Happy Memorial Day!
I hope everyone is having a lovely day off and enjoying the day relaxing!
I'm in Atlanta this weekend but looking forward to seeing everyone this week especially as we prepare for the final concert of the year!
Happy Summer!!!
Monday, May 25, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Book Report: The Talent Code
If you haven't heard of this book, I highly recommend you at least read this book report. Daniel Coyle spent a considerable amount of time researching 'talent' and how it's developed to write The Talent Code. The book is fantastic, fairly easy to read and has many major implications for music learning and learning, in general. A large portion of the book discusses music learning and teaching in a number of different situations. The book even opens with a description of a student practicing and the process in which she undergoes deep learning.
That's what this book is about: deep learning and motivation. And how to achieve 'talent' or thorough skill development. How this book differs from other books or writings about learning is that it discusses learning and how to tap into 'talent' through a basic neurological mechanism we all possess. It involves scientific research and study on a specific neural insulator called myelin. Myelin is what helps us acquire skills, any skill.
But first, what is myelin?
Myelin works like insulation wrapped around a wire. It protects the nerve fiber and makes the firing electrical impulse stronger and faster. When we practice executing a skill, any skill, myelin responds by wrapping layers of this insulation around the nerve fiber and each layer adds more speed and skill. The thicker this myelin layer becomes, the fast and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.
The biggest take-away: it does not discriminate. The growth of myelin enables all skills, both mental as well as physical.
The below graphic depicts how myelin works, wrapping itself and insulating the nerve. The more myelin around the nerve results in a faster and stronger execution of skill, any skill. But what does that take? You guessed it: lots of sustained practice.
The discovery of myelin has huge implications for 'talent' because it shows us talent is grown, not born, as the subtitle of the book declares.
Under the right circumstances, talent is developed, which is really what Dr. Suzuki has been saying all along. Now we have scientific research to back up Suzuki's philosophy and method and a specific neural mechanism that we can study.
The book is divided into three parts, all of which have great implications for skill development as it relates to music learning. However, the most applicable music learning is the idea of deep practice.
***
Deep practice is built on this simple paradox: struggling in certain, specific ways makes you learn the skill better and better. The experience of struggle - making mistakes, figuring them out - makes us learn deeper. The more we encounter difficulties, the more we fire impulses, the faster we learn. So, making mistakes is okay!
Then, more of this kind of practice we do, the more we develop the neural skill circuit and the easier the skill becomes. In addition, this type of practice fosters automaticity. After we've sufficiently built up this network of intricate brain circuitry, we actually forget about it! Which first, enables the skill to feel natural and second, enables the skill to function in the background without our thinking about it.
However, it takes work, lots of hard work, to do this for a sustained amount of time. Think back to learning to hold the bow. It's a pretty intense process that can take weeks of sustained practice. But fast forward two year: holding the bow has become a skill we don't even need to think about. You pick up the bow and *bam* you have a bow hold without even thinking about it. Same with holding a pencil, driving a car, swinging a baseball bat, etc. These skills aren't easy at first but after practicing, firing those circuits and building myelin, they become easy, effortless and natural.
Things to keep in mind:
Learning is messy and it's going to be bad before it gets good. That's just the nature of it. It's hard to watch someone struggle but more often than not, we just need to learn to take the back seat and embrace it. Embrace the uncomfortable and realize that the struggle actually enhances learning and skill development. While we try to keep our students from making mistakes (and sometimes this is necessary), it's actually more beneficial to allow them to make mistakes, muddle and figure it out on their own. This also helps create independent learners. So keep in mind, when things sound rough, "[t]o get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad."
That's what this book is about: deep learning and motivation. And how to achieve 'talent' or thorough skill development. How this book differs from other books or writings about learning is that it discusses learning and how to tap into 'talent' through a basic neurological mechanism we all possess. It involves scientific research and study on a specific neural insulator called myelin. Myelin is what helps us acquire skills, any skill.
