🧠 Do you watch experts before practicing?

Hey music makers!

I fell short this week. Hit 4 hours of practice instead of my 5-hour target.

I’m currently in this weird space in terms of motivation. It’s not really there at the start of the week. Then after a few practice sessions, I’m reminded of how fun this is and how much I'm progressing in these short bursts and the motivation comes back even stronger.

So I've been experimenting with something to keep that reminder constant which is watching who I want to become.

This is called observational practice

At a glance this might appear as getting inspired by watching great players. But with this practice you’re building what Daniel Coyle calls a "high-definition mental blueprint" by watching a skill being performed closely, with great intensity, over and over.

I found this example in The Little Book of Talent:

The 5th Special Forces Group of the Green Berets started a leadership training program where soldiers spent several weeks shadowing executives at General Electric. They went to the office each morning and just observed. They weren’t given any responsibilities or tasks outside of watching how the executives worked.

When the soldiers returned to their unit, commanders noticed a significant boost in performance, communication, and leadership.

"It was definitely a success," said Lieutenant Colonel Dean Franks. "We're planning to do a lot more of this in the future."

Just from watching.

Personal proof it works: My first dance

While performing observtional practice this week I was reminded of my wedding.

My wife and I wanted to learn a Vietnamese waltz for our first dance, but we didn't have extra money in the budget for dance lessons. So instead, I found a Dancing with the Stars performance of a beautiful waltz to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.

I recorded it on my iPad and used a sports coaching app to slow down the entire routine. We watched it over and over. Move by move. Step by step. We studied every part of the dancers' bodies, foot placement, hand positions, and head angles.

We taught ourselves the entire dance. And we performed it at our wedding with no falls or accidents.

All from close observation first, then practice.

Meta-learning update: the map is getting real

Last week I introduced meta-learning. The idea of mapping out what you need to learn before you start.

This week, I've been doing the actual mapping work for guitar and bass. It takes time, on average about 10% of your total budgeted project time, so 6-8 hours per instrument to do it properly.

But here's what it's revealing so far:

Meta-learning is bringing clarity to the conceptual gaps in my skill foundation. Things I didn't even know I was missing.

For example: I thought I was ready to jump into intermediate material on both instruments. But the mapping is showing me I need more time in the beginner and late beginner stages. My fundamentals have gaps that will limit my progress if I don't address them now.

This might affect my initial timeline. I'm not committing to a course correction yet, but I'm seeing it clearly now.

And that's exactly why you do meta-learning. Better to discover this now than three months in.

You can learn more about this idea in Scott Young’s book Ultralearning (Amazon)

The connection:

Observational practice and meta-learning are doing the same thing from different angles.

Watching great players shows me the technique gaps I need to fix.

Meta-learning shows me the conceptual gaps in my skill foundation.

Both are forms of seeing the map before walking the territory.

Next week, I'll share more about what my complete meta-learning maps look like and why I wish I'd done this before starting the challenge instead of building it 5 weeks in. It's becoming one of the most valuable parts of this whole experiment.

The adjustment: Observational practice is now part of my daily routine. I watch before sessions and plan on watching before bed some days. I'm also finishing the meta-learning mapping over the next week or two.

And I might need to slow down and strengthen more fundamentals before pushing into intermediate material.

Trust the process, even when it means adjusting the original plan.

Quick question: Do you watch experts before you practice?

Hit reply. I'm curious how observational learning works for different people.

P.S. Still interested in the Harmony Vault. Check it out.

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