Chapter Summary - The way experts hone their skills is through seeing the big picture through the window of chunks. After taking your initial look (or listen) at a skill, you break it down into the smallest components you need. This is just liking breaking up a sentence to be able to understand the whole (at our reading expertise level, we do this without any effort.) After you break it up into small components, you progress through those components slowly. Ironically, a slow initial speed equates to great productivity. Then rinse and repeat! Deep practice is no more mysterious than that. Deep practice, no matter what wonderful results it yields, does not feel wonderful at first. "It's a wobby, discomfiting sensation that any sensible person would instinctively seek to avoid." It's feels like walking in the dark, and stumbling as you go. But eventually, like the 14 year old cellist told us, it will feel like, "every note is being played [or sung] for a purpose."
Key Concepts
- Deep practice is being consistently uncomfortable, because you are always operating beyond your ability. - No practice is more effective than repetition (as long as it's good repetition)
- Skilled people do not blame failure on luck or themselves. They just change strategies.
- Practicing badly is worse than not practicing at all
- Not practicing for months can ruin your myelination
- 3-5 hrs is the usual capacity for deep practice.
Key Terms
Holy Shit Effect
chunking
deep practice
Making Connections
When that cellist described deep practice as "every note is being played for a purpose," that really rings familiar, because I have already sensed that in professional musicians. You can tell in their performance that every note carries a deep significance and weight to them, and I've always wondered how they achieve that magic. It's probably because they practiced that way! Not probably, it's definitely because of that! I can't be surprised when my performance comes out less tailored than I hoped, because I didn't gently nourish each note like the piece required.
No comments:
Post a Comment