But first, what is myelin?
Myelin works like insulation wrapped around a wire. It protects the nerve fiber and makes the firing electrical impulse stronger and faster. When we practice executing a skill, any skill, myelin responds by wrapping layers of this insulation around the nerve fiber and each layer adds more speed and skill. The thicker this myelin layer becomes, the fast and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.
The biggest take-away: it does not discriminate. The growth of myelin enables all skills, both mental as well as physical.
The below graphic depicts how myelin works, wrapping itself and insulating the nerve. The more myelin around the nerve results in a faster and stronger execution of skill, any skill. But what does that take? You guessed it: lots of sustained practice.
Under the right circumstances, talent is developed, which is really what Dr. Suzuki has been saying all along. Now we have scientific research to back up Suzuki's philosophy and method and a specific neural mechanism that we can study.
The book is divided into three parts, all of which have great implications for skill development as it relates to music learning. However, the most applicable music learning is the idea of deep practice.
***
Then, more of this kind of practice we do, the more we develop the neural skill circuit and the easier the skill becomes. In addition, this type of practice fosters automaticity. After we've sufficiently built up this network of intricate brain circuitry, we actually forget about it! Which first, enables the skill to feel natural and second, enables the skill to function in the background without our thinking about it.
However, it takes work, lots of hard work, to do this for a sustained amount of time. Think back to learning to hold the bow. It's a pretty intense process that can take weeks of sustained practice. But fast forward two year: holding the bow has become a skill we don't even need to think about. You pick up the bow and *bam* you have a bow hold without even thinking about it. Same with holding a pencil, driving a car, swinging a baseball bat, etc. These skills aren't easy at first but after practicing, firing those circuits and building myelin, they become easy, effortless and natural.
Things to keep in mind:
- Struggle is not optional - it's neurologically required. In order to deeply develop a skill, we need to make mistakes, pay attention to those mistakes and teach ourselves how to not make those mistakes.
- Practicing and continuing to practice is necessary to keep building myelin and, as a result, make things easier.
- Myelin is universal - it only cares about what you do
- Myelin only wraps, it doesn't unwrap. This is why it's really hard to break bad habits. In fact, you can't break a habit, you have to build new habits by building more myelin.
- Skill is a MUSCLE. You build it, grow it, work it. And never stop doing this.
Three Rules of Deep Practice
- Break it into meaningful chunks.
- First look at the thing as a whole, for example, Perpetual Motion. Absorb the whole thing. Also known as, in Suzuki Land: LISTENING. Listen to music all the time, absorb the music, learn to imitate the great players.
- Then divide it into small pieces, say, 4 notes at a time. This is called chunking.
- Lastly, practice slowly, then going a little faster to learn everything about it.
- Repeat it.
- Repetition is invaluable and irreplaceable. Repetition builds myelin. Repetition strengthens our brains.
- Feel the burn.
- Learning is uncomfortable because you are reaching just beyond your abilities. We didn't learn to walk by giving up after one or two tries. We struggled. Fell over. But got back up again and endured despite failing.
***
Learning is messy and it's going to be bad before it gets good. That's just the nature of it. It's hard to watch someone struggle but more often than not, we just need to learn to take the back seat and embrace it. Embrace the uncomfortable and realize that the struggle actually enhances learning and skill development. While we try to keep our students from making mistakes (and sometimes this is necessary), it's actually more beneficial to allow them to make mistakes, muddle and figure it out on their own. This also helps create independent learners. So keep in mind, when things sound rough, "[t]o get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad."
Monday, May 11, 2015
All About That Tone
In a previous post I discussed the bow, how it is in charge of our sound and why it's just as important as our left hand. This post is about our tone, or the quality or characteristics of sound we produce on the cello. Focusing on the tone quality is a very important aspect of playing the cello because it is our musical voice. It is our means of expression. Often times, we get bogged down with the current piece but what students (and parents) need to realize is that a piece isn't truly beautiful and 'done' until the tone is beautiful. And this comes from a lot of hard work on tone. Of course, first the notes, bowings, dynamics, etc., need to be in place but until the tone is also present, the piece isn't complete.
