*More Info & Lessons:* www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/the-spacing-effect-bg-2001

Astounding mix of neuroscience, experience and passion. There is no one else like Justin.

I'm a college teacher who in his mid-50s decided to learn guitar. I have always prided myself on learning my students' names very quickly so I can call on every student by name in every class. I learned about learning many years ago. I found this video by Justin, who is an excellent teacher, so useful I shared it with my students. Thanks Justin! I'm hittin' that dollared-heart again and hope others who benefit from your lessons will reward you for your efforts.

Your sincerity in teaching us guitar and doing all the research into methods and psychology to help us better learn is appreciated.

From all the guitar teachers on YT you are by far the best. One can sense how much you love the guitar and your work as a guitar teacher. So much honest affection and dedication.

This is so true. I apply it all the time. Thanks for bringing it up

Really enjoy your dives into “How” we learn. Older learners, memorizing, visualization, etc. The brain makes many interconnections when we are “away” from the instrument.

Thank you, Justin. Enjoying the app and your videos.

"Creating a shortcut", would be a good analogy for the topic at 3:40 Solid advice applicable to more then just guitar practice. Thanks Justin

Pick up the guitar about a year ago, going thru Justin app to learn. I'm having a blast. Something amazing when you learn to play a song or part of a song on a guitar

Justin, I've been using similar neurological science in my day job for years and constantly bridle at why they don't seem to be evident in online lessons. You're the only one using them, at least directly, and that really speaks to your care and professionalism as a teacher. Thank you!

Thanks Justin. I learnt about spaced repetition many years ago. It involved reading, writing and listening to the information every day for 14 days. 15 years later I still can recall a lot of that information. This science really works. 👍

Justin, This is the one of the best tips I've learned from you. Makes so much sense. Thank you for sharing it. I appreciate it.

Fantastic video. Thank you Justin!

Yep! I was trying to learn a Page solo and I found a blues backing track in the same key. I would just break down the lick into sections and practice it over the blues track. It really helped me retain it.

I'm going to definitely try this. I think for American English speakers, we would substitute the word "review" for "revise.". Thanks!

I feel better now. I thought it was a lack of musical skill that was giving me problems. But it was just the way I was learning. Thanks Justin.

Great video! I'll be using this as I tread my way through your other helpful videos! Thanks

Don't know if you're reading this Justin but just wanted to let you know that you're the best. A person of integrity who actually cares. An amazing teacher. When the world seems like an evil and hopeless place all I have to do is watch one of your videos and my faith in humanity is restored ...at least the portion of it that you represent. You're a very comforting person. Wish we could clone you, brother! . --- From an American who wishes there were more people like you here to restore just a bit of sanity to this place ...😉

Another flawless lesson. Justin is simply brilliant!

Brilliant information thanks for posting

Brilliant lesson, thanks for sharing!

Golden! Thanks Justin!

Hey Justin, I'm a teacher in Australia and we used spaced practice in the classroom to great effect - wonderful to see that this powerful technique is being rolled out in other disciplines.

This is fantastic thank you so much

Great recommendations and tips. Also, encouraging to hear that I am not unique in my difficulty remembering material.

Thank you, Justin! It’s just like hand stretching. If I forget to hand stretch before playing, it affects my playing immensely . Your information is so vital to becoming a better player and remembering that practice is the key, and practicing right is the only way to go.! Thanks again Justin for such great and valuable information !

Thank you so much! Incredibly useful! Please keep teaching!

There's no way I could put away a song for a full year. I'm definitely going to incorporate the 1 minute break after 5 minutes. I've broken my practice up into small blocks like you've suggested before and it really does work!

Justin I love you mate, you create such high quality content for your audience; it's really second to none. The pedagogy in this video was fantastic - and will really help a lot of people to expose their methods of theory to practice and make them better players, me included. I think i'll subscribe to your paid service on your site as I feel it's important to support other humans like yourself so they can continue to offer such valuable service. Namaste brother x

Best video you have ever done (from a harmonica player), thanks!

Thank you very much Justin. Two things I have problems memorizing are the notes on the fretboard and lyrics to songs.

Great video, Justin! I have to look more deeply into this.

Excellent video. I knew the principal of doing a short lesson instead of a longer one but never really thought of applying it to music. When I was learning to fly I had 1 hour per week. Time to go away and digest what I’d learnt. People that did 2 ,3 or even 4 hours a week took way over the 40 hours required to obtain my license. Took them maybe 120 hours. Valuable lesson there Justin. Had no idea you toured with the lovely Georgian lady Katie Malua!! Wow!

