Teaching tools for instrumental music teachers, musicians, vocalists and students
Rapidly correct persistent errors in understanding, performance, instrumental technique and habit patterns

Habit patterns

Instrumental music teachers, musicians and students try to get it right the first time but invariably end up spending a time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.

Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over, i.e., practiced, many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and therefore much harder to eradicate.

For example, John always has the wrong posture at the piano and Mary's bowing technique has still not improved despite repeated correction.

We all know that old habits die hard and many habit patterns are resistant to conventional change methods.

These limitations of traditional teaching, coaching and training programs are apparent in all settings including music, sport, workplace training, education, therapy and personal development.

Re-training or re-education, the typical solution to these problems, improves things only slowly, if at all.

Students and performers appear to pay attention during instruction and actually improve. They practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over but the next day, when placed under performance pressure or when unsupervised and left to their own devices, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve learned and the same habit pattern errors, e.g., old entrenched attitudes, misunderstandings and poor techniques, resurface.

A prolonged adjustment period and poor transfer of learning are the typical outcomes of teaching, training and coaching efforts worldwide.

All this wastes talent and resources and makes change and transition programs so much less cost-effective. There has to be a better way.

Fortunately, a cognitive science discovery called Old Way New Way^® Learning offers:

• A new perspective on the transfer of learning problem.

• A cost-effective and user-friendly method for rapid skill and technique correction and habit eradication.

• A fast and practical method of transition and conversion training.

This page tells the story of habit forces; how and why habits develop; the crucial role habits play in our lives; why old habits die hard; and what you can do to change that for music technique improvement using the Old Way New Way^® change tool.

Training options

Training in Old Way New Way^® Learning is available in an online course, either with or without email support, or in a training workshop for small groups.

Online course

Online courses are designed by professional educators and follow modern instructional design principles. The Flash based courses can be downloaded and are self-paced, interactive and self contained. Step by step instructions, examples and case studies teach you all about Old Way New Way^® Learning and how to apply it to a wide range of human performance problems in your field of interest. Most courses include at least one video segment that shows Old Way New Way being used; some courses contain four video segments. Online courses that come with with email support cost more but are tailor made and provide step by step solutions for your own selection of specific performance problems.

Workshop

The one-day training workshop provides face-to-face instruction and follow up support for small groups of practitioners, e.g., teachers, instrumental musicians, vocalists, and so on.

Music performance

Technique correction

Contact

Ask us

music technique correction program

will greatly improve music performance
will quickly correct bad habits, poor technique and other performance faults
reduces performance anxiety and its debilitating effects
greatly improves transfer of learning
increases performer flexibility and adaptability to change
is backed by published research, case studies and performance trials
is readily adopted by music teachers and performance coaches as part of their professional toolkit.

music technique correction—habit pattern errors in music performance

It's not learning the new; it's forgetting (unlearning) the old! Old Way New Way offers a new theory and a method for overcoming errors, misconceptions and entrenched old ways so music teachers and their students can achieve continuous improvement.

Persistent errors and misconceptions, known as habit pattern errors, in the learning of music are notoriously resistant to correction by conventional teaching methods. Old Way New Way^® offers a new theory and a user friendly method for quickly correcting these errors, once and for all.

music technique correction—students just keep falling back to old ways—the transfer of learning problem in music performance

One of the most time consuming, frustrating and costly aspects of music teaching is that, despite quality teaching, expert learning support and advice, caring friends, and the strongest self-determination to improve, music students still improve only slowly and often keep falling back to old ways.

For example:

despite quality teaching, why do your capable and motivated students keep making the same mistakes?
why do students hang on to their wrong technique and misconceptions in musical performance, despite being shown the error of their ways?
does improvement have to be so slow, difficult, frustrating and expensive?
did you know that with conventional change methods it can take up to 2,000 repetitions before a student is competent and comfortable with the new way you are trying to teach them?

Because we are not a blank slate, change and improvement is hard. Self-teaching attempts, observation, education, training and practice have given us prior knowledge and skills. Consequently, we all have our own way.

But our "own way" of performing music, developed and practiced over the years, has now become habitual and automated. Like most of the routines we follow in our lives, from the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed, music performance skills are soon automated and operate mostly beyond our conscious awareness. Many of these performance routines are not within our direct conscious control. In fact, much of our life is "automatic" and we run many things and respond to many situations as if we were on "automatic pilot."

This has clear advantages for us in our attempts to cope with life's demands. For example, when learning to play the piano we initially have to concentrate on each and every step. Then, with practice comes learning and what took so much concentrated effort and conscious control before now happens almost without thinking. Instead of concentrating on our fingering technique we can now leave that part to the "automatic pilot" and instead direct our mental energy to interpreting the musical piece.

Such automated skilled routines serve as well as long as nothing changes. Try changing to a car without a manual shift or one that has the windscreen wiper control lever on the "wrong" side and you will discover the interference generated by your prior learning.

Automatic, learned skill routines and ways of coping with the world that we have picked up over the years are not always the best ones. Sometimes, for one reason or another, we get it wrong. Our music performance habits may not be the best ones because initially we were not taught properly. Since you learn, i.e., automate, whatever it is that you practice, it is likely that when you practice inferior instrument playing skills then that is what you will end up with as a performance habit.

If not corrected early, those wrong ideas and inferior skills we have will quickly develop into learned errors, technique difficulties, misconceptions and ingrained bad habits.

Habits are automatic, reflex-like acts and behaviours that are not under conscious control - by the time you realise what you've done wrong, its too late to stop

Convinced that it's time to change, you seek help. Your music teacher points out your errors, shows you a better way and you copy and practice it.

While this teacher is alongside and giving you cues for the new, correct performance, you can do the right thing and appear to have improved. During these one-on-one sessions your music performance starts to sound much better.

