3 ms·

I'm kind of wondering the same thing learning my guitar: Maybe a good thing is to approach an issue with different ways your head has to think about it. Like,

by tetha 3y ago

I'm kind of wondering the same thing learning my guitar: Maybe a good thing is to approach an issue with different ways your head has to think about it. Like, yes. I can just spaced repetition the heck out of the notes on the fretboard. Just hammer my head into the notes on a string until I pretty much just give up. Always an idea. But I've found it more effective to mix contexts up. Some weeks, I just drill notes because I'm lazy. But then I also start tinkering around for a week with some weird scale, like hungarian scales and such. Some other week, I'm tinkering around with arpeggio chords, some other week with cord progressions with power chords, some weeks I'm trying to replicate some sound or feeling of a song. And over time, the brain is putting things together. Suddenly there are realizations: Hey, this is just a G-Minor scale, which makes sense for a somewhat solemn song. Oh, this is just a G-Major scale but we skip those. Wait, I remeber half the notes of the scale, isn't this just that pattern? Also, if the scale is like this, couldn't we try playing that? It's just a weird feeling, because the amount of things I think I know expands at a much lower rate of the things I realize I don't know - or don't have the technique for, lol. But I'm kind of considering using a spaced repetition algorithm to just poke for 5 to 10 minute guitar things to do to get both the muscle memory and the neural connections about them going.

epiccoleman 3y ago
I've thought about doing this too - and there are certainly things that are worth rote memorization on guitar. But my experience has been that things stick a million times better when I learn them in context and really focus on using them, so I'm unsure how useful implementing spaced repetition would be vs "just play yer guitar". That said, the notes on the fretboard is well worth the effort of rote memorization. I found the technique in this video[1] worked absurdly well for me. Years and years of only knowing the notes half-assed and not very well on the middle three strings got absolutely busted after doing this for a few minutes every time I was waiting on a build or something. I can nearly always find a note now, I'm not quite to instant recall but have substantially more ability in this regard now. A place where spaced repetition might be worth it is in memorizing all the triads or keys, which is good to have instant recall on. I have these decently in my head but usually have to "convert" from a nearby chord in C major for oddball ones, which is fine while practicing but not what you'd want for performance. [1]: https://youtu.be/PJddQ6Q0UDo?si=4dmR7_tlsWIhgvYg https://youtu.be/PJddQ6Q0UDo?si=4dmR7_tlsWIhgvYg
- kd5bjo 3y ago
  > I'm unsure how useful implementing spaced repetition would be vs "just play yer guitar" There's no reason you can't do both: Make flashcards that have a few bars of music on the front (tab or notation, whichever you use), and then actually play the music when the card comes up to figure out how the review should be rated.
  - epiccoleman 3y ago
    Absolutely - that sounds like it would be a good approach. The main point I'm trying to make is that (at least, in my experience) there at least two classes of "guitar-related information," one that's amenable to rote memorization - like the notes on the fretboard, music theory "facts", etc - and another category where the information sticks better and in a much more usable way if it's learned in context. I would think that "ear training" (specifically interval identification) would probably be somewhere in the middle - you could benefit simultaneously from the "rote" memorization and also apply it on the fretboard). I spent a long time just playing the different 3nps shapes and never had them really soak in until I started picking small chunks of them out as useful during improvisation and really focusing on them while playing over loops or just noodling. What would be really awesome, especially if you're improvisation focused, would be some cards that have a short backing section attached to them - so that you can hear some musical context and then work on some small chunk of information (like 2 or 3 strings of a scale). Something like that would probably the best of both worlds and I bet you could learn a lot of material really quickly that way.

by tetha 3y ago

epiccoleman 3y ago

I've thought about doing this too - and there are certainly things that are worth rote memorization on guitar. But my experience has been that things stick a million times better when I learn them in context and really focus on using them, so I'm unsure how useful implementing spaced repetition would be vs "just play yer guitar". That said, the notes on the fretboard is well worth the effort of rote memorization. I found the technique in this video[1] worked absurdly well for me. Years and years of only knowing the notes half-assed and not very well on the middle three strings got absolutely busted after doing this for a few minutes every time I was waiting on a build or something. I can nearly always find a note now, I'm not quite to instant recall but have substantially more ability in this regard now. A place where spaced repetition might be worth it is in memorizing all the triads or keys, which is good to have instant recall on. I have these decently in my head but usually have to "convert" from a nearby chord in C major for oddball ones, which is fine while practicing but not what you'd want for performance. [1]: https://youtu.be/PJddQ6Q0UDo?si=4dmR7_tlsWIhgvYg https://youtu.be/PJddQ6Q0UDo?si=4dmR7_tlsWIhgvYg

kd5bjo 3y ago
> I'm unsure how useful implementing spaced repetition would be vs "just play yer guitar" There's no reason you can't do both: Make flashcards that have a few bars of music on the front (tab or notation, whichever you use), and then actually play the music when the card comes up to figure out how the review should be rated.
- epiccoleman 3y ago
  Absolutely - that sounds like it would be a good approach. The main point I'm trying to make is that (at least, in my experience) there at least two classes of "guitar-related information," one that's amenable to rote memorization - like the notes on the fretboard, music theory "facts", etc - and another category where the information sticks better and in a much more usable way if it's learned in context. I would think that "ear training" (specifically interval identification) would probably be somewhere in the middle - you could benefit simultaneously from the "rote" memorization and also apply it on the fretboard). I spent a long time just playing the different 3nps shapes and never had them really soak in until I started picking small chunks of them out as useful during improvisation and really focusing on them while playing over loops or just noodling. What would be really awesome, especially if you're improvisation focused, would be some cards that have a short backing section attached to them - so that you can hear some musical context and then work on some small chunk of information (like 2 or 3 strings of a scale). Something like that would probably the best of both worlds and I bet you could learn a lot of material really quickly that way.