BOOK REVIEW: Learn Faster, Perform Better
This is a long post. The first section gives my general thoughts and the part below the line gives my major takeaways from the book.
General Thoughts
I’ve recently read Learn Faster, Perform Better by Dr. Molly Gebrian (2024, OUP), which seeks to present strategies for music practice by relating them to research in learning and neuroscience. Dr. Gebrian is a music teacher and a performing viola player. She also holds qualifications in neuroscience and cognitive psychology and is perhaps uniquely qualified to present her arguments in this manner. The book is written for classical players at undergraduate level but there is plenty here for beginners playing popular music on any instrument.
The books main argument is that many musicians, particularly amateurs and undergraduates, don’t employ effective practice strategies and seeks to suggest alternatives backed up by the latest scientific research. The author intersperses descriptions of the research with discussion on what it means when applied to music practice. She will often describe what she sees in her students and shares how they have addressed a variety of issues in their playing ability. Rest assured, the science part is easily understandable for the lay reader and doesn’t require any prior understanding of neuroscience. This book is highly readable and clearly explains any jargon used.
I’ve started to include some of the suggestions in this book into my own practice but, as suggested by the book itself, I am not trying to completely overhaul my routine in one fell swoop! The book advises an incremental approach, allowing each change to bed in before looking to make further revisions. I think most musicians, at whatever skill level, can get something out of this book and it is certainly beneficial if you feel your practice sessions are merely going through the motions.
Many of the book’s findings back up Justin’s teaching and recommendations. It should be a good complimentary read to anyone following his courses and lessons. Cross-posted with Just Chatting
My Main Takeaways from the Book
The book has 5 main sections:
- Brain Basics
- Using Your Time Well
- The Power of the Mind
- Challenges Specific to Music
- Conclusion – Bringing It All Together
Section I: Brain Basics
Section I describes how the brain, and specifically memory, functions and identifies what ‘good’ practice should look like. The author argues that successful practice is not simply endless repetition of the same thing. Good practice should focus on identifying problem areas, developing solutions, and then repeating those solutions to reinforce the correct way of playing.
The book discusses various strategies for correcting mistakes and makes the point that mistakes are inevitable during practice. The important thing is how the musician recognises and deals with these mistakes; “playing without analysis is just playing, it is not practice”. The author argues that each practice session should have goals related to the identified problem spots, these goals kept in a practice journal and reflected on at the start and end of each practice session. The focus of practice must be the parts you cannot play, not the parts you can (a message continually reinforced by Justin).
The author discusses bad habits and describes strategies for fixing them; amplification of error, and old way/new way. Both methods rely on the exaggeration of error and playing them on purpose to isolate the issues to fix them. However, the book makes clear that this approach can be damaging if you don’t already have the necessary playing skills and so this technique appears to be aimed more at intermediate and advanced players. Beginners should probably not use them and should be focused more on technique exercises to improve their skill level.
Section II: Using Your Time Well
Section II outlines the importance of taking breaks both within and between practice sessions. The book argues that continuous practice for hours without a break is not effective and it’s better to use a concept called ‘spaced practice’ that includes time for breaks. The research has shown that it’s especially important to engage in spaced practice when learning new material and to be careful of learning pieces that are too similar – research shows that subsequent pieces, if too similar, will interfere with the brains ability to learn the first piece making your practice ineffective.
The author argues that getting enough sleep is critical to learning and preserving in memory what you have learned. Not getting enough sleep risks losing what you have learned that day. There is an abundance of research in a variety of fields that backs this up and has to do with the brains process of moving things from short-term memory to long-term memory whilst you sleep. The author states “If you take nothing else away from this book, take this: sleep is absolutely essential for learning and if you want to maximise the results of your practice, you have to prioritise sleep.”
The book states that there is no ‘perfect’ schedule of breaks. The brain needs time to assimilate new information, but it also appears to need to forget in some form to make it effortful trying to remember it. For new materials the time between sessions should be shorter and can expand when there is some familiarity with the material. The author suggests starting with micro-breaks within a single practice session, then come back to the piece a couple of times a day, and finally, once you can play the piece well, leaving it alone for several days before practicing it again from memory.
