I'm gonna tell you something that might sting a little.
That scale you've been practicing? The one you can play perfectly at 120 BPM without even thinking? You probably didn't learn as much from it as you think you did.
I know. I've been there. You run through C major ten times, nail it every time, feel like a champion. Except... two weeks later you're trying to improvise over a backing track and you can't find the D.
You got really good at the pattern. But you never actually learned the notes.
The Practice Trap (Blocked vs Interleaved)
There's this concept in learning science that changed how I think about practice. Researchers call it "blocked practice" versus "interleaved practice."
Blocked practice is what most of us do naturally. You pick one thing and repeat it over and over.
It feels productive. By rep number fifteen, you're faster and smoother than rep number one.
Here's the problem: it's kind of an illusion. Your brain is optimizing for that specific sequence. It stops treating each note as a decision and starts running the whole thing as one automated chunk.
The Frustrating Method That Actually Works
Interleaved practice is the opposite. You mix everything up. Random order. No predictable patterns.
- Find Bb on the D string
- Now find F# on the A string
- Now E on the G string
- Now back to C but on a different string
And honestly? It feels terrible.
You're slower. You make more mistakes. But research shows the person doing interleaved practice will remember more a week later.
Your Brain Needs Resistance
There's a term researchers use: "desirable difficulty."
When learning feels too easy, your brain kind of checks out. That moment when you're staring at the fretboard thinking "wait, where the hell is Eb?" — that's your brain actually working. That pause, that search, that little bit of frustration? That's deep encoding happening.
Why It Feels Like You're Getting Worse
When you switch from blocked to interleaved practice, you will feel like you've regressed. Your brain will scream at you. "This isn't working! Go back to the old way!"
Ignore it. That feeling of fluency during blocked practice is misleading. Researchers actually call it the "illusion of competence."
How I Use This
- Warmup (5 min): Regular scale stuff. Get the fingers moving.
- Random drilling (10-15 min): This is where the real learning happens. Notes come at me with no pattern. It's slow and annoying. That's how I know it's working.
- Actual playing (however long): Songs, improvisation, whatever. The fun part.
Embrace the chaos.