A student of mine played all the songs she learnt correctly without a single mistake by memory and I was pleasantly surprised and asked her the secret. She said: NO PRACTICE! (What ?!) She went on saying she didn't practise at home once she got it right in the class because if she practised at home but went wrong, it stays in her brain, and she might keep playing it wrong over and over again, pointing at her head. What a discovery I exclaimed: "It's the biggest discovery in the century!"and she jokingly answered she found it out when she was a baby ;D.
So, is there any truth to my student's secret? According to neuroscience, our brain is indeed like a roadmap, full of neural pathways that were being created when an action is taken. So once a pathway was created and repeated over time, it will become our main driveway of action by default. These driveways determine our thought and behaviour patterns, akin to computer programmes, that's why we say humans are creatures of habits! So to a certain extent it's true of what my student said about how wrong things might get stuck in the mind, but we surely could keep practising if things are right. :D
So, I would say STOP once we start to make mistakes, and practise when things go right. My secret is to pause in the class when the notes start to mess up and ask my student to relax and shake their body, and redo once ready. ;)
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