I’m going to keep hammering on this until the message sinks in. If you’re struggling to memorize tunes, or to play with proper timing, you’re doing something wrong. STOP! You know the definition of insanity. All you’re doing is laying down an incorrect foundation (muscle memory) that will continue to negatively impact your progress!

Put your practice chanter down. Turn on your metronome. Look at the music and sing (hum) the tune. Get the melody and the timing firmly rooted in your head. If you need to, get a recording of the tune and hum along. Take a walk with your ear-buds plugged in and the tune playing. Match your pace to the tempo of the tune. Hum along.

Do this daily for two weeks and I guarantee that progress will be made. After you get home from your walk, sit down with your practice chanter and metronome and play the tune over once. That’s it. Just once. If you go off the rails at any point, put the practice chanter down. Listen to the tune and hum along. Go do something else.

Many maintain that If you listen to music just before going to bed, your brain will continue to process things while you sleep. If you’re struggling with a tune, this might be worth trying. Listen to the new tune just before bed.

Work on bite-size chunks of music. Everybody has a different capacity and you shouldn’t exceed yours. If you do, you’re only creating problems for yourself. If you have three or more new tunes to learn, work on them one-at-a-time. Even then, break this down to a measure, a phrase, a line, or one part. Don’t try to learn the whole damn thing at once.

Here’s the last point. You can’t skip steps. If you try to, you’ll only end up going back and fixing what you’ve learned incorrectly. Every time you play a measure or phrase incorrectly you’re baking issues into your brain and body (fingers) that will be twice as hard to correct down the road. Slow down. Create a plan for learning and stick to it.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about dealing with frustration…