7 repetitions to learn anything

[leucippus]

now, if his way of being efficient is to do the minimal work to get to the point of 'learned' - i would try to do five repetitions and see if the sixth and seventh could be nixed.  thereby, shaving off untold hours of practice on say a piano concerto.

I think we're talking more about it being memorized after seven repetitions, that doesn't necessarily mean that it has been "learned" in the sense that it's completely finished and refined.

There's certainly nothing wrong with practicing passages longer.  If you've "learned it" (memorized) it after doing it 7 times you can still go on to focus on the more subtle aspects of musicality.  The 7-repetitions idea doesn't mean to stop cold after 7 repetitions.

I think the whole point of the 7-repetitions thing is that if it's taking you more than 7-repetitions to memorize it then it's too big a chunk of data.

The actual title of this tread is misleading (7 repetitions to learn anything)

That makes it sound like you should be able to learn anything if you do it 7 times.  I don't think that's the point.  I think the point is that if you haven't learned it (memorized it) in 7 repetitions then you're trying to learn too much at one time.

It's more of a rule of thumb to decide whether or not you're breaking the piece up into small enough parts that can be easily memorized.

At least that's my understanding of the whole idea here.  It's not meant to imply that you will can simply learn *anything* by doing it 7 times.  Or that after having done it 7 times you no longer need to practice it because it's *perfect* in every way.

It just means that if you haven't memorized something after doing it 7 times then you're trying to remember too much in one sitting and you should break it up into smaller parts.

[bernhard]

I think we're talking more about it being memorized after seven repetitions, that doesn't necessarily mean that it has been "learned" in the sense that it's completely finished and refined.

There's certainly nothing wrong with practicing passages longer.  If you've "learned it" (memorized) it after doing it 7 times you can still go on to focus on the more subtle aspects of musicality.  The 7-repetitions idea doesn't mean to stop cold after 7 repetitions.

I think the whole point of the 7-repetitions thing is that if it's taking you more than 7-repetitions to memorize it then it's too big a chunk of data.

The actual title of this tread is misleading (7 repetitions to learn anything)

That makes it sound like you should be able to learn anything if you do it 7 times.  I don't think that's the point.  I think the point is that if you haven't learned it (memorized it) in 7 repetitions then you're trying to learn too much at one time.

It's more of a rule of thumb to decide whether or not you're breaking the piece up into small enough parts that can be easily memorized.

At least that's my understanding of the whole idea here.  It's not meant to imply that you will can simply learn *anything* by doing it 7 times.  Or that after having done it 7 times you no longer need to practice it because it's *perfect* in every way.

It just means that if you haven't memorized something after doing it 7 times then you're trying to remember too much in one sitting and you should break it up into smaller parts.

Yes, this is very correct.

Bw
B.

[nick]

Hey, I think Hanon's good for you and I'm not even a professionalist.

And now that I've read this thread I can start breaking Hanon down into part that I can learn in 7 minutes.

Er, I mean seven days.

Or was that seven practice sessions?

Hmmmm?




I better go back and read this thread seven times until I can remember it.

Then if that's too much, I'll have to break it up into single posts and read them seven times each.

Oh heck with this!

I'm going to go practice the piano. 

Did I tell everyone that I'm learning a Debussy prelude?

Yeah me! 

I'm going to go apply the 7-times rule to some parts of it right now.

This is so exciting!

That my friend, was well said, and funny! thanks.

Nick

[futureconcertpianist]

Why not just decide to play through the bar once and memorize it? After all imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is just a collective belief system.
Why not independantly choose to believe you can play through the page once and it is memorized? You can do it if you believe it without doubt, you can also not do it if you do not believe it.
Yeah at first it will take some risk coming out of your current mind frame and you will stumble a few times but you will get use to it and start enjoying the ability to learn a 5 minute piece in an hour or so.