Learning methods on guitar?

Playing Technique
#1

Hello. I’ve been taking a speedlearning course recently and one of the topics was a time managment method to avoid headaches. It’s called the Pomodoro Technique:

What you do is you study 25 minutes then take a short break (about 5 minutes). After four of these, you take a longer break of 15 minutes. There was also another technique called “Progressive overload”:

What you do is start comfortably and then advance towards an overload. I believe that’s the metronome technique @milehighshred was talking about. I tried out the progressive overload technique for a week, and it worked wonders.

Does anybody else know some simliar techniques?

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#2

I’m dabbled in this sort of stuff and I’ve found John’s metronome technique pretty useful for drilling motions into higher speeds. Dr. Noa Kageyama talks about something similar to Pomodoro technique which he calls the “50-minute hour”. IE you practice for 45 or 50 mins, take a 10-15 minute break, then repeat.

#3

Hey, great question!

Here are a few tips on structuring practice, drawn from our notes on our interview with Noa Kageyama:

There’s no universally optimal way to practice, as a lot depends on the individual and other variables. There are, however, several things you can try to help you optimize your practicing, including:

  1. Try structuring your practice as 3 sets of 3 (or 3 sets of 5) in a particular session, where each “unit” could be a chunk of just a few minutes on one particular passage or practice task.
  2. Massed vs. distributed practice: it’s better to distribute your practice over time, as opposed to in one big chunk. While it may be less convenient, it’s more effective to practice in three one-hour sessions than one massive three-hour session each day.
  3. Try the “50 minute hour” (as @element0s mentioned!) — practicing for 50 minutes of each hour, followed by a 10 minute break. (Or do 45 minutes of practice + 15 minute break.) And during the practice periods, not all this time should be constant playing; rest periods between reps of 5-20 seconds can lead to more effective learning.
  4. When you’re practicing something, try to practice deliberately and keep in mind the idea of “repetition without repetition” — don’t mindlessly repeat the exact same thing each time, but evaluate yourself as you go, and make slight variations, changes, and improvements.
  5. How much to practice in a day? On the low end, some elite players can get by on 1–2 hours per day. And after more than around 4–5 hours a day you’ll probably see diminishing returns. The quality of your practice time is more important than just the duration, but somewhere in this range may be good to aim for.

You can find more detail on this stuff, including definitions of deliberate practice and random practice and other tips on practice and performance, at his site: https://bulletproofmusician.com/

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#4

Can you give a link to that?

#5

Of course, here you go!

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#6

I think doing something three times is good if you can intersperse it with something else
Like I will work on a particular picking thing say like the Gilbert thing then after I find myself kind of losing my concentration go to something completely different like say cross picking for a bit then go back to the Gilbert’s then two two string arpeggios then go back to the Gilbert’s
I guess it forces your brain to burn it in better cause it has to remember more often what you did so it wants to stick it in long term memomey rather than short term

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#7

It’s actually the process of (trying to) recall the procedure that enhances long-term momorization:

In a random practice schedule, the performer must keep restarting different tasks. Because beginnings are always 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 come back to a task after an intervening task, our brain must reconstruct the action plan for what we are about to do. And it is at this moment of reconstruction that our brains are the most active. More mental activity leads to greater long-term learning.
https://bulletproofmusician.com/why-the-progress-in-the-practice-room-seems-to-disappear-overnight/

Or at least that’s how experts explain it.

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