Have you ever read the book, The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills
If you haven’t, I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
It’s a short, easy read full of powerful ideas.
I combined a few of these great tips together and came up with the 3 Good Ones In-A-Row method that I use for myself and my students.
It’s simple, time efficient, fun, and it produces incredible results.
The 3 Good Ones In-A-Row Method
Step 1: Find one small chunk to practice. (one measure, one line of music, one scale, etc.)
Step 2: Practice that chunk in slow motion checking for accuracy.
Step 3: Work towards 3 good ones in-a-row.
In other words, practice until you can play it perfectly 3 times in a row. If you make any mistakes along the way, the count goes back to zero and you must start all over again.
Why This Works
1) It’s a fun game that makes practice more engaging.
2) It requires you to focus. If your mind is wandering, you will take much longer to reach your goal.
3) This method helps you master anything in a short amount of time. But only if you choose one small chunk to focus on.
- If you’re not seeing results, then you need to make the chunk even smaller.
Keep It Simple
This practice method is so simple, anyone can do it. The formula is basically this:
1 Small Chunk + Focused Repetition = Results
Try it for yourself and let me know how it works for you…
I have used this method for years, even for memorizing poems and ritualistic work. Only for those I increased from 3 to 5 times . You are correct, though, this works extremely well.
Excellent! That is great to hear!
Great advice. Easy enough for a lazy easily distracted person like me to follow!
A variant I used long ago when teaching myself hacky sack was that I’d practice a kick until I got 10 perfect ones that popped up so I could catch them. But every miss I subtracted from the count. So if I hit 3 good ones, then missed one, the count dropped to 2. Once you can get 10 without any misses, you had it.
Hi Teresa,
I found your website and in particular the article: 3 Good Ones In-A-Row method.
This is so true! One of the wisdoms that I received of my music & martial art teachers in the past; You can not practice something too slow!
I give (as a hobby) Harmonica Therapy to lung patients (Better Breathing Group) and I will pass the “Good Ones 3 In-A-Row method” to them. I translated it into Dutch. Do you mind if I putt them, translated on my own website, with acknowledgment and your name placed?
I hope you don’t mind, if it is a problem, just let me know. I am also working my way true all the other tips on your website, great, thank you for making all of this available to us.
John Banen
Hi John, I don’t mind if you share my article on your website, but I do ask that you would provide a link back to the original article on my website.
I really enjoying your short concise lessons; the floormatting is clean and very eazy to read. I’ve never learned music but for some reason I wake up and decided to learn the tin whistle. Your website has been very helpful thank you for putting so much effort into making it so easy to learn.