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Patreon Exclusive! This Could CHANGE the Way You Practice! (Patreon)

Published:
2024-07-28 19:27:21
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hey y'all!!!

As promised in the Little Finger Liberator workout, i've got a very special bonus video for you all to try out this week! I learned about this, eh, "brain hack" last week through a couple different sources, and i know right away i wanted to test it out in my own playing to see if it made a difference.... and so far...

.....it has.

This is kinda crazy, but there's science to back it up. I want you all to give this method a try this week and see what it does for you!!! Report back with your findings!

Thanks as always for all you do. Hope everyone is having a killer weekend!

GET INTO IT!

-BE

Files

Previews only

Patreon ONLY! This Practice Hack is BANANAS, RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN!

Just for you all!!!! Try this and let me know how it goes!

Comments

Todd Staege

Thanks Ben. I’ve been playing a long time really long but still terrible. I’ll give this a go.

Jeff Hirshberg

Very interesting. I will give it a try. Doug Marks endorses a somewhat related approach. He advocates practicing in very small chunks throughout the day, for basically the same reason. What guitar are you playing? Has a Fender Noir look to it.

Ronzelver

Really interested in this methodology or whatever it's called. I'm gonna try it as soon as I back practicing after my vacation.

NYCM&AHole

220 volts of heavy metal power? (See end of my comment on the little finger liberator lesson)

Lauri Laurila

Will try this. I'm on week 5, of learning 10 Marty Friedman solos in 10 weeks. Anything to help nailing those Marty licks at their original speed, is welcome.

Gregg B.

Great observation Ben! In simple terms what you are doing is separating the brain's encoding and consolidation phases for muscle memory and allowing the latter to occur more regularly. As a bonus you are also forcing immediate recall after your self-imposed "cooldown". However as scientists we have to be careful to assume this is the complete story. When you pause briefly you are also letting the lactate clear which itself can be trained to work faster if your hand muscles are more "in shape" (i.e. used to it). So each time you "come back" to the lick you are getting a double super-charge which creates a positive feedback loop is you're lucky! The other thing that works is edibles. (j/k.. sort of but please dont take my word for it).

Bogdan Frigioiu

I do find taking a break helps, but I've never thought about taking really short ones. Though if I play something wrong 5 times in a row it usually ends up with me taking a break

Doodad68

Sounds like sound advice, but I wouldn’t recommend using it when trying a new “move” with your stepmom that you saw on xhamster. You know how she gets when she thinks you finished first…

Rex Turner

OK but let's say it works... great. I am making 26 mistakes a minute and my brain memorizes THAT now? Riddle me that Batman! :) BTW I believe in this kind of stuff is why I ask.

Allan Harris

Uncle Ben my friend these kinds of lessons are what make you an incredible instructor. You leave no stone unturned to find the best approach to improvement. This makes total sense to me, and I am certainly going to incorporate it into my practice sessions. It makes total sense. And the sleep thing. It is critical to good performance in all aspects of life. I truly get a lot of fulfillments from your Patreon.

Brian Newman

Thank you Uncle Ben for your brutal honesty and examples! I’m a science teacher and a hard rock guitar player. This totally makes sense!

Paul Baglio

So we've recently talked about that five minute rule also Ben and was wondering... would practicing the same piece at increasing tempos in blocks of 5 minutes be advisable? Or should I be mixing it up more than that?😁🤘🏻👍🏻

Paul Baglio

Slow down and minimize your mistakes as much as possible 😁

Brock Sirmons

Uncle Ben, since you have been listening to Huberman, have you tried ‘Cold plunges’ yet. I know he is big on that. I’ve been hearing so many good things about it and was just wondering if you have tried it. I’m trying to build myself up to doing it.

Jason Lopes
>>144923549

Play at a tempo that doesn’t make you make 26 mistakes in a minute.

Paul Jones

My PhD advisor used to tell me that while working on chemistry problems or research or grant writing etc.. , 10 min of working, 1 min of rest was far better than just plowing through.

Keith Fine

Kinda the same thing we use in training for athletics . Do less reps with perfect form and stay away from slpppy reps .

