We’ve already discussed how one of the benefits of focused practice is better overall perception. By practicing in this new way, you will be able to see things much differently and more clearly.
This can be very motivating and inspiring to achieve more! Another benefit to focused practice is that you will be able to “know more.”
In other words, your knowledge base is building making it easier to read music in the future.
How to Improve Your Reading Skills – Know More
When you intentionally work through focused practice, you will begin to develop a knowledge base in reading music. This will help you down the road when you are trying to learn something new.
By having a good music reading foundation in place, your new information can build on prior knowledge making your overall learning that much faster and easier.
Because you are constantly trying to extend your abilities, you will by default gain additional knowledge as you go.
Long Term Benefits
Doing this for a long period of time will help you organize all of the facts and make it useful to you. Your new-found information will enable you to approach problems differently and more effectively.
The more you keep pursuing knowledge, the better you will get at learning and understanding new material. You will also be able to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information freeing your mind to work on what’s really important.
Study Yourself
When you do practice applying the principles of focused practice, study yourself. Really look at how you are acquiring knowledge.
By doing this, you will have a higher capability of predicting what most likely will happen next, leaving you better prepared to conquer your next problem.
Putting it into Practice
Ask yourself these questions when you are practicing:
1. What is going well?
2. How did I accomplish solving this problem?
3. What things did I do to make this kind of improvement?
4. Is there something I have learned in the past that would help me understand this new idea?
The more specific you can be, the better. Once you have discovered what’s working well for yourself, take note of it and even write it down. Concentrate on replicating what is working well for you.
There is no need to re-invent the wheel every time if you really pay attention to what you are doing. “Knowing more” means working a little smarter by looking deeper into your successes and filing them away to use for next time.
