Music Gifts: What Does Sleep Have To Do With It?
We are having so much fun with music gifts. I have created another popular “Sleep On It” painting which is printed in my new book on practicing for music students. What does sleep have to do with it? Recent sleep research has deciphered more about phases of sleep and what happens in your sleeping brain. And it’s fascinating! Personally, I have always had sleep problems. While creating my 2nd book about practicing, I read a number of books about sleep (and about other ideas for practicing music), and am ready to apply some of what I have learned to my flute music making in an experimental fashion. Though there are pages in the book, Passion For Practice With Musings From Music Masters about both memorization and about using sleep to help your practice, I have neither memorized much music nor, ha ha, slept well much in my past. I decided that now is a good time to start learning to do both. (I am getting my first sleep counselor session this week.) An amazing way to start growing my brain cells in my older years.
Below is the new “Sleep On It” Painting and to the right, the new product created from it.
Click HERE to shop for the book that includes this painting and plenty of practice tips and stories.
Click HERE to shop for this beautiful shirt. I think just the sleeping cat art would tempt me to buy it!
Have you ever practiced late at night, and were frustrated with your progress? Magic happens if you go to sleep and wake up and try to play again. One time, i practiced two measures of a Mozart Allegro over and over for 20 minutes, trying to get them to a faster tempo. I was so upset at my lack of progress that I put my flute down and didn’t pick it up to practice again for three whole days. When I picked it up, I could play it up to speed on the first try! It was magic! This magic has been explained by sleep scientists. Your brain reviews and reinforces things that you learn while you are asleep, and the neuron connections are strengthened. This is why you need to be careful about practicing a phrase incorrectly, because when you sleep your brain will reinforce the incorrect learning of the music!
Anyway, I recently decided to memorize some music as an exercise. It does NOT come naturally to me. So instead of getting really frustrated, I happily went to sleep. It took several days of trying to memorize some short music pieces, happily not getting frustrated, but instead counting on my sleep reinforcing my work to improve. I truly only barely sleep. I think that’s why it took 3 days instead of one or two. But it worked. I successfully performed the short memorized pieces a couple weeks later for some children.
I hope you will try this kind of practice and gift yourself some fun music progress. Note that my book, Passion For Practice With Musing From Music Masters has many tips and stories for you to enjoy.