NYCM&AHole

So it’s like do ADHD but instead of getting distracted just close your eyes, right?

Jesse Canning

Good stuff mate - really good concept. Great opportunity to reset and go again.

RancorBreath

Hi Ben--Music professor/conductor here--you are getting into a big point of study in our neck of the woods! It is not a placebo effect, for sure. Also, some good research shows that mentally imagining the practice is almost as effective as actually playing. My problem is that I want to play!! Even as an academic type, I can't get past my 80s-instilled desire to just keep shredding. I appreciate all that you do--these are things that I am always applying to my own ensembles at my university! And yes, sleep is absolutely critical--thanks for throwing that in there-

Jovian

Dude... this is a crazy meat computer hack. I don't think its placebo at all. You said it yourself, it runs the sequence 10 times faster when youre not actually doing it where as if you just do the straight repetitive grind, you're only going at 1x speed. Makes total sense why this would speed up consolidating the pathway. Excited to try this, thanks man.

Wonker

Looking forward to playing it, but I tore my ligaments in my elbow so now I can’t play. This sucks.

Chuck Saeger

Very interesting…Don’t know if you recall an old musical called “The Music Man” but the professor used the THINK system. I use it for my golf game cause I’m too lazy to practice and it works! I’m gonna give it a try with the guitar and see what happens.

Villi Mag

This is like when I used to be studying math, and whenever I got stuck while solving a problem I remember that if I stopped and stood up from my desk and went and got me something to drink and just took it easy and quiet and came back to the problem I would finish solving it way easier. So strange that I needed this video to remind me of that mind hack.

Stefan Rathke

Seems to make sense. More awareness of what you are doin. We tend to do too many things at the same time- our overuse of smartphones (and thoughts) coluld be one proof to that. Some Zen energy will do! ✨

Paul
>>144927716

Yes, I do them. Start with 60-65 degrees. 30 sec. I built up myself to 36 degrees in my outdoor pool in the winter for 5 mins. It's pretty life changing.. I tell my wife it's time to close the pool now that summer is here.

Paul
>>144923549

Take smaller pieces and just learn them slow with decent chord changes. That's what I do. Phil X says the same thing. He slows everything down and speeds up later to tempo. Good luck

OldDogNewShred

Did I just hear a very stealthy Andrew WK riff in the intro?

Linda Taylor

Brilliant. Starting today.

Chad Deagle

I believe this to be very valuable and accurate. I’m from a time (as many of us here no doubt are, as well) where teachers (even while I was at college) would prescribe 6-8 hours a day of practice. As a college instructor now, I would never tell my students that. The results of less practice, but more focused practice, with allotted breaks, has been amazing. And yes, the good nights sleep…lots of groovy assimilation happening behind the closed lids, for sure. Great stuff, Ben. Love, your loyal Lovin patron.

Chad Deagle
>>144940751

Agree 100%. When I was completing my classical music degree, I would often imagine the passages and phrases, what my fingers and body are doing…really helped get pieces together.

Markus Dreßen

Great video(s), man! The neoclassical pinky-workout is a little pain in the arse for sure! But it's managable after a while. This little "trick" here is what I've been doing for years now. More or less concious. But I've know this quite a while and it's FACT! I'm not super advanced yet, but what has always been one of my biggest strenghts, is to be a very fast learner. I even learnt a whole song (classical guitar though) by watching someone practice it. Picked up the guitar and played it perfectly immediately! I guess, that was the point for me where I learnt this neurological trick. Sorry for the ramble. But this stuff is gold! So thank you for spreading it! :) (Btw... is there any chance, you join Andy (Wood) at the Guitar Summit in Germany in October? ;))

Rhys Parry

This is fascinating!