We as cellists must understand clearly what goes into producing a good tone, what exactly a good tone is, and identify what is causing the unpleasant sound. Several factors go into producing a truly great tone:
Contact point. Also known as the good sounding spot. The bow must be in between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge. The bow also must be parallel to the bridge. When it's is, it creates a letter 'T' with the string ('T' for TONE!). If it's not straight, it makes the letter 'X'. Not good!
Tricky part about this: the bow doesn't look straight when the cellist looks down at it! When it is straight, the bow looks crooked from the player's point of view. And the reverse is true - when it looks straight from the cellist's perspective, it's actually crooked. If you child doesn't believe you that it's crooked or creating an 'X' bow, use a mirror to show them that, no it's in fact crooked. Either tucking in the arm or reaching out will straighten out an 'X' bow.
Contact point is important because it impacts the quality of sound. Too close to the fingerboard yields a fuzzy, unfocused, tone. It's often pretty squeaky, too. Too close to the bridge results in a super scratchy, crunchy sound. However, the middle, well, fits just right - and we get a great, solid, deep tone.
Bow weight. I dislike the word 'pressure'. I especially dislike using it when it comes to describing the bow. Using the word pressure often results in 'pushing' or 'muscling' your way to a good sound. This isn't ideal because it creates a lot of tension in the body. So instead, I use the word 'weight'. The bow is heavy, the arm is heavy, the shoulder girdle muscles are heavy - all of this weight contributes to the weight we pour into the string, much like pouring water into a glass. Later, finesse and dexterity with the bow hand help control the weight but at first, we use the natural heaviness of the arm to pull and draw sound out of the instrument. It isn't easy but it's a lot more comfortable on the body than pressuring sound out of the instrument. Don't fight with your cello! Work with it!
Bow speed. This is relatively simple - how fast or slow is the bow moving. This has an impact on the sound. Too fast = shallow, fuzzy sound. Too slow = crunchy. More importantly, the speed of the bow has to be related to the amount of weight. Bow speed and weight go hand in hand.
Left hand. Many times, we assume a bad sound comes from the bow. Understandable - the bow produces the sound! However, sometimes the fault is with the left hand. The fingers must be firmly placed into the string and need to hold the string down all the way. If the fingers are too light or are not holding the string down enough, the sound will be squeaky, fuzzy or inconsistent.
We as cellists must understand clearly what goes into producing a good tone, what exactly a good tone is, and identify what is causing the unpleasant sound. Several factors go into producing a truly great tone:
Contact point. Also known as the good sounding spot. The bow must be in between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge. The bow also must be parallel to the bridge. When it's is, it creates a letter 'T' with the string ('T' for TONE!). If it's not straight, it makes the letter 'X'. Not good!
Tricky part about this: the bow doesn't look straight when the cellist looks down at it! When it is straight, the bow looks crooked from the player's point of view. And the reverse is true - when it looks straight from the cellist's perspective, it's actually crooked. If you child doesn't believe you that it's crooked or creating an 'X' bow, use a mirror to show them that, no it's in fact crooked. Either tucking in the arm or reaching out will straighten out an 'X' bow.
Contact point is important because it impacts the quality of sound. Too close to the fingerboard yields a fuzzy, unfocused, tone. It's often pretty squeaky, too. Too close to the bridge results in a super scratchy, crunchy sound. However, the middle, well, fits just right - and we get a great, solid, deep tone.
