Practicing - The Myelin Way

Now we know how our brain learns and makes skills – by growing myelin through repetition. White matter and myelin are all very interesting, but now what? We need a practical application – how to apply what we know about myelin to our practice routines. Here are the practice guidelines I give my students: How to Practice – The Myelin Way.

(There is a link to a printable PDF at the end of this post… making a practice binder to keep handouts and music in can be a practical way to keep everything you have learned in one place.)

 Practicing – the Myelin Way

1.      Chunk It

Pick chunks of your music instead of playing straight through – 8 measures/2 phrases, TOPS. Remember - we are growing skills, not testing endurance.

2.      SLOWLY

“If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly.” ~Itzhak Perlman

Get out the metronome and set it to mind numbing; turn it up after 3-4 repetitions of correctness.

Only turn the metronome up by one click at a time. You could be done after reaching 15 correct repetitions – or challenge yourself to 15 reps… all at different speeds! (Meaning, only count one of the reps from each metronome marking…)

3.      Repetitively -15X

“Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill.” ~ Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

Keep track of how many times you play a passage/chunk – abacus beads, slide pennies across the music stand, ect. Fifteen times is the magic number – soon you will get to 10,000.

Remember, only the correct repetitions count towards your daily 15.

4.      With a Twist

Use practice variations to zero in on technique and keep your focus. Check the ‘Practice Variations’ sheet for ideas – like Rhythm Mix Up and Finger-Bow Beat Exchange.

5.      Consistency

5-6 days a week. “Practice only on the days you eat.” ~ Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

      (Notice, “5-6 days a week” …. we aren’t looking for burn-out)

50min on, 10min off ~ Itzhak Perlman     

This is some the best advise I’ve been given – let the fog clear!

Practice time can be spread out through the day – it doesn’t have to be done all at once.

Practice length is something to work up to; your teacher will help you gauge how long you should be practicing. Generally, we start with 15 min and work up in 5 min increments. For young students, that sometimes means 5 minutes, three times a day. Know your attention span.

6.      Self Awareness and Tools

Chunking repetitively and slowly can only accomplish so much. Self awareness is the ingredient that will ultimately turn practicing into the myelin and skills we want; only with self awareness are we able to adjust our playing and make sure the nerve we want to get myelinated – does!

Luckily, we now have some wonderful modern tools to help us develop our self awareness (yep, that must be grown too!). Most of these are now resources that can be obtained for free as an app online.

·         Metronome  -  You might think you are keeping a steady beat – until this gets turned on!

·         Tampura Box/Drone  -  This Indian instrument sounds different to our western ears, but is a wonderful intonation tool. Let it drone while playing scales and diatonic melodic sections of your repertoire.

·         Video recorder  -  Record short sections of your practice and immediately watch them. Mark your music with things you notice and then go back and fix them. There will be things you had no idea you were doing.

·         Tuner  -  Useful for tuning our instruments, as well as our ears. While playing scales SLOWLY, adjust each pitch to the tuner. This should only be done with scales – questionable pitches from repertoire selections can be checked with a tuner, but don’t play through passages matching the tuner (there is a complicated explanation for this – ask your teacher about overtones if you are curious). Listen for the tiny changes in ‘sound wobble’ patterns.

·         Mirror  -  Find a mirror to practice in front of. Watch yourself play and check things like: posture, bow hold and placement, straight bowing, straight wrists, etc. All those things teachers like to talk about in your lesson!

Happy Myelinating!

For a printable version of this guide, click: PDF - Practicing the Myelin Way