Commit it to Memory - Quick Practice Tip

This week, I want to talk about memory. And memory as it relates to neuroscience.

In neuroscience, there's 2 different kinds of memory. There's explicit memory, or declarative memory, and that's when you have to think about something and do it. You think something and then you do it, think something and then you do it...

So when I was playing [...], I was thinking about those notes. What are the notes? I'm listening for those notes in my head, but it's a conscious, explicit thing that I'm thinking about.

So that's called declarative memory, and it's explicit and it's thoughtful.

If we want to play a song and we don't want to be making mistakes, we don't want to be thinking about it in our declarative memory, we want to convert that memory from an explicit memory into an implicit, procedural memory.

Procedural memories are those memories that we do by instinct. There are things that just kind of come out of us without even thinking about them. They're in our subconscious.

One of the ways that we do this- taking our declarative memory, and moving it to procedural memory, is by repetition.

Repetition that's thoughtful and repetition where we're really in the moment, when we're really paying attention.

You want to practice until you feel that change where it happens without having to think about it. And when it's happening without you having to think about it, you have created a new procedural memory.

So, create procedural memories if you want these lessons to stick on your instrument.

And this doesn't matter what instrument you're playing, create some procedural memories out there!

That's your Quick Tip for this week! I'll see you next time!