Bow weight. I dislike the word 'pressure'. I especially dislike using it when it comes to describing the bow. Using the word pressure often results in 'pushing' or 'muscling' your way to a good sound. This isn't ideal because it creates a lot of tension in the body. So instead, I use the word 'weight'. The bow is heavy, the arm is heavy, the shoulder girdle muscles are heavy - all of this weight contributes to the weight we pour into the string, much like pouring water into a glass. Later, finesse and dexterity with the bow hand help control the weight but at first, we use the natural heaviness of the arm to pull and draw sound out of the instrument. It isn't easy but it's a lot more comfortable on the body than pressuring sound out of the instrument. Don't fight with your cello! Work with it!
Bow speed. This is relatively simple - how fast or slow is the bow moving. This has an impact on the sound. Too fast = shallow, fuzzy sound. Too slow = crunchy. More importantly, the speed of the bow has to be related to the amount of weight. Bow speed and weight go hand in hand.
Left hand. Many times, we assume a bad sound comes from the bow. Understandable - the bow produces the sound! However, sometimes the fault is with the left hand. The fingers must be firmly placed into the string and need to hold the string down all the way. If the fingers are too light or are not holding the string down enough, the sound will be squeaky, fuzzy or inconsistent.
***
Dr. Suzuki's Tone Classes
Dr. Suzuki used different types of water animals to describe tone and to identify the most desirable tone.
Water Spider Tone. Water spiders barely get their feet wet in the water. They just barely skim the surface of the water and skips across. On the cello, this sounds slippery and is caused by too much bow speed and too little bow weight. There is very little control of the bow. Not an ideal sound!
Hippo Tone. Hippos love to soak halfway in the water, with his head above the water and his body sinking down. On the cello, the tone is very heavy at the frog but too light at the tip. While playing in one part of the bow sounds good, the other part does not, resulting in an inconsistent tone. Still not the ideal sound as we want a consistently beautiful sound, not just at the frog.
Goldfish Tone. Goldfish are small fish that enjoy swimming in shallow water. The bow is 'in' the string but the sound isn't very big. In fact, it's pretty small, like the goldfish. This is a great sound for softer dynamics, but not for all occasions. More bow and a faster bow speed is necessary.
Tuna Tone. Tuna fish are large fish that swim deep in the ocean. This is the most desirable sound. The bow is definitely in the string and the bow is moving at an appropriate speed to yield a big yet effortless sound. The Tuna Tone is never forced but is the deep, rich, chocolate-y cello sound.
Learning about, identifying and distinguishing the different tones can help students achieve the coveted tuna tone and avoid a less desirable sound.
***
Not all of these classes of tone are particularly bad. Some pieces of music do require a water spider tone. Some music needs a heavy, rich sound at the tip that fades away, or the hippo tone, most notably when we do a decrescendo. As mentioned above, the goldfish tone is great for softer dynamic levels. But the sound we strive for every time is the tuna tone. It's the most beautiful and pleasing sound and fully embodies all the wonderful characteristics of the string instrument sound. This sound takes time to develop but it's worth the effort to achieve the highest class of tone on the instrument. From there, we can do many other things with the tone and explore other sounds but always come back to our beautiful and rich tuna tone.
Monday, May 4, 2015
The benefits of year round practice: avoiding the summer brain drain
With summer right around the corner and summer vacations and camps being planned, something else keeps popping up...
Summer brain drain.
Summer brain drain is simply the loss or decline of skills and knowledge over the course of summer vacation. While this often refers to academic knowledge and skills (reading and math, specifically), I'd like to address it from the perspective of cello knowledge and skills as it's slightly different.
We all need a break and summer is a great break from school and the usual routine. But summer doesn't need to be a break from learning completely.
I always encourage my students to continue taking lessons throughout the summer and, if possible, take more lessons. Here's why:
More time. Summers are relaxed and way more casual. There's less rushing to and from school, to and from activities and this allows simply for more practice time. Also, brains aren't already fried from the school day so practices can be longer and more focused. In general, a lot more can be accomplished! I've see a great deal of progress happen in just 2 and a half months with focused, regular and dedicated practice. More lessons can happen in a week - when I was in high school, during the summers I took lessons twice a week instead of once a week. I learned more that summer than the entire previous school year. A number of students choose this as well, regardless of age or level.
