The Secret to Learning Music Faster: Take More Breaks (yes, really!): Part I

This video introduces the research on spaced practicing and illustrates how taking breaks can help you learn faster. Part II explains WHY taking breaks leads to faster, better learning:    • The Secret to Learning Music Faster: Take ...   Part III gives practical advice on how to use this research in your own practicing:    • The Secret to Learning Music Faster: Take ...   Papers cited in this video: -Boettcher, M., Boettcher, J., Mietzsch, S., Krebs, T., Bergholz, R., & Reinshagen, K. (2018). The spaced learning concept significantly improves training for laparoscopic suturing: a pilot randomized controlled study. Surgical endoscopy, 32(1), 154-159. -Moulton, C. A. E., Dubrowski, A., MacRae, H., Graham, B., Grober, E., & Reznick, R. (2006). Teaching surgical skills: what kind of practice makes perfect?: a randomized, controlled trial. Annals of surgery, 244(3), 400. -Spruit, E. N., Band, G. P., & Hamming, J. F. (2015). Increasing efficiency of surgical training: effects of spacing practice on skill acquisition and retention in laparoscopy training. Surgical endoscopy, 29(8), 2235-2243. Other videos on the neuroscience of practicing: What Musicians Can Learn About Practicing from Current Brain Research:    • What Musicians Can Learn About Practicing ...   The Neuroscience of Performing from Memory:    • The Neuroscience of Performing from Memory   How To Practice to Increase Speed:    • How To Practice to Increase Speed   A little bit on my background: I attended Oberlin College and Conservatory as an undergraduate, double majoring in viola performance and neuroscience. The neuroscience was just for fun (truly!) and I had no plans to continue with it after I graduated. But when I got to New England Conservatory for my masters in viola performance, I realized something was missing. After my roommate came home from being a subject in a study at Harvard looking at musicians’ versus non-musicians’ brains, I realized I had to be a double degree student my whole life. So at NEC, I did a number of independent studies looking at topics having to do with music and the brain, as well as working for Dr. Mark Tramo, the director of the Institute for Music and Brain Science, at that time at Harvard (now at UCLA). After NEC, I attended the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University for my DMA in viola performance. While there, I took graduate-level neuroscience classes nearly every semester, I worked in a lab for a long time, I was the assistant director for two interdisciplinary symposia on music and the brain, and I developed and taught a class on music and the brain. Since that time, I have published several articles in both music and scientific journals on music and the brain (many of which you can access on my website: https://mollygebrian.com/writing/) and give presentations on the topic regularly at conferences, universities, and schools around the world. For five years, I taught viola at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where I also taught an honors course on music and the brain. Now, I teach viola at the University of Arizona, where I also continue to investigate aspects of the cognitive neuroscience of music.