Mike Palumbo

Great advice Ben! Over time, I found that I would work on certain riffs, or guitar leads when learning songs and would maybe get it once in every five tries or more. Many times it would be something I had no muscle memory for. After five or ten minutes of that battle I would move on to something else. Miraculously, I would come back to it ten or fifteen minutes later and nail it or at least something MUCH closer to it. I began to wonder why and how that worked and knew that, hey, something's happening here. I just happen to have a client who taught at GIT back in the day so I asked him about it. Without hesitation he replied that after I finished struggling through that riff, etc., my brain continued to practice it while I moved to more familiar noodling or whatever. Voila, I wasn't just imagining things! Now I'm going to use your advice and take a short break to see if it works even more better. My money is on that this is absolutely sound advice and is going to make a huge difference to your lovely and loyal supporters! Thanks as always Uncle Ben!

Kenny Roscoe

Huberman is/are things that are nice.

Mel Jones

Pasted from my YT comment: Pretty interesting. I remember when I first started playing, I'd go to bed shortly after my practice session and would pick up the guitar again the next morning and made some decent progress from the previous night. This is really cool. Brains are amazing! Will put this to good use tonight I think a lot of us hyperfixate and just, like you said, just hammer it out until we get it. Rest is very important. A lot of times you just gotta step away and let your body/brain digest that information at its own pace. Good advice as always.

The longest Jan

Nice, definitely gonna give it a try.

Aldo Ferrari

Have been trying this technique, I am definitely more relaxed during practice. Unrelated question, listening to "Judas be my guide" by Iron Maiden. How do they get the guitar so far in front and so sweet sounding? Thanks.

Dan kosmider

I feel like this is the same concept as taking a day or two from playing completely. I feel recharged to back into it.

Seth Reed

This is somewhat similar to Mike Mentzer thoughts on bodybuilding. Training doesn’t have to go on for days to make progress

Shredd

So cool! I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now as well! Nice coincidence :D I just stumbled upon it, and kept doing it because I felt it was giving me clear benefits. I usually have some comfort food show or such playing while I practice, so when I pause, I glance at that and just timeout for a short moment. When I resume playing, I often immediately feel like "oh, now my fingers are starting to autocorrect?" and it feels so great. That's what makes me trust this method.

BenEllerGuitars
>>144927716

Hey Brock!!! Man, I don’t have anywhere to do a plunge, but after listening to Huberman and learning about the Wim Hot method, I’ve been doing cold exposure showers. Started around November of last year, and it’s become a regular part of my routine (as well as the breath work practices). That stuff coupled with early sun exposure have been game changers for me!

Ryan

How can I get the TABS for "What a fool believes" by Doobie Brothers? Just watched YouTube video on this but need the charts. Thnx

Glenn

I have noticed this myself, in advance of any subsequent scientific information that backed up this view, thanks for sharing! I think this emphasizes precision over speed when adding something new - creates the "template" as accurately as possible then let the speed come naturally. I think too much repetition creates anxiety, which may neutralize some of the benefits. I always assumed something was happening because I can hear in my head what I was doing (or trying to do) long after I moved on or stopped. Thanks again!

Gregory Taylor

Okay, I’ve taken the “ten second zen” approach to learning licks and sections of songs and i can see a benefit. I then tweaked it a bit by taking a pause only when I played a section correctly (albeit not necessarily at full speed). My thought was that I don’t want to reinforce sloppy or error filled playing, so I only paused significantly to let things sink in only when I got it right. That seemed to work too.

Steven Martin

How would you eat an elephant if you were so inclined? One bite at a time. I tend learn in chunks and the breaks allow things to soak in, often the next the day it starts paying for itself. I think we are conditioned to the firehose method.

Stanislav Ossovsky

I have been doing that thing for over 25 years also, while practicing the piano - it really helps! In general I stop every five minutes for about 30 second. It is not a placebo - it really works. What is also useful (for the piano, at least), when say, you have been trying to harness some cleverly f..cked up weird-ass technique, such as parts of Chopin's 3rd piano sonata, and it seems like all the work is futile - just nothing seems to improve. At that moment it is a good idea to take a 30 second break and start learning some other music, I don't know... Scriabin's etude, for instance. Do that for 5 minutes, then return to the bitch, that refused to improve and voila!! Somehow things get better on their own!! Perhaps the same approach may work for the guitar as well?..