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I used the spaced learning method to learn the complicated intro to “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits in only 2 hours and 48 minutes. Watch the video below.
The Song
The “Money For Nothing” intro has one of the most epic guitar solos that I have ever heard. And despite the fact that I started playing guitar specifically because of this song, I had never bothered to learn it.
Several years ago I attempted it, but was never able to get far. The subtlety in guitarist Mark Knopfler’s playing (staccato plucking and unusual harmonics on the 4th fret!) made it just a bit too difficult for me to fight through.
What’s Spaced Learning?
I first heard about spaced learning from my friend Clay’s article - How To Memorize Anything Fast. Clay writes:
Spaced learning is a simple system developed by memory researcher R. Douglas Fields, and is in use at Monkseaton High School in England. It’s a relatively little-known system, but has worked very well for me. It involves three eight-to-ten-minute sessions learning lots of information with ten minute breaks of unrelated material inbetween.
What Exactly Did I Do?
I studied the rhythm and the tabs 1 hour per day for 7 days. Each 1 hour session was broken into 8 minutes of playing and studying followed by 10 minutes of doing something completely unrelated (studying Spanish, writing, etc.) So each session had a total of 24 minutes of study and practice.
The Recording
I recorded the song on the 7th day using my FS100 video camera and then through GarageBand. I apologize for the tones. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time tweaking.
Conclusion
It had been awhile since I played electric guitar - about 8 months in Central and South America kept me away so my guitar fingers weren’t exactly ‘warm’. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the speed in which I learned the song.
I definitely could have learned this song in fewer days. But I don’t believe I could have learned it putting in the same amount of hours. Spaced learning helped me utilize my practice time better. Pretty sweet.
THAT’S MY BOY.
Good use of spaced learning, good use of guitar, and looking good. Good work.
Cool technique. I prefer the use of adderall to learn large amounts of information in short periods of time. Ha.
This is