You can do the right thing afterwards, too but you have to concentrate hard each time on exactly what to do. The new knowledge, action, technique or performance feels strange having done it the other way for so long.

Because the new technique differs from the old there is a conflict or tension between them. Your brain detects this conflict and instantly activates a knowledge protection mechanism called proactive inhibition (PI for short).

PI is a well researched psychological phenomenon. PI protects all your learned knowledge and skills, right and wrong, and strongly resists and slows down any attempt to change or improve your prior knowledge and skills.

We all have this knowledge protection mechanism but it is stronger in some people. It is an unconscious mechanism and we have little or no control over it.

If you have not already experienced the brief demonstration of PI from the colour chart activities, please go there now and do that. Then come back to this section by following the Music Performance link. Go to the PI demonstration.

The level of PI a person has is not associated with his or her intellectual ability or "IQ".

PI is why old knowledge, skills, habits and techniques die hard and why self-improvement is so difficult, slow and frustrating under conventional training methods.

PI causes accelerated forgetting (within minutes or hours) of the new way and this is why you then appear to revert and go back to your old incorrect or inappropriate way of performing. You know what you're doing wrong and what you should do, and you're highly motivated to improve, but your brain (force of habit, i.e., PI) won't let you change.

It is a sad fact that with conventional music teaching methods it can take you up to 2,000 repetitions of the new way before you are comfortable with and competent using the new technique.

This is known as the transfer of learning problem.

Now you know what the problem is and what it feels like, you are ready for the solution. Being aware of PI and it's effects, however, is not enough to overcome it. Simply re-teaching a music performance skill, action or information, even when supported by specific videotaped feedback to improve awareness, is unlikely to work quickly, if at all. You need an alternative teaching method that bypasses habit interference altogether in order to accelerate learning and skill development. This teaching method is called Old Way New Way^®.

music technique correction with Old Way New Way^® learning

Personal Best Academy uses and teaches Old Way New Way^® to music teachers and their students.

Old Way New Way^® is not like behaviour modification, brainwashing, hypnosis or NLP, nor is it a kind of psychological conditioning.

It is a new learning method that is readily incorporated into what music teachers and students normally do and is well accepted by learners because it is very user-friendly.

Based on a novel interpretation and synthesis of well researched and accepted learning principles, Old Way New Way^® is far superior to conventional approaches to correcting errors and misconceptions, improving understanding, correcting technique problems and developing new skills.

With Old Way New Way^® there is no need for special equipment, although the use of video feedback, stop-motion analysis and kinaesthetic feedback can be helpful with complicated performance skills.

Old Way New Way^® works with the brain, not against it, to accelerate the natural process of change.

music technique correction—a new model for music teaching

Old Way New Way^® is a unique example of successful collaboration between researchers and practitioners to design the most effective teaching and learning protocols.
Old Way New Way^® is basically a Neo-Constructivist model - the learner is the one who is responsible for learning, understanding and changing.
The teacher's ability to identify and diagnose the error or technique problem is critical, as is his or her ability to identify, explain and demonstrate to the learner the "correct" knowledge, skill or technique. This befits the teacher's role as the subject matter expert.
The learner can be empowered through Old Way New Way^® to take on personal responsibility for improving.
The learner's prior knowledge and skills (incorrect as well as correct) must be incorporated into any teaching strategy.
If no conflict is likely between new and pre-existing knowledge and skills, then a conventional teaching strategy is OK and new knowledge and skills will consolidate and build on old.
However, when prior knowledge and skills are likely to conflict with the new, the learner needs to follow prescribed Old Way New Way^® procedures and not just attempt to practice the new while ignoring pre-existing knowledge and skills.

music technique correction case studies

All kinds of skills, technique difficulties, misconceptions, misunderstandings, actions and behaviours can be corrected, including music performance. This section features some of the many areas of performance improvement where Old Way New Way^® has improved learning. This broad application shows that it is a generic learning method that directly tackles habit pattern errors that are so often a major obstacle to rapid progress.

Click on the links below to read details of some of these case studies.

We have successfully corrected misconceptions, improved understanding, corrected errors and faulty technique, unlearned habits, changed behaviour and developed skills in a wide range of learning activities, for example:

Musical performance: Controlling stress and performance anxiety; keying, bowing and fingering technique
Literacy: Reading, spelling, reversals, handwriting
Numeracy: Correcting misconceptions in knowledge of maths concepts, e.g., percentage, fractions, area, subtraction
Second language acquisition: Overcoming mother-tongue interference and fossilisation
Science teaching: Correcting misconceptions in physics and chemistry knowledge using a whole-class rather than a one-to-one use of Old Way / New Way
Vocational training: Soldering, carpentry, handling and cutting glass, drafting, animal science
Driver training and retraining: Correcting habitual driving behaviour that increases wear and tear or reduces driving safety margins
Assertiveness training: Developing assertive skills in an employment situation
Speech pathology: Articulation, language, stuttering
Physiotherapy: Correcting a long-established injury-causing gait .

music technique correction program for music teachers

Choose from these music performance rapid technique improvement program formats.

Option 1. Music technique correction—full music performance rapid technique improvement program including 2 video segments

Flash based course including two ten-minute video demonstrations. Order form.

Option 2. Music technique correction—tailor made online course

Online music performance rapid technique improvement program, with step-by-step guidance and support in a course that is customised just for you. Order form.

Option 3. Music technique correction workshop

One-day music teacher development workshop tailor made for music teachers from beginner to advanced. Email us.

order form

Purchase our online music performance teaching skills course.

Teaching tools for instrumental music teachers, musicians, vocalists and students Rapidly correct persistent errors in understanding, performance, instrumental technique and habit patterns