“If at first you don’t succeed try doing what your teacher told you the first time.”
Musical U with their Superlearning course seeks to figure out how we can improve at the fastest rate possible. Why is it that some musicians are able to make much faster progress than others? Are they gifted? More talented? Practice more?
The truth is that these “gifted” musicians are simply practicing their instruments in a fundamentally different way…
Many of us think we know how to practice, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case. The hard work they are putting into practice isn’t paying out and this can be the biggest cause of frustration for us classical musicians.
Our music can often be so challenging and then on top of that there is a multitude of exercises and techniques to work on that we feel we don’t have enough time for.
But what if time wasn’t the issue but instead it was how we were practicing that was causing us to not develop and overcome our technical plateaus?
What Their ‘Musical Superlearning’ Course Teaches
Most people don’t understand the learning process. Regardless of the instrument you play, in order to improve, you have to practice. But, you HAVE to practice EFFECTIVELY too.
The course teaches you to be mindful of how you practice and how the mistakes we make while playing can lead us to the solutions. ‘Musical Superlearning’ bridges the gap between modern approaches to learning, various neuroscience concepts, and musical learning.
By creating exercises and musical challenges that you quickly work through, the Superlearning course moves you through creating moments of difficulty in order to make the music we play much easier. The course teaches us to be much more deliberate and mindful in how we practice.
The Course Structure
The Musical U course goes suggests you stick to these suggestions to get the most from their course:
- Doing the exercises as instructed
- Sticking to the pacing of the course
- Not being afraid to experiment
- And getting involved within the community
The following are their course modules:
- Module 1 - Contextual Interference and Desirable Difficulty
- Module 2 - Deliberate Practice
- Module 3 - Retrieval Practice and Musical Memory
- Module 4 - Mindset and Flow
There are additional Q&A calls and group coaching that take place. Every lesson also has a wide community discussion that spans pages!
The lessons themselves are straightforward with a lesson per day and a module per week. You get a grasp of the learning process quickly too. You’ll go through a cycle of learning, practicing, and applying various neuroscience concepts like muscle memory.
There are case studies they use to help teach their ‘Suerlearning’ concepts.
You’ll quickly see that you overcome the frequent mistakes that you make within your own music you’re working on by creating exercises and a practice plan for those errors.
Our Thoughts
The Musical U ‘Musical Superlearning’ Course does a great job of reworking our pre-conceived thoughts on practice.
They fit within the old saying, “Give a man a fish and you’ve fed him a day, teach him to fish and you’ve fed him for life.” They intentionally do both by delivering big immediate impact exercises as well as empowering you to use the tools they teach in a flexible creative way that will suit you and your musical journey.
Learn more at Musical Superlearning (musical-u.com)