Thanks so much Justin! Very valuable concepts! Greetings from Argentina

It fits. Story does not fall apart. The computer Cache remembers the storage location for faster recall

Wow! 💕💕 TOTAL GAME CHANGER!! Thanks so much Justin. I was struggling with a finger picking pattern for about 30 minutes straight and couldn’t play it through no matter what. So I took a break for a minute and did a few stretches, then came back and tried again for a minute. Some improvement. I took another break from the guitar, took myself into another room got into my stretches for a minute, then went back and tried again for a minute. Repeated the whole cycle once more and BINGO! I’ve got the whole routine down with confidence and not a single mistake. Chord changes felt like I had all the time in the world. Did it again. And again.Every time there was a tangible improvement. I never thought I’d able to play something so challenging with so much confidence and relaxation so quickly. You must try this. Did I mention you want to try this? Thanks again Justin - this is gold.👍💕💕

This is really interesting. I’ve always found that when I try to learn a new song/riff, I’ll practice it a fair bit and then come back to it the next day and feel like I can already play it “better” than I did the day before, even if I hadn’t quite got it down before I stopped practicing the day before. Never knew this kind of thing was called spacing before this video so thanks Justin!

That was a great lesson and you are a wonderful teacher.

Thanks a lot Sir.

I've discovered some of this through trial and error, but it's good to hear the science behind it.

I love your videos and personality. One of the best channels on KZfaq. Thank you

Great lesson!

Thank you for the video Justin, this is great advice! I have used the spacing effect before, but I haven't stretched it out to a year for the things that I really want to engrain in my memory. This is going to be really helpful for myself and my students so I really appreciate you sharing this information!

I have tried this spacing method with piano and it absolutely works. Actually I didn't have a 24-7 access to a piano so I had to practice 5 min to 15 min per session at a time and no more than 30 min a day. This method absolutely works, I can't stress this enough.

Thanks!

Great lesson 😊

Excellent

Thanks.

totally fascinating; thanks

Thanks Justin! It was excellent lesson! Talk soon, Edgars

Very good!

Lots of great advice here.

THIS is why you are the best teacher out there.

Cache...this is the missing part of your computer analogy 🤘🏻. Thanks for this Justin, I often tell myself it's not worth picking up the guitar if I only have a couple minutes and I end up going days without touching it because of that. I'll do better at using those 5 minute blocks!

Great advice mate 👍🍻

I love that guitar, Justin

Now in my 60's and still learning after 50 years....I try to get in 4-6 sessions a day with huge breaks in between....10-20 min each...found I retain and improve best taking breaks. And repetition, drills...jazz chords.... so much to learn...so little time.

I've used this approach for years without knowing it. I pulled out a song a couple weeks ago that I hadn't played in about 12 years. I remembered every note and every word. ("River Of Tears" by Eric Clapton, a 7 minute song). It DOES work!

I can use this don't need to forget. So much jumble in there already. Oh by the way l took your advice on a teacher. I'm still here but a very nice lady that's a great teacher. Went straight into picking an strumming patterns. Said l was a little more advanced but she's great an with your videos l can get the best of both worlds. Thank you for your advice l listened!.

After teaching video production classes one of the areas I saw I could have improve on was spacing.. I could have broken it down into more detail and focus on each part separately within a time limit.. Even though I had a very detail "How To" manual of our tape to tape edit sytem, hands on was a must, some of the students lights did not click on beccause it was too much information from the beginning of the class. Thank You I see the Truth in it.

Hi just started on guitar!

ROM: Is "non-volatile" [Read-Only memory] long-term storage, like a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. There we can take you concepts & apply them more like muscle memory. Think that helps you analogy? TY Justin for many, many years of your help! Keep 'em coming!

Thanks

Interesting! I can say I have noticed this working without even knowing what it is called. So, I've always hammered out daily 1-2 hour practice sessions. This year has been quite busy where I didn't get to practice as much, maybe only a couple of times per week. One of the songs I was learning & wasn't getting when practicing it every day all of a sudden I know after taking a week off inadvertently. Also noticed old songs I learned say 2+ years ago, I can go back & knock the rust off & boom, right back to playing it & playing it better than before. Now that I know what it is called & it is something real & witness it working, I'm going to work on a schedule that follows it. Thanks for this!

Nice! I tried using Anki a while back, a tool for spaced repetition, to remember songs but couldn't get the right setup. I do think there is something different to memory and muscle memory, so think they need different techniques.

This is so interesting and actually a bit of a relief that one doesn't have to keep at something for hours on end to learn it. Some I've done naturally without knowing this is actually a thing. I'd play a piece I hadn't thought of for months and play it better than I remembered the last time. Thanks for sharing this information. I'm eyeing your guitar by Godzilla though. It's quite a nice distraction!

Very good Justin. No dumbing down here. A bit of science is never out of place. And such a positive fellow. I come here for reassurance that the world is essentially good.

