It might sound like I'm about to teach you some neuro-surgery on your brain. (But do not fear. I am not.)

How to rewire your brain for CORRECT NOTES!

\Do you feel like you sometimes just CAN'T get through a piece without playing wrong notes?

Well, what I'm going to teach you about how to play with correct notes is better than brain surgery. Because it works instantly (and there is no healing time!)

This lesson is a full 6 minutes long, so stick with it.

It is worth it.

If you're going to learn anything from me about how to practice the flute, LEARN THIS!

Jane xx

How to rewire your brain for CORRECT NOTES!

Hi again, if you are someone who plays a piece or a scale and cannot for the life of you, play it without mistakes, then this video is for you. It's a really common issue. In fact, I was teaching Rachel this morning. She's one of my adult students and this came up and I taught her the technique for totally eradicating this whole, keep playing a piece and keep playing the mistakes. It's really common.

Flute School

So don't feel bad if this happens to you, there is a fix. Oh, I should say, in case you don't know, I am Jane from the Flute Teacher's school. This is my brand new gigantic indoor tree. So let's hope that doesn't die. Oh, and I'll tell you at the end of this video, how to do a free masterclass, which instantly improves your sound on the flute. I'll tell you about that at the end.

Pachelbel's Canon on the flute

Anyway, back to Rachel, my student today, she was playing Pachelbel's Canon, which you'll probably know, even if you don't know the name of it. She wanted it to sound like this but what she ended up getting, and you might struggle with the same thing as well. Like I said, it's really common is that in the hard bits, it just didn't quite work. So I'm going to deliberately muck up the hard bits to kind of sound a little bit like how Rachel sounded this morning.

Train your brain

So I'm doing that deliberately. I hope that gave you the impression of how maybe sometimes you sound like when you play. It's a very simple fix, but if you don't know what this fix is, you are never going to fix the problem. So your brain remembers what your fingers do. So the more you play the same or different mistake, the more your brain will do that first go next time. So you need to train your brain, which is training your fingers to play the right notes first time.

Teach your brain correct notes

So not playing the wrong notes, then fixing it because your brain will learn to play the wrong notes and then fix them. We wanna teach your brain and your fingers to play the right notes first time. Now you're probably thinking, yeah, that's all very well. If you can play the right notes, but I keep making mistakes.

Slow down the music

So how do we get your brain and your fingers to play the right notes the first time? We slow it down, just the hard bit. We do everything, everything necessary for you to play the right fingerings, play with the right fingerings first go, and then you do that again. And then you do that again. So I'm going to play this piece now, like Rachel would play it. The first bar or two is gonna be fine, cuz she can play that. She knows where she starts to mess up and she's going to deliberately slow down in that bit like this.

Change articulation when playing slowly

Okay? So you can see where I even tongue it when I need to go really slow I tongue it to get the right notes. So if you are thinking, yes, that's all very well but what happens when I'm playing in a band? Obviously, you can't do this when you're playing in a band, this is for your home practice, which will let you be able to play it so that then you can play it in the band or you're ensemble.

Slow down your fingers

Now for the crux of what I'm talking about. We want you to be in control of your notes and your fingers at all times. Control. However much you need to slow down those few notes to get your fingers in control, playing the right notes and the right fingerings, feeling in control. You do whatever it takes to do that because every time you play like that in control, slow enough so that your fingers are playing the right notes. 

Rewiring your brain for correct notes

Every time you play that, it's rewiring your brain. It's burning a new path in your brain, which is the right way. And this is how you get out of the habit of playing the wrong notes. You probably didn't even realize it was a habit. You just thought that you couldn't play the piece. It's a habit. You've been training your brain, training your fingers to play the wrong stuff.

Rewire your brain to play the right thing

So this is how we untrain you. You wanna rewire your brain to play the right thing. Now do this a few times and then do it again the next day and do it again the next day. And pretty quickly you're gonna get yourself out of this habit of playing the wrong notes. There you go. Solution. It works. I do it with my students and I do it with myself. So much with myself that it's just the way I practice. It's just the way I play. And if you talk to any professionals, they'll be the same, which is good news. It works. It's an easy technique. If you know what it is. 

Free flute masterclass

I'm going to be starting a free masterclass. If you are on my email list, I will let you know by email, when it's ready. To give me your email address, if you want to know, go to www.flute.school/free and you can enter your email address there. If the masterclass is not available yet, it doesn't matter because then I'll notify you after you put in your email address and do the free course, that's there at the moment. So there you go. That is your tip for this week. The instant way to get yourself outta the habit of playing wrong notes, which is pretty good. It's a pretty big one. Bye.