Be a better musician with deep practice
by Bill on July 20, 2009
Who doesn’t want to be a better musician? Unfortunately, achieving the heights of greatness you dream about and becoming the new Jimi Hendrix or Louis Armstrong is completely out of reach, because most of us ordinary musicians don’t have that kind of magical talent. Right?
Apparently not. According to The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, the idea of innate talent is overrated. Anyone who wants to be a better musician, even a really great musician, just needs to put in time and effort - a lot of it - and make sure they are practising the right way.
Coyle digs deep into the science of how we learn a skill and offers some great insights on how to do it much, much more efficiently. It should be said that he’s a journalist rather than a brain scientist, but judging by his interviewees and his end-notes, he’s done his research well.
Here are some key lessons that you’ll find useful if you’re trying to improve your musicianship:
Coyle’s key point is that talent is best-developed by what he calls ‘deep practice’. The basic principle is that you practise outside of your comfort zone, pushing your limits by repeatedly making, and learning from, mistakes. Essentially, if you find practice easy, it isn’t doing much good. There is evidence that the mental strain and challenge of repeatedly pushing your limits reinforces connections in the brain much more effectively than coasting along. Playing music inside your comfort zone doesn’t make you a better musician.
Based on that, I’d repeat a point I often make: practice that’s easy to listen to isn’t good practice. Good musical practice is repetitive, obsessive and full of mistakes and self-correction. It should be maddening for listeners.
Coyle also picks up on some research that was made famous by Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: the idea that musical ‘genius’ isn’t God-given, but rather the result of 10,000 or more hours of sustained, deep practice.
Age makes a difference, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. The neuroscience behind Coyle’s explanation of deep practice and musicianship is based around a substance called myelin, which insulates brain cells to make them more efficient. Our ability to add myelin to our cells falls off in our thirties, but never disappears entirely. In other words, you can still become a dramatically better musician if you’re 60 - it just takes more effort that when you were 16.
If you want to be a better musician, you have to really want it. The more obsessive you are, the more effectively you’ll manage that deep practice.
The Talent Code isn’t just about developing skill in music: it also deals with sport and other kinds of artistic ability. But all the lessons in there are directly applicable to being a better musician. It’s definitely worth a read if your instrumental (or singing) skills could do with some improvement, or if you’re beginning to learn a new musical instrument.
Tagged as:
music practice,
musicianship