Maintenance & deepening of skills. Even if huge amounts of progress aren't made, at least maintenance, refinement and further deepening of skills can occur with regular practice and lessons. Recall back to why we review - it's the same concept. Just by continuing to practice what you already know, you further deepen and strengthen those skills.
Retention. Similar to maintenance of skills, more retention of skills occur with a regular practice and a continuous lesson routine. It's really annoying and frustrating when 3 months ago you could play Go Tell Aunt Rhody and now you can only play the first few notes. And it's not even your current piece - it's a review piece! You know you know it but it's just not coming back! Regular practice guards against this loss of skills. It's just like lifting weights - you can't expect yourself to lift the same weight previously when you've gone 3 months without lifting anything. Same with musical skills. You can't expect to play Go Tell Aunt Rhody flawlessly when you've not even hummed it in the last 3 months.
Motivation. This is a big one. Regular and continued practice, even just practice not lessons, fosters motivation and drive. I’ve seen this happen all too often not only with students but with myself.
When you aren't able to recall how to play a piece, you lose the drive and inspiration to practice because you've suddenly hit something uncomfortable and frustrating. This repeats a few times. Then you stop trying to practice because the whole idea of playing the cello is not fun. Decline in motivation increases the longer this avoidance behavior continues.
When it is time to return to a regular lesson schedule at the end of summer, it takes a while, usually 3 months, to build back up the lost skills and, more importantly, the motivation. Sometimes, it takes even longer because the whole process is, again, frustrating. You know these pieces but your brain and body can't recall how to do them because it's been so long. It takes a while to get back in the groove of playing, learning and practicing because motivation is low. You don't want to practice because it doesn't feel good, sound good or you can't remember and it doesn't feel good, sound good and you can't remember because you don't practice! This continues in a cyclical fashion.
Motivation is linked to retention in that students are more likely to be motivated to practice and play when they can play pieces because they've retained them and can recall them easily. It's a feedback loop. Retention (and progress) fosters motivation and motivation fosters retention (and practice).
The loss of motivation is a frustrating process especially because regaining the drive and desire to practice requires buckling down and dealing with the problem: lack of practice. This means committing to a regular practice routine. The best way I know to get back into a regular practice routine and be motivated to practice regularly is to establish that routine and stick to it no matter what. Make practice a habit and don't fall out of that habit, even during the summer.
This is also what regular, daily practice is necessary. One, we need it to develop skills. Two, this regular practice fosters motivation and drive. But these also work in a cyclical manner. When you see how quickly you learn things with regular practice, when you see the success you're experiencing, you want to keep doing that thing and achieving that success. Conversely, it's hard to envision that success when you are only faced with frustration and disappointment.
We experience dips in motivation like this in other aspects of life. We get busy and stop going to the gym. Then when we have time again, going to the gym is hard. It's not fun. You can't do the things you could before. It's frustrating. That feeling of weakness is discouraging and you don't want to do anything because you feel behind. But you push through and eventually you can achieve what you were reaching before your hiatus and then some more beyond that. Then your motivation rises again.
Our brains are no different from our muscles. Learning and repetition strengthen our brains. When we don't work them, the neural connections we've developed weaken. Then we have to work even harder to build that strength back up to its original level and then keep going to achieve new levels.
Summer brain drain.
Summer brain drain is simply the loss or decline of skills and knowledge over the course of summer vacation. While this often refers to academic knowledge and skills (reading and math, specifically), I'd like to address it from the perspective of cello knowledge and skills as it's slightly different.
We all need a break and summer is a great break from school and the usual routine. But summer doesn't need to be a break from learning completely.
