Software Team Sociology: 2020

The Case of the Shut In Drummer (this part)

Introduction
Deliberate Practice In Music
More Information

The Case of the Test First Developer (Part 2)

ntroduction

Mindless repetition does not count as deliberate practice as without focused attention and narrow specific and detailed goals it is easy to repeat your mistakes instead of improving your performance. Deliberate practice needs to be purposeful and systematic.

I will describe two examples of deliberate practice, one as a musician and one as a developer. You will see that there are commonalities in strategies and techniques that are independent of discipline.

Deliberate Practice In Music

The Case of the Shut In Drummer

I knew a drummer once who took a year off to practice his drumming. He sacrificed his income and drove his poor wife to distraction. After a year he was no better than when he started.

So what did he do wrong?

Small vs Big Changes

Small frequent commitments are generally easier to keep and stay focused during than big one-off commitments. I practice my bass 15 minutes a day plus a couple of longer sessions a week. Maintaining focus for an entire year is unrealistic. If I wanted to increase my commitment to music I would gradually increase the length and frequency of my sessions rather than make radical changes that are hard to maintain.

Spaced Repetitions

For memorization activities, few repetitions each day for most of a week is more effective than 20 repetitions in a single day (Cramming). Anki is a useful app for enabling spaced repetitive memorization.

Feedback

Frequent and constant feedback is essential for practice. The only people listening to the drummer were non-musicians, his long suffering family. As well as giving feedback, practice partners can provide social pressure to maintain practice, as well as making practice far more enjoyable. Teaching music to my daughters and playing with them is a major factor in maintaining my bass practice. That and the fact that it is fun and great for stress relief.

Specific vs General

Narrowing your focus by breaking down what you're doing into the smallest possible parts and aspects, and focusing on each part individually rather than merely having a vague desire to improve is essential. Without this it is easy to simply practice the errors you are making like the unfortunate drummer. Constantly changing the aspect you are trying to improve helps with the next point.

Variety

Keeping things fresh is essential. If your practice is monotonous then it is almost certain that you will go off on a tangent in order to take a break. In this case, psychology professor and author Angela Duckworth, advises to substitute nuance for novelty. In one practice session I may concentrate on alternate fingering and in another I may concentrate on timing and feel. In one practice session I may concentrate on my fretting hand and in another I may concentrate on my plucking hand. In this way I maintain focus without getting bored as well as making small maintainable improvements in all aspects of my playing.

Careful and Patient

It is also essential to be slow and meticulous in order to practice the correct way rather than practice making errors. I usually practice with either a metronome or a backing. When learning a new song I will often set the metronome or backing to 0.75x speed then slowly increase the speed over the course of the practice until its 1.5x speed then slowly adjust it back to 1x speed. It is important to practice without errors. It is also important to practice at the edge of your abilities.