m practising a slow/controlled solo which takes place at the beginning of a programmethere is very little point in practising it over and over again-my embouchore will become tiredbecause of the control needed and in the end it leaves you focusing too much on the physicalact of keeping going instead of on the musical issues which are of far greater importance. AmI doing something wrong? Of course not. In this context, it’s obvious that repetition is not fitfor purpose and massively inappropriate. However, perhaps the opposite could be argued ifthe solo takes place at the end of the piece, or halfway through a long piece. Equally, ifyou’re practising a difficult bravura passage why should repetition of the passage in anidentical way be needed at all if you build it up from a slower tempo over an extended periodof practise? If you can play something correctly, why torture yourself playing it over and overagain at that same tempo? You’re not “reinforcing” anything, apart from building up tensionat specific points through an over reliance on muscle memory.

Technical consistency should not be the ability to recreate something in exactly the same wayevery time with no variation, it’s the ability to respond creatively to a different environment,a different reed, a different string, a different acoustic and make the piece function in the wayit needs to.

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Joe Percival October 13, 2013 at 12:35 pm

For beginners, or anyone taking on a piece that is challenging in many (most? all?) areas, if youpractice randomly, and never get it right, aren’t you learning to do it wrong?To follow the baseball analogy, can you apply the same training strategy that is effective withprofessional baseball players to a 9 yr old first year little league player who has never thrown ahardball?

Reply


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Janis October 13, 2013 at 1:32 pm

This is exactly what I said above in response to Hunter. You repeat to learn the basics of agiven task. Once you have hit an intermediate level, then you can start to benefit fromrandomizing, but until then, it’s got to be 15 fastballs, 15 curves, and 15 sliders in a row.

Anyhow, IAWTC.

Reply

Steve Freides October 13, 2013 at 3:29 pm

I think Janis hits the nail on the head. What’s appropriate for one level of player maynot be appropriate for another. There is a wonderful Bruce Lee quote which addressesthis:

“Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick.After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick.Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.”I’ve read it before but just found it here:

My own practice typically mixes both approaches, e.g., I’m working now on a longish(10 minute) piece with several difficult passages for me. I first “chunk” each difficultypassage by itself, repeating it over and over until it gets to where it needs to be. Then Iwork on getting the first pass at the difficult passage to be better and better by startingfurther and further back towards the beginning of the piece, effectively introducing thevariety being recommended here. I’ve found that, if a passage is near my technicallimits, just paying attention to it in the context of a varied practice session results inrepeating my mistakes over and over with no improvement.

Reply

Matt Owen October 13, 2013 at 12:35 pm

I gotta disagree with a large portion of this article – We’re creatures of habit. Our brains don’tdesire change, they desire habits. Hence, the reason humans are referred to as “creatures of habit” –If a child performs an action with desired results, ie. If a child makes someone laugh with an action,that child will repeat that action over and over to achieve the same desired result. The child can doit 200 times without receiving the desired result, but once someone laughs, the behavior returns tofull force. (Ever seen the experiment where they put drugs into the mouse’s water bottle? – Themouse licks and licks with no results – just off of the pure chance that the desired result connectedto the behavior will return.) – We as humans do not desire change. We desire habits andrepetiveness. If you’re in a practice room, and you play a passage 25 times, and you finally get itright on the 25th time, your brain has been supplied with positive reinforcement – Giving you thedesired effect – you will then repeat the action over and over and over to achieve the same result.— having said all of that, If the end result is not appealing or rewarding enough to the musician,then the work isn’t worth the trouble, and can quickly become boring or just a pure hassle. This can


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be compared to working at a lumber yard for minimum wage – It’s just not worth the work – That’sthe reason that you’re making no progress. You have no interest in what you’re exercising. Pickpieces that truly hold your interest… Play music that you care about, and you’ll be truly amazed atthe rate at which you progress…

Reply

Cora October 13, 2013 at 1:02 pm

Fabulous! Love this idea. This post is going up on the bulletin board outside my office tomorrow!

Reply

Bill Alpert October 13, 2013 at 3:07 pm

For me, random practice seems a bit diffuse. A practicer who comes back to a passage the next dayonly to find it worse is likely dealing with an issue that won’t improve by simply “mixing it up,”IMHO.

I wish I had learned far earlier in my career the amount of depth and interest that one can place ineven a simple passage. Simple rhythmic variation is only a start; I’ve created dozens of routinesthat fall into several large categories. Follow such an approach in the proper state of mind and Iguarantee that almost any passage can be cracked, assuming your basic technique and mechanicsare sound.

It’s a truism that we often practice in the wrong state of mind, and that for some crazy reason wehold our analytical, problem solving mind in reserve until it’s time to mount the performance stage.It’s the exact WRONG approach. It’s a constant burden even for my own practice, even though Iknow better.

In any event, randomness sounds like an interesting tactic, but the basic tools of practice are thedeeper strategies used, and your ability to deploy them with skill. I try to build that into myteaching, even for the youngest of students.

I’ve learned that great practice is the solution to almost any musical or psychological challenge, yetits the least developed area of pedagogy for so many musicians. That perhaps is a reflection of alarger cultural bias: Western culture treats the word “practice” as a verb. “Get in that room and getto work!” But think of practice in the Eastern sense of “being” instead of “doing” and it takes on awhole new meaning.

Some people call it “talent,” but I see it differently. At the heart of any great musical performance isa musician who is adept at the strategies of practice.

Reply

Mark Priest October 13, 2013 at 4:04 pm

The title of this article is good to keep in mind. Dr Bjork’s video is also informative.


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Katie October 13, 2013 at 5:20 pm

This technique has been tested and proven effective in a lab, and in several tests in different fieldsof study. If it doesn’t appeal to you, or doesn’t work for you, fine. I think the author explained veryeffectively the reasons it does work, and does make sense. It makes sense to me. I think any toolthat can help break the monotony of repetitive practice and actually help you retain progress andlearning is fabulous, thanks for sharing! I know I won’t be the only one who will be helped by this!

Reply

Penelope Trunk October 13, 2013 at 5:40 pm

Noa, I really appreciate that you introduce us to such a wide range of experts on this blog.Christine’s post is really useful. Also, I read this post as a mom practicing with kids and I realizethat you can make this type of practice a game:

Write what you want to practice on a tiny piece of paper. Ten times. Do that for each thing you wantto practice. Then the child can pick something out of a hat each time to determine what theypractice.

Penelope

Reply

Warren Senders October 13, 2013 at 5:56 pm

While I am a strong advocate for extensive repetition in practice, it needs to be tightly controlled soit doesn’t become mind-numbing. I use the “Technique of a Hundred Beans” for that. Therandomizing approach you discuss here is extremely effective and useful; I recommend using thetechnique called “Index Cards” for that purpose.

Both are discussed in more detail here: http://www.warrensenders.com/journal/?p=695

Thanks for a very useful and important post!

Reply

Hugh October 13, 2013 at 6:44 pm

Its funny, I have been using this technique with my students for a long time. Some of them havesuch little time to practice I tell them to break it up into smaller segments and alternate betweenwhat they work on. After reading this I will fine tune my approach now. Good to know it actuallyhas a scientific name. Thank you.


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