One goal of studying music is to turn disconnected pieces of information and behaviors into a single, unified, meaningful idea or behavior…
The integration of many parts into integrated wholes is called chunking.
Chunking is a huge contributor to music mastery because it simplifies the work that our brains have to do. Chunking allows us to transform the impossible task of doing many complicated things at the same time into the easy task of doing just one or two simple things at a time.
By the way, chunking is how you are reading these words. You are chunking individual, meaningless things called letters into unified, meaningful things called words. Musical literacy is the same thing.
Examples of Musical Chunking
- Organizing groups of notes into scales.
- Organizing groups of notes into chords.
- Learning a left hand accompaniment as one unified idea, not separate notes.
- Instead of thinking about two hands, think as if you’re playing with a ten finger hand.
The implications for studying and practicing are profound:
- When you study, look for unifying patterns that allow you to turn many things into one or few.
- Never play one note at a time. Always study and perform in meaningful musical chunks.
learn more…
How Your Brain Works: Consolidation
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