What is Deliberate Practice?
When Venus and Serena Williams were young and practicing tennis, their father asked them to serve at traffic cones. This approach has a:
- Goal: Improve accuracy in serve
- Tactics: Aim at an inanimate object
- Verification: You hit the cone 6 consecutive times
When this process is iterated, legends are made.
In his groundbreaking work, researcher Anders Ericsson identified the
type of practice that would enable learners to truly get the most from their
practice sessions. He called this approach deliberate practice. What makes
it different from a typical approach?
Learners have motivation to improve their performance via difficult tasks.
The ancient philosopher Seneca said: “When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”, the point? If we wish to achieve, goals are essential. And in order for practice to be defined as deliberate, a student needs to understand what particular skill she is working to improve.Beyond that, the learner should understand how that skill plays into her overall development as a musician. If goals are not clearly defined, no practice is the right practice.
Practice Coaches achieve this by through transparency, collaboration and meaning. Let’s look at these facets one by one.
Transparency: At all times the coaches clearly discuss which goals the student is pursuing and how the current practice regimen is designed to help them. These goals then have to support the higher level goals of the student.
Collaboration: If the student is left out of the discussion about goals they will fail to cultivate the necessary motivation.
Typically the teacher has the primary responsibility to set these goals in collaboration with the student. A practice coach will help define these goals if none have been supplied by the teacher.
Meaning: Motivation may be weak if students don’t feel a sense of meaning to their activities. For a goal to have real weight for a student it must carry significance on a deeper level. All of us have basic needs that can be met through music.
The need for achievement can be met by excelling at an exam. The need for confidence can be met by surpassing previous abilities. The need for respect by others can be met through a quality public performance. If student and coach understand and value the needs being met through the practice session, a deeper motivation can be realized.
The tasks take into consideration the student’s current abilities.
Of course any goals set are pretty worthless if they don’t take in to account the learners current abilities. It’s kind of like allowing google maps to use your current location. Once the app knows where you are it can give you step by step directions to your destination.So your practice coach first determines “where” you are in your musical journey, then determines the best habits and techniques that will help you get from A to B.
An example might be a student who is working to increase the tempo of a scale. A practice coach will ask herself: How familiar is the student with the notes to begin with? Is she using the correct fingering? Is she holding her hands correctly? Does she have good posture? Does she have adequate finger strength? And other questions.
Once the coach has an understanding of the students current state, she can ask the student to perform the appropriate tasks. i.e. if the student lacks finger strength, she may be asked to play the scale fortissimo (very loud), if she has trouble with fingering, the coach may ask her to slow the scale down and say the names of the fingers out loud while she plays the scale. Different musical ailments require different treatments.
The student gets immediate feedback regarding their performance.
Einstein said that repeating the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. If that’s true, then repeating the same thing and not even looking for results is complete lunacy. This is where practice coaches really shine.A coaching session is actually split into two parts. The first ten minute part focuses on directing the students. During this portion the coach listens to the student play, assesses the best task(s) to help the student reach her goal.
Then it’s the students opportunity to put into a practice session what they’ve learned. After the learners practice session, the coach again checks in on the student to listen.
The learners repeat the tasks.
All skilled athletes understand the necessity of drills. Steph Curry makes hundreds of baskets from all angles of the court as part of his practice routine. Lin Dan is known for his extemely rigorous routine.They repeat certain movements and processes that will appear organically in a game or event. Musicians also have tactical challenges associated with their discipline. And the way to improve in the athletic aspects of music is through repetition of difficult excersices and musical passages.
When one of our practice coaches assigns tactics to a student to help them reach their goal, They are often expected to repeat a certain passage multiple times with a variation of volume and or tempo.
This creates strong neural connections. It also has the added benefit of students seeing their progress in real time.
Conclusion
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Lang Lang shared his thoughts on practice and his strict father's approach. He said that one positive thing was that it taught him focus and discipline.
Deliberate Practice is the engine of focus and the framework of discipline.
The principles of deliberate practice guide how we coach students, and they inform our overall approach.
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Happy Practicing!