Great advice! Wife and I went to a bar in the Philippines that has live music. There was a British performer who was a real character and an amazing guitarist. He challenged the (big) audience to call out any pop/ rock song title and he'd play it. He did 2 sets and every song was played and sung perfectly, including the best cover of Wish You Were Here I've ever heard.

I always used to wander back in the day how bands remembered 23 song sets for a show.

Intriguing lesson. What would you suggest to be the minimum and maximum number of practice blocks in one session. Would you only suggest one practice session per day? How many days per week would you suggest as rest days?

Excellent lesson Justin. It's not exactly the same formulation but the thing I always think about is that you can't remember what you never forget. At some point in the learning process you have to let things go for a while so that they sink down into your brain. After that you can try calling it up again. It's that whole process of forgetting and remembering, forgetting and remembering that really burns it into your brain. But your explanation of course is far more detailed and thorough. Thanks mate!

Justin are you from England? Alexi Murdoch [Scottish]is one of my favorite singer song writers. Also a song called Streets of London is also down my alley. The internet has made learning music a world wide following . I know this isn't related to memorization , but I just finished your video on singing.

Huge Thanks Justin! One question.. is it important that the 5 min blocks are not too related to each other? I've been trying to centre my short blocks around a particular song. Example.. 5 mins strumming pattern on muted strings, 5 mins scale practice of the song Key, 5 mins chord changes, etc.. (trying to link them perhaps a bit like semantic priming?). My blocks end up being about 15 mins each tho😬 Thanks again, Fantastic lesson!👍

i have found this when trying to remember notes on the fretboard sometimes i think how did i remember that

I am curious what if the piece being learned is longer than 5 minutes? Does that mean to chunk it up and learn it in pieces or is the 5 minute time frame more subjunctive

❤

Interesting. All the songs I have in muscle memory I learned this way without thinking about it. I'll be more methodical about it now.

Is this built into your app? If so I will buy it!

Tbh I cheat and choose songs I can improvise over, plus there isnt many solos in our set, which helps, less is more, mainly pop and indy, it does help to remember song structures that actually have places to go, like AC/DC, if gigging every week then easier, but if only playing once a month etc, I always have cheat cards, better than forgetting while playing! The analogy of permanent temporary space is called a cache.

but if u r trying to memorize a song u want to play or a technique u want/need to use, how do u put it up for a year?!

You have super useful stuff. Been playing 40 years off and on, have played in bands, but I’m not where I should be. Self taught, mostly. Your lessons, and specially the one about picking three notes and using your ear to find the scale notes by playing along with a backing track. Really highlighted the difference between mechanical learning and teaching yourself to hear musically. Cheers mate!

Getting into srs?

I literally can’t remember anything without a justin songbook in front of me

How much should you include in your 5 minutes? Should you work on say 30 seconds and do it say 10 times or 1 minute and do it 5 times. Which would be most effective? /This is an area I have most trouble in. I can't play with enough accuracy pieces I have played dozens of times with the words and chords or TAB in front of me. I am always interested in noting that a Popular Music player generally plays from memory, yet in an Orchestra all the musicians have the music in front of them.

Hypothetical If I want to have a catalogue of say 100 songs then what would a revision schedule look like? Then if I decide to add another 20 songs how would that change my schedule? Then another 20 songs after that until my brain simply cannot absorb any more - or - I've simply run out of awake time to accommodate what I want to learn.

Great video. But what if you're practicing four hours a day?

Im honestly not trying to be contrary but as far as I can see, all great muscians, Motzart-Hendrix, practiced hours a day.

I forgot to memorize this.

So have i got this right? If I’m learning say a couple of scales and a song, I start with 5 mins for scale 1, 5 mins for scale 2, and 5 mins for the song? Is that right? With a min break in between? It does feel like it will take ages to memorise anything?!! .. and does feel like a very short practice session. Also can a break a song down into 5 minute chunks? I.e. 5 mins for Intro, 1 min 5 mins for verse, 1 min 5 mins for chorus etc … Thanks

Revise it or revisit.? Or revise to improve?

So traying to play like 2 to 3 hours a day for last year and a half is bad for me?

So, say you’re learning the Minor Pentatonic Scale, all 5 shapes..Would you practice each shape for 5 minutes?

Hi Justin, are you suggesting that we practice just 5 minutes at a time (5 minutes a day)? Or is this meant to break up an hours worth of practice one multiple things into 5 minutes blocks per subject (5 minutes of scales, 5 minutes of chord shapes, 5 minutes of learning a song, etc), still spending the hour, but segmentes.

This isn’t a perfect addition to the analogy, but perhaps DEFRAG the hard drive so it’s easier to retrieve?

What guitar model is that?

this explains why i learn things fast. It also confirms why smoking is good for me.

First comment yay!

I feel a bit spaced most of the time these days👴

I have ADHD, 5 minute blocks suit me!