Deep Practice: The Key to Mastery

Michael Bauer
Crown Center Sheraton Hotel - GILLHAM

This workshop will explore the notion of deep practice as a means of achieving mastery in our playing. Deep practice is purposeful and guided by our own personal goals. As such it draws on sources of motivation that are present within each one of us. The workshop will begin by contrasting deep practice with informal practice. Learning theory and brain research will help us understand the distinctions between these two approaches. Next, we will look at the factors that both help and inhibit our ability to engage in deep practice. These include conceptual, motivational, environmental, and social factors.

Following this introduction, we will trace the notion of deep practice through the four principal stages of the learning process: preparation, learning, practicing, and over-learning. This journey will show us a wide variety of practice techniques and how they are integrated into each phase of learning a new piece of organ music.

Thursday, July 5
11:00 – 11:45am