audiot

so small beats large, eh? didn’t i talk about that already? well, this time it’s more like short beats long and i’m talking about periods of time. did you know that it’s impossible for us to really concentrate on something longer than a few minutes?  it’s true, although i don’t know the source of that information anymore. we think we could do something for hours and being focused the whole time but we can’t. by the way, this might be the reason that the ideal length for a song, which is played on radio, is somewhere around 3:00 minutes – keep that in mind when you record your next 70s-sound-alike-mammoth-intro…

anyway, learning is most effective if you do it for short periods of time – about 5 to 10 minutes and then take a break. there are two reasons for this: first, the above mentioned ‘concentration-span’. and the second reason: remember the puppeteer-and-datahighway-building-guys? those fellows are quite assiduous people. when you start learning, they start building – nothing fancy here but when you stop learning, they go on building for at least a few more minutes. ok, if you’re learning for five hours and then you win 5 more minutes, it’s nothing. but if one of your learning units is only 5 minutes and you still get a 5 minute bonus, that means – well, you do the math. depending on how long you need to dig in, learning periods of 10 minutes might be better, you need to check this out for yourself.

so go ahead and make up a plan by first breaking down the task into small pieces (that can be done in 5-10 minutes…), then do one at a time -  slowly and focused and after each of those periods give your brain a break, so the tiny workmates up there can finish up. you don’t need to doze off into standby mode, just do something else you don’t need to focus on. for example, you’re working for 7 minutes on that new arpeggio, playing it slowly and focused up and down the guitar neck. then, as a ‘break’, you crank up the amp and thresh your favorite punkriffs out to the universe. and after that mr. brain is ready to take another bite…

yeah, and i’m sticking to it. i know, i know, these times recommend speed – maybe above all. but learning doesn’t. so the next tip would be: do it sloooooooooowly!

i’d like to mention a picture i got from Vera F. Birkenbihl (yep, her again). imagine you trying to learn a task, like playing guitar for example. learning means new nerve tracts are being built in your brain. so you have a piece of music you want to learn. and now let’s take a look at your brain. there are the guys up there that build new nerve tracts and then there are the puppeteers, those who move your muscles. on the other hand you have only a limited amount of processing power (guys). what does that mean? right, the more puppeteers you need, the less guys are left to build those nerve tracts needed and vice versa. so the slower you play it, the less puppeteers you need, the more guys are available to build the new datahighways. makes sense? cool. this is of course in no way simplified or otherwise manipulated, it’s exactly what happens in your brain…

lots of people try to learn new things by doing it way too fast and repeating it over and over and over again. but this is not efficient at all. almost all the guys are busy playing the puppet (you) and that leaves almost nobody left to build the nerve tract, which is just another term for learning. learning = building new nerve tracts. maybe you know the feeling of practicing hours and hours and still don’t get the results you want. chances are, you made exactly that mistake. the next time, try doing it slooooooooowly – as slow as it gets. overdo this.

there’s one more advantage to this: if you play every single note slowly and well aware, you will play a lot more precise or cleaner, without unnecessary movements etc. and because you’re doing this while the builders are already at work, they include this too. you’re learning better technique as a bonus without any additional effort – how cool is that?

ha! to tie in with yesterday’s entry, here’s the next tip:

no.2 get the big picture.

you can’t tell which one comes first, because it depends. if there is a big picture available (like a song for instance), then you should of course concentrate on that before you break it down. in this case it’s best to provide your brain with an overview and then go from there. but there are situations when there just is no big picture (those are usually the ones where mr brain up there smoothly glides into standby-mode). scientists, for example, need to work with things and understand things without knowing what the end result will be or how it’s all connected. in a situation like that, you need to deal with what you have by using the breaking-it-down-technique, so you can then work on unveiling the big picture. this also happens with music. think drums: you can learn and practice rudiments to achieve certain skills like precision or speed and then later discover that other things, you never understood before, make use of exactly those rudiments… it’s impossible for you to get an overview of all rudiments including all possible uses for them in the first place. so you work on one at a time and then discover what you can do with them…

now, what’s the priority?

no surprise here, if it’s possible to get the big picture first, then by all means do so – it makes the following a lot easier. to give you an example: if you’re reading a book (apart from novels of course), it really helps to focus on the table of contents first. give your brain the chance to see what it will be dealing with, where the journey goes. that way, it will be prepared, open for things to come and a lot less stroppy…

never fight your own brain – it’s a fight you can’t win :-)

Image via Wikipedia

alright, this is actually so freaking easy, but almost noone seems to care about this. it’s about how we learn….and i’m not talking about learning in school because that doesn’t really work. this is different in every country of course – even from school to school – but most of those systems aren’t very effective. well, there’s not much you can do about that and if you’re not in school anymore, it wouldn’t help you anyway :-)

so if you want to learn something, anything, you’re pretty much on your own. yes, you could find yourself someone to teach you – that’s where lots of people make the first mistake, but i’ll get to that one in another entry. but still, it mainly depends on you. now what? buying books? or dvds? there’s great ones out there but this is not what i’m getting at here. there is one thing that’s more basic, easier, doesn’t need any time or effort at all and it’s also for free. join my sect and i will lead you to the final enlightenment…..oops, sorry that was meant for another blog…

let’s take a look at how children learn. now what is the single most important aspect in that? come on……….correct: imitation! you just won a free lifetime-sect-membersh…dammit! now you might think: wait a minute! to imitate something or someone, time, effort, action is required! and you are right of course.

however, there is one aspect of imitation that is different: the subconscious one. to not get things mixed up and because it describes it better, i like to call this being stamped – shaped or formed are also fine. maybe there’s someone at work who says ‘oh, my god’ or even ‘o-m-g’ about ten times every minute and it’s driving you insane. and then after a few weeks you say this yourself. don’t believe it? investigate. you might be surprised about all the things you pick up along the way, but beware, you might find out things about yourself that are not pretty at all…

believe it or not we are being stamped all the time by our surroundings. our friends, colleagues, favourite tv-shows etc. are stamping us every single moment. don’t panic! because this can be a good thing. if this is good or bad basically depends on you. there is no way to stop this stamping-process, so just don’t bother trying…feeling helpless? need someone to light your…OH, FOR GOD’S SAKE!!! but what you can do – and that’s so ridiculously simple…you can choose who’s permitted to stamp you.

ok, you might not be able to choose your workmates but the rest is up to you. you decide which radio or tv station sprinkles you and you decide whom you’re hanging out with. if you have a violent temper, the texas chainsaw massacre might not be the best choice when you’re about to meet some nerving relatives of yours. go for Bob Ross instead.

needless to say this works not just for moods but virtually everything, meaning you can use this to become better at an instrument as well – or for whatever other thing you can come up with. so if you want to become a better drummer, listen to as much great drummers as you can. actually, you don’t even have to listen. just surround yourself with them, put their music in your stereo while you’re doing the dishes or even watching tv. it doesn’t have to be loud, let it be background noise – your mind will pick it up. don’t concentrate on it, don’t make it time- or energy-consuming, even ignore it. just let it be in the background while you’re driving, reading, making phone-calls…simply all the time and it will stamp you. guaranteed.

one more thing: it’s likely that you won’t notice your progress, at least at first. but others will and if you give it a little time, you will too…