If you attended my lightning talk at the NFA Convention, you can find a breakdown of my talk and more resources here!
Here's a brief recap of my talk:
What is interleaved practicing? In a practice session, repetitions of two or more similar activities are mixed or alternated
How is interleaved practicing different from blocked practicing? All repetitions of an activity are completed before moving onto the next activity
Why is interleaved practicing effective? By splitting things up, you emphasize retrieval practice: by switching tasks more quickly you initiate the ‘forgetting process’ so your brain has to work harder to retrieve the correct set of motor programs specific to it. Long term learning happens when you’re struggling to retrieve the correct sequence of motor movements from all the incorrect ones
How do I do it? There are two ways to go about it, 1) Placing a time limit on practicing with each segment getting a fixed amount of time. 2)Practicing until a passage feels completed and returning to it later to check learning. **important part is that in both scenarios the section practiced is returned to within the same practice session**
If you want to dive right in, try out this rotation with 2 orchestral excerpts and a tricky bit in a Mozart Concerto:
Practice chunks to use:
Mozart Concerto in D maj. K. 314: mm. 86-89
Dvorak Symphony no. 8 excerpt (pg. 24 in Baxtresser vol. 1): reh. D to E
Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 4 excerpt from mvmt. 3 (pg. 59 in Baxtresser vol. 1): reh. E to end of excerpt
Notice how these are small chunks and not the entire excerpt or larger section of the Concerto. Start small and gradually expand the chunks you're practicing, but first zoom in on the finnicky details of what you're practicing-- it's not usually the entire excerpt that is tripping us up, it's usually just a few notes or maybe even just one note.
Try this 15 minute rotation 3 times in your practice session for 45 total minutes, each excerpt will be worked on for 15 minutes by the end, but those 15 minutes are nonconsecutive.
5 mins. Mozart
5 mins. Dvorak
5 mins. Tchaik
5 mins. Mozart
5 mins. Dvorak
5 mins. Tchaik
5 mins. Mozart
5 mins. Dvorak
5 mins. Tchaik
45 total minutes
It should seem and feel like it's more mentally effortful to tear yourself away after only 5 minutes and move onto something else, only to come back and stumble through the relearning phase two more times. It might feel like 5 minutes isn't enough time and that's good! It will force you to make the most out of the five minutes so you won't have enough time to hyperfocus and start doing mindless repetitions.
Try this rotation for a few days and then start expanding the chunks or altering the time blocks.
Additional Resources: