FAQ for "Change Your Habits, Change Your Playing" with Phil Goldenberg!
Hello and welcome to an extraordinary Community Challenge!
In this month's Community Challenge, we invited guitar virtuoso Phil Goldenberg to host our very first Guest Community Challenge! 
Over four weeks, he will challenge the way you practice and help you become more efficient in the way you learn!
Change Your Habits, Change Your Playing
All great performances are made in the practice room. We often hear about the long hours that our favorite musicians put in to achieve their greatness, but we don't hear exactly what they did in that practice room that yielded such fantastic results. In this challenge, I'll be giving you the techniques I've learned from some of the best players and teachers of classical guitar to revolutionize your practice routine. From how to make the most out of a short practice session, to gearing up for a serious performance I'll cover everything you'll need to know to push past your latest plateau and reach new heights in your guitar playing!
The When:
- June 7: Kick-Off - How to practice when there is no time!
- June 14: Technique work that shines in your pieces!
- June 21: Expressive practice!
- June 28: Perfect Performance Practicing!
The How:
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Start by watching the weekly Livestreams with Phil!
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Learn about the assignments in the Livestreams and the Challenge Threads. You'll be given a new assignment each week!
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If you are comfortable with it, add a video or audio of yourself performing the assignments. This will allow you to share your progress with Phil and others!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Can I join the challenge if I wasn't there on June 7th?
Yes! Just make sure you keep practicing every day and updating us at least twice a week.
I have a question, who do I ask?
Feel free to use this thread to ask any questions about this challenge! If you prefer to ask something in a more confidential setting, please use my email: [email protected] or write me DM through the Forum!
↓ Reply with other questions below! ↓
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Looking forward to it, Martin!
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Nigel Thomson Fantastic! Glad to have you here!
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How do we sign up?
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peter hancock Hi Peter! This is an open challenge, you simply watch the livestreams by Phil where he explains the assignments and then you work on them in the weekly updates thread :)
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This sounds like exactly what I need! Looking forward to it Martin
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Ron Fantastic, I hope we all learn something along the way!
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Do I have sign up. What time does the 6.7.22 session begin
Peter
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peter hancock Hi Peter, the live stream on June 7th starts at 11am PT!
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Martin Thanks
Peter
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Phil Goldenberg Thanks for the livestream. I just watched it but a bit confused on the part where you mentioned about bringing things from short term memory to long term memory?
Do you mean that in a 'tomato' session of 30 mins, you do multiple of hyper-focused bite size practice of no more than 3 mins. And the entirety of that 30 mins is dedicated to just one particular spot? Or multiple spots in one particular 30 mins session? Thanks!
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don Hey Don! So as I understand it, as we learn things we bring them into our short term memory. As you're doing that task, your brain is using the information stored in your short term memory to complete that task. Then as you move away from that task and do something else, your brain sorts through that information and commits some portion of it to long-term memory and throw the rest away. Thats why when we play a new piece for a while it starts to get memorized, then when you come back to it the next day it feels like its not as memorized as the day before.
Knowing this, we can use short practice sessions to maximize our learning. In three minutes we'll take a section and put it into our short-term memory, then move on. Our brain will put some amount of that information into long-term memory and throw the rest away. Then we come back to that section either later in the practice section, later in the day or tomorrow and work it again for 3 minutes, our brain will put that information in short-term memory, the brain will put more of it into long-term memory and again throw out the rest. These 2 3-minute sessions achieve more than 1 6-30 minute session of the same section because we skip the part of the practice session where our brain is reading the information that is stored in short term memory. That part we skip is often fun and feels like we're making progress because we're playing better, but those results won't stick around tomorrow because not all of that information will be processed by the brain into long-term memory.
As for your 2nd question, we definitely want to be hitting multiple spots in each "Pomodoro" section. The Pomodoro Technique is to prevent burnout and mental fatigue - more on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique . Within each pomodoro you'll want to break up your practice further into spots of 3 minutes so you can maximize your results (put the most amount of spots into your short-term memory for your brain to digest).
Let me know if that helps! Happy Practicing!
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Phil Goldenberg Thanks Phil, this is really an interesting topic for me personally. I've actually been doing most of the bad examples that you mentioned in your live stream, learning page by page, mindless practices etc. I'm really hopeful this will improve my practice now. Thanks!
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hi, Martin, where can I find the live streams (by Phil) link? I wonder how we customize our practice sessions to suit our needs and skill playing level besides the normal program we used to know and learn.
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Lawrence Hi Lawrence, you can browse past livestreams directly on the tonebase live page here or you navigate to our Live Calendar and click on past!
Here is the link for Phil's livestream:
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/live/player/phil-goldenberg-how-to-practice-when-there-is-no-time
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Phil Goldenberg I started using the 3 minute spot practice today and found it was very helpful. I was surprised how long 3 minutes is?
I did make a small modification. After the 3 minute focus session I then played the measures before and after the spot I had practiced. It gave me a better sense of where I am on that spot.
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Martha Kreipke Hi Martha! You can always feel free to modify anything in my process to better fit your needs. We all work differently!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
