‘Never play when you practice and never practice when you play’. These are the words of a man who likes to hit things (and is very good at it!). No, he’s not a philosopher, nor a scientist, nor a boxer. He’s a drummer: the top drummer, Thomas Lang, who started his professional career with the Austrian band Falco.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet him in Switzerland. I accompanied my son who joined a masterclass ‘The Big Drum Bonanza’ by Mr. Lang. When you see him playing drums in an uber-human way, you want to know: how did he learn this?
Just like he said: ‘never play when you practice and never practice when you play’. Practice is hard; it’s about trying to achieve something you haven’t mastered yet. That’s a frustrating process and for a bit of relief, we tend to stop practicing for a few minutes of play: applying something we have already mastered because that is satisfying. Don’t. Stick with your practice until you reach your goal. That’s what is called ‘deliberate practice’. It’s one of the learning techniques of this edition of the learning notes.
But there’s also ‘reinforcement’ (teaching pigeons how to play ping pong!), ‘chunking’ and ‘pruning’ as interesting learning techniques that you can apply to design great learning.
Now, it’s your turn to apply all these techniques to design great learning journeys!