I always encourage my students to continue taking lessons throughout the summer and, if possible, take more lessons. Here's why:
More time. Summers are relaxed and way more casual. There's less rushing to and from school, to and from activities and this allows simply for more practice time. Also, brains aren't already fried from the school day so practices can be longer and more focused. In general, a lot more can be accomplished! I've see a great deal of progress happen in just 2 and a half months with focused, regular and dedicated practice. More lessons can happen in a week - when I was in high school, during the summers I took lessons twice a week instead of once a week. I learned more that summer than the entire previous school year. A number of students choose this as well, regardless of age or level.
Maintenance & deepening of skills. Even if huge amounts of progress aren't made, at least maintenance, refinement and further deepening of skills can occur with regular practice and lessons. Recall back to why we review - it's the same concept. Just by continuing to practice what you already know, you further deepen and strengthen those skills.
Retention. Similar to maintenance of skills, more retention of skills occur with a regular practice and a continuous lesson routine. It's really annoying and frustrating when 3 months ago you could play Go Tell Aunt Rhody and now you can only play the first few notes. And it's not even your current piece - it's a review piece! You know you know it but it's just not coming back! Regular practice guards against this loss of skills. It's just like lifting weights - you can't expect yourself to lift the same weight previously when you've gone 3 months without lifting anything. Same with musical skills. You can't expect to play Go Tell Aunt Rhody flawlessly when you've not even hummed it in the last 3 months.
Motivation. This is a big one. Regular and continued practice, even just practice not lessons, fosters motivation and drive. I’ve seen this happen all too often not only with students but with myself.
When you aren't able to recall how to play a piece, you lose the drive and inspiration to practice because you've suddenly hit something uncomfortable and frustrating. This repeats a few times. Then you stop trying to practice because the whole idea of playing the cello is not fun. Decline in motivation increases the longer this avoidance behavior continues.
When it is time to return to a regular lesson schedule at the end of summer, it takes a while, usually 3 months, to build back up the lost skills and, more importantly, the motivation. Sometimes, it takes even longer because the whole process is, again, frustrating. You know these pieces but your brain and body can't recall how to do them because it's been so long. It takes a while to get back in the groove of playing, learning and practicing because motivation is low. You don't want to practice because it doesn't feel good, sound good or you can't remember and it doesn't feel good, sound good and you can't remember because you don't practice! This continues in a cyclical fashion.
Motivation is linked to retention in that students are more likely to be motivated to practice and play when they can play pieces because they've retained them and can recall them easily. It's a feedback loop. Retention (and progress) fosters motivation and motivation fosters retention (and practice).
The loss of motivation is a frustrating process especially because regaining the drive and desire to practice requires buckling down and dealing with the problem: lack of practice. This means committing to a regular practice routine. The best way I know to get back into a regular practice routine and be motivated to practice regularly is to establish that routine and stick to it no matter what. Make practice a habit and don't fall out of that habit, even during the summer.
This is also what regular, daily practice is necessary. One, we need it to develop skills. Two, this regular practice fosters motivation and drive. But these also work in a cyclical manner. When you see how quickly you learn things with regular practice, when you see the success you're experiencing, you want to keep doing that thing and achieving that success. Conversely, it's hard to envision that success when you are only faced with frustration and disappointment.
We experience dips in motivation like this in other aspects of life. We get busy and stop going to the gym. Then when we have time again, going to the gym is hard. It's not fun. You can't do the things you could before. It's frustrating. That feeling of weakness is discouraging and you don't want to do anything because you feel behind. But you push through and eventually you can achieve what you were reaching before your hiatus and then some more beyond that. Then your motivation rises again.
Our brains are no different from our muscles. Learning and repetition strengthen our brains. When we don't work them, the neural connections we've developed weaken. Then we have to work even harder to build that strength back up to its original level and then keep going to achieve new levels.
***
Summers shouldn't be any different from the school year. In my mind, it isn't any different. Our schedules are a little different. We go on more vacations or have more free time. But learning shouldn't stop and shut down with the arrival of summer. All learning, not just cello, should continue to maintain and continue strengthening our brains.
Keep those brains strong all year long!
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