12/8/22 How to cut 50% Off Your Practice Time!

C’mon, 50%??

Actually, you can probably save more like 75% of your practice time and retain it all better, too!

So, what’s the big secret?

If you can say it, you can play it!

Or

If you can sing it, you can swing it!

Just use your voice. Say things out loud.

There is some crazy cognitive magic that happens when we say things out loud rather than just think them in our head.

(And, btw, out loud means in a voice other people can hear, haha.)

We are trained to study in quiet places like libraries or classrooms, where you can’t really talk freely. But the truth is, for most people, learning is more like rehearsing lines for a play. You have to say them out loud. 

It has to do with the fact that we have to commit to specific words, rather than have vague thoughts. Or we have to commit to specific notes, rather than a vague idea of a melody or bassline. 

This forces our brain to make a choice—what word, which note? That forces a kind of awareness and conscious decision that simply doesn’t happen otherwise in the quiet of our thoughts.

If you say Spanish vocab out loud, you will learn it faster. If you say your chemistry flash cards out loud, you’ll remember them better.

If you sing the music you’re trying to learn, you will learn it faster. Much faster.

Our voice connects our brains with our hands. After all, our larynx right between our brains and our arms. Coincidence? I think not.

If you can say it, you can play it. 

It’s like magic.

Groove on!

--Tracy