Evaluating practice strategies, behavior and learning progress in elite performers: An exploratory study

Typical musicians devote most of their time to blocks of physical practice and mistake-avoidance, as opposed to mental preparation, desirable difficulties, and strategies that strengthen self-efficacy and autonomy. For this reason, teachers try to steer students away from mindless drill and towards self-regulated learning strategies. Yet, both the scientific and pedagogical literature lack guidelines for developing musicians that are supported by empirical research. This exploratory study with 14 musicians was designed to capture what they planned to practice, as well as what they actually did in the practice room, in order to assess the level of repetition and innovation intended and carried out. A questionnaire captured the musician’s self-reported intentions (cognitions), behavior, and emotions during practice. The questionnaire accompanied a self-recorded video of a practice session of the participant’s choice. Evaluation of the questionnaire and videos provided evidence that participant’s own ratings of the effectiveness of their practice supported their belief in the importance of repetition. The evaluation scores of these students’ practice sessions by two independent raters, in contrast, indicated that varied strategies were more beneficial with regard to individual progress than habitual repetition.