Former principal trombonist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Myers now channels his passion into
Ascenda Music Publishing while continuing to perform in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Practicing is hard work, and how frustrating it is to work through something to your satisfaction, only to discover that you seem to have “forgotten” everything by the next day. What did you do wrong? What was missing from your practice? Here’s an encouraging thought: musicians can learn with greater retention by using a technique that psychologists call “spaced repetition.”
Spaced repetition is a technique developed by psychologists to help with retention of new material. Musicians can use spaced repetition to their advantage. It is based on the understanding that we have several different kinds of memory. Short-term memory is active as we are practicing a piece. But short-term memory doesn’t last very long. Think about how long you can remember a phone number that you saw on a website. To call someone on that number, you need to remember it long enough to enter the number into your phone. After a few seconds, you have probably forgotten the number.
You “forgot” what you learned in the practice room yesterday because you didn’t take steps to get your learning into long-term memory. To make our practice “stick”, musicians can use spaced repetition by working on a specific practice task for a while, moving onto another task, then coming back to the task in ever-increasing intervals of time. By doing this, you are moving your learning from short-term memory into long-term memory.
Incorporating this technique into your practice involves a simple discipline: planning to repeat your work within the same day or practice session. Say you need to learn two tricky measures of a new piece. Practice it until you make some progress, then move on to another unrelated task. In the same practice session, musicians employ spaced repetition by coming back to the first task in a short amount of time, a few minutes later, for example. After the second repetition, again move on to another task. Come back again to two tricky measures for the third practice segment after waiting longer than before.
Here’s an example with possible timings:
As long as you adhere to increasing the time between iterations of Task A, you can eventually move your learning from short-term memory into long-term memory. By repeating this cycle and expanding the time between each repetition, you’re using musical adaptation of spaced repetition to achieve consistent and reliable progress.
Practicing with spaced repetition transforms the frustration of “forgetting” into the satisfaction of genuine progress. By strategically revisiting material at increasing intervals, you’re not just practicing—you’re training your brain for retention and mastery. Over time, this approach doesn’t just help you remember the notes; it builds a foundation of confidence and reliability that will carry you through your performances. With patience and consistent application, spaced repetition for musicians can become your secret weapon for long-term musical success.
Former principal trombonist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Myers now channels his passion into
Ascenda Music Publishing while continuing to perform in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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3 thoughts on “Now you can master new music with this easy trick”
I like this idea. It kind of reminds me of a Rondo form in music. In fact, I’ll probably use this practice technique thinking in terms of a Rondo.
Thanks for the idea and keep them coming!
This is great advice, thoughts, and materials! Thank you for sharing. I’ve advocated for “dedicated practice” for years. Too many times my students get frustrated because excerpts, concepts, or techniques aren’t developing as fast as they would like. It takes time to make progress and framing it the way you have here is a great way to approach practicing. Long time reader, first time commenter…I think! Happy Holidays and New Year to you Tim!
Happy New Year to you and yours, Richard!