I was at Winter Storm 2020 in Kansas City Missouri and attended a class by Jack Lee and one by Stuart Liddell. Both are always enjoyable to learn from. After the classes I found two books by Stephanie Burns on Practice Strategies for Musical Improvement and Strategies for Learning and Memorizing Tunes at one of the vendors. Bought both books and found Jack Lee and Stuart Liddell used material from the books in the recent classes. The books are amazing. The methods of memorizing then learning was an eye opener. Proving it worked I took it to the band to try out. Using those principles we memorized measures, phrases – to a new tune. Then learned the first part, then the second part. You should have heard the initial grumbling “I NEED the music”, “this is not how I learn”, “this is not how my brain works” and “this is a gimmick”. By the end of the first rehearsal session they played the first part on the practice chanter without the music. By the end of the second week they had the second part memorized and learned – and played on the pipes slowly as a group. This was not a hard tune but they all commented about how quickly the band had memorized, learned and taken it to the pipes – without music to refer to (they had to “see it in their brain”). It was interesting to watch them play with their eyes closed “looking” in their head for the music. All have commented that the thoughts in the books work. Two have been motivated to buy both books so they can learn more. The new learning processes have helped me and by extension, the band, memorize and learn music quicker. I look forward to the next two books! Great work Stephanie.
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