Page 63 - How to Shine on Stage

tation of a model, and by understanding and insight. Learning by trial
and error is about consolidating the correct movements and discarding
the unnecessary ones. In learning by imitation, the learner is exposed
to a model and the model’s behaviour, so that the learner can adopt the
model’s behavioural patterns. The adoption depends on attention, abil-
ity, and other personality traits. Adoption is the final stage of learning
by imitation and it requires proper motivation of the learner. Learning
by understanding and insight can be described as making quick, sudden
connections when faced with a challenging situation. Motor learning also 61
benefits from the understanding of the relationships between movements,
which is why it is sometimes introduced by short theoretical lessons.
The two most common strategies for learning an instrument are
learning by trial and error and learning by imitation. Initially, the teach-
er uses the lessons to guide the learner to correct, efficient practice by
their own example (learning by imitation). They “equip” the child with
some basic practice strategies so that the child can more or less success-
fully apply them at home (learning by trial and error). The practice of
a new piece starts with the cognitive strategy of repetition: an adequate
mental image of the piece has to be formed and stored in memory. This Indirect Factors of Musical Performance Success
is followed by a “rough practice”, which helps us to commit to working
memory the finger placement and information about the rhythmic, me-
lodic, and harmonic progression of the piece. When we begin to establish
relationships between parts of a piece during practice, repetition strate-
gies connect to elaboration strategies. Elaboration in learning the piano
also requires simultaneous playing with both hands, as we need to es-
tablish a relationship between the rhythmic and melodic elements in the
right and left hand. An important aspect of elaboration is the identifica-
tion of the main theme. This is where the organizational strategies come
in. The main theme appears several times in a piece, either in the same
form or as a variation. One of the organizational strategies is to mark the
more difficult parts, which will require more practice. We begin to use
metacognitive strategies when planning our practice. The student thinks
about how much time to spend practising the instrument each day, what
and how to practise each day (whether to play all the pieces each day or
just one in detail each day), whether to practise individually or together,
and whether to practise the technique of individual sections of the piece
or whether they are ready to focus on consolidating the whole. While the
student is practising, they are constantly monitoring their activity. In do-
ing so, they need to be attentive (they use counting, a metronome) and
sensitive to internal feedback. They need to employ regulation strategies
if they notice inadequacies in their playing. This means that they mark