Study Plans - Turn on Your Long Term Memory

Here is a small article from Time Magazine by Catharine Rankin, enjoy...
Do you try to learn things by blocking off a large chunk of time and going over and over the material until you've got it? Or do you study for short periods of time with breaks in between? Experiments with a variety of animals, including humans, have shown that spaced training - short blocks of learning repeating the same material and separated by rest periods as long as thirty to ninety minutes - works better than does training without breaks. Genetic studies with fruit flies, mice and sea slugs have demonstrated that spaced training triggers the development of long term memory by turning on a gene called CREB. When this powerful learning-and-memory gene is experimentally turned off or blocked, memory fails to form; if enough extra copies of the CREB gene are added, long-term memory is triggered after a single short term session.
I have had this up on the inside door of our cupboard for years.

Photo Link - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayswww/

Learning is a Two Step Process

I hear that practice at music schools is changing a bit. I hope so. At places like Julliard you would try to grab one of the limited number of practice rooms. Ok, you mananged to get one, so you camped out and practiced for hours so you wouldn't lose having a place to play that day.
Now, I hear, they take more breaks.
When we learn, it is a two step process. (1) Take in information. (2) Incorperate the new information into what we already know and believe.
If you study math for 2 hours then read history for a while, you won't find you retained the math as well as someone who took a break and shot hoops or napped afterward. Yeah, that's why people do well when they memorize right before bed. Learning is a two part process.
It is interesting that even exercise is a two step process. First you run, swim or lift weights. This makes small tears in your muscles. Then you rest at night or over a few days. During your resting, the small tears are repaired as new muscle tissue grows to connect them. It is the complete process of exercise (tearing down) and rest (repair) that is important.
Look at my post on Study Plans which quotes a Time Magazine research article showing how you learn as much studying in little bits as those who plod on unceasingly. Then you might want to get off the computer and take a walk or make a dagwood sandwich so you'll actually remember what you read...

Credits -
Photo from aaroscape on flickr.

Why Ancient Sounds?

Ancient Sounds is the title of a Paul Klee masterpiece. The name also reflects my interest in music. When you choose a career, you should look at the small clues. Do you like the smell of wood shavings and sawdust, then think perhaps of being a builder. As a child, I loved the sound of one even one piano key struck. And I have found that this deep down resonance has stayed with me. Klee had to choose between being a violinist or visual artist. I hope he choose what gave him the truest small pleasures, I think so. But not even creating great works such as his could ever make up for giving up what you were meant to love doing. Choose wisely.

Credits -
Photo taken from WebMuseum, Paris.

Please click on this Klee photo to see texture.