A variation of spaced practice, Interleaved Practice, is discussed as a method for improving the eventual performance of a piece and being able to play it right first time. It’s important to note that interleaved practice is best used once the piece is known well enough to be played from memory but needs to be polished. Other strategies should be used for learning new material and the book outlines this process and the approaches that should be used at each stage including blocked practice, serial practice, and interleaved practice.
The author suggests that changing some aspects of what is practised rather than practicing the same thing multiple times can make practice more effective but there must be solid technique underlying the material before this is tried and care must be taken not to make the variation too dissimilar to the piece. Suggestions for variations are to change the rhythm, the tempo, even detuning your instrument!
Section III: The Power of the Mind
Section III focuses on the beneficial use of mental practice or practicing inside your head without your instrument. The author argues that adding mental practice to your routine enhances learning over just doing physical practice alone. However, some knowledge of the physical process is required to derive maximum benefit from this approach. The book recommends that we start with physical practice and include mental practice once there is at least some familiarity. The author recommends the use of video and watching back, even if it includes mistakes, if you can identify that these are mistakes.
The book presents research demonstrating that mental practice works and suggests several strategies to be included in practice routines. The author notes that mental practice is a skill and itself needs practice, so start with just one aspect of playing and don’t try to do everything all at once.
The author describes the difference between having an internal versus external focus during your practice and presents research to support why having an external focus is better. Internal focus is focusing on what your body is doing e.g. finger position; external focus is outside your body e.g. the instrument or how it sounds in the room or to the audience. Internal focus is fine when learning the mechanics of a skill but try to refocus externally as soon as possible.
The book discusses the most effective ways to memorise music and describes the 3 steps of the memorisation and recall process: Encoding, Consolidation, and Retrieval. The research suggests the use of ‘chunking’ (e.g. learning phrases and then assembling them) to ensure deep encoding and the use of structural and performance cues to help remember where you are in a piece. The research again suggests that sleep is essential for the consolidation of memory and that retrieval practice must be done from memory, no cheating! The author recommends begin playing from memory right at the start of learning a piece as getting it wrong and correcting it soon after helps to form the memory.
Section IV: Challenges Specific to Music
This part of the book discusses practice strategies specific to music, in particular improving rhythm and tempo, pitch and intonation, and playing at speed.
The key to improving rhythm and tempo is not to practice with a metronome all the time as you won’t have a metronome going during performance. The research shows that continual practice with a metronome does not ‘lock in’ your sense of time beyond a very basic level. What has proved effective is moving the body in time with the music to strengthen your sense of time. The metronome should be used only to test your sense of rhythm e.g. by having it periodically go silent and seeing where you are when it comes back in.
Pitch perception is important for all musicians but for guitarists intonation is taken care of by the frets and with good setup and accurate tuning. Audiation, the ability to hear the pitch of a note in your head, is important and is a skill that should be developed (ear training, also stressed as an important skill by Justin).
When the book describes the strategies for improving speed most of the suggested methods are more applicable to classical pieces than to popular songs. However, the suggested strategies involving metronome clicking-up are applicable and can be easily implemented even by beginners. The book describes some more advanced techniques involving interleaved practice but suggests that these are more appropriate for advanced players. Beginners and intermediate players should begin with the simpler strategies. The author stresses that, whichever method is used, be patient and don’t rush as you can harm your ability if you practice the wrong thing (another Justin recommendation).
Conclusion – Bringing It All Together
In her conclusion Dr. Gebrian discusses time management, focus, motivation, and strategies to cope with feeling overwhelmed. The main recommendation is to keep a practice journal, record in it what problems you are having, what you are doing to solve them, and what your goals are for each practice session. Your session goals need to be structured around the problems and your strategies for overcoming them. Make your goals specific and measurable for best results.
The author suggests breaking your practice into 25-30 minute sessions and to schedule short (5-10 minutes) breaks in between. Never practice for more than 90 minutes (3x sessions in a row) without taking an extended break of at least 90 minutes. Avoid mindless practice and learn how to focus. Understand how to motivate yourself and try to do something, however small, each day (another Justin recommendation). Prioritise sleep and don’t try to change too much all at once. Pick one thing to start and then add others over time.
