On How Learning Happens - 1
Bridging the gap between the classroom and the real world
So, are there any parallels in the way one learns music and the subjects that we learn or teach in the classrooms?
The answer is a resounding yes.
From a meta level, a musician playing flawlessly (creating magic) on the stage is near similar to an MBA student coming up with analogies and creative solutions during a design thinking workshop.
Both of them have learned, practiced, and repeated it so many times that both can seemingly come up with magic on the stage and on the workshop. Both are performing.
Creating Magic
I can relate to what Charlie Hunter1, guitar extraordinaire, shares about creating “magic” in the stage. From the theoretical perspective of how we learn and how learning happens, his explanation makes perfect sense.
And from the audience’s perspective, it doesn’t matter how long how hard you’ve trained.
When someone goes to concerts or music shows, primarily, they want to have a good time. They don’t want the musicians to explain the theories or the nuts and bolts behind how they practiced and created the music. They just want to listen to the songs and enjoy.
They most definitely don’t care about chord progression or the tempo or the musical theory used in the songs.
It would be like going to a comedy show and the comedian starts to explain the process of constructing jokes.
Alright, let’s watch this short video and listen to Charlie Hunter explaining the difference between learning and performing.
Like Hunter says, the audience doesn’t pay to see science. No one wants to see science. Therefore, the musicians must “keep the science part for the practice, and bring magic for the stage.”
The question is: how can a musician bring magic into the stage?
“The idea is that,” Hunter explains, “you just practice that stuff again and again and again, and make it as internalized as possible so that when you get on the stage, you’re not ruining your own vibe by thinking about it. But again it’s a process. You’re going to ruin your vibe from time to time.”
Great explanation.
Practice till you internalize the chords, the techniques, the theories. And, when you are performing on the stage, do not think about the technique aspect otherwise you will “ruin your own vibe”.
Then he goes on to play blues, completely improvised right on the spot.
“The more time you spend practicing, the less time you have to spend thinking about it - to the point where you can just let it come.”
Perfect.
Bottomline:
The LEARNING part, which happens mostly in the classroom or a formal setting, is understanding the nuts and bolts part. The repetition part. The practice part. The building of the foundation part. Moving from the conscious, deliberate, effortful part to the unconscious, automatic, intuitive part.
The DOING part — when you have to apply your knowledge to solve problems, to come up with new ideas, to view the world through critical eyes — is the magic part.
For learners: Don’t get frustrated during the learning phase by thinking about the doing part.
For teachers: Don’t skip the learning part and expect students to be doing and performing. Without building the foundations in the learning part, your students won’t be able to do problem solving, critical thinking, creative works, or collaborative tasks.
For guitar enthusiasts, here’s something about Charlie Hunter:
Charlie Hunter (born May 23, 1967) is an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. First coming to prominence in the early 1990s, Hunter plays custom-made seven- and eight-string guitars on which he simultaneously plays bass lines, chords, and melodies. Critic Sean Westergaard described Hunter's technique as "mind-boggling...he's an agile improviser with an ear for great tone, and always has excellent players alongside him in order to make great music, not to show off. (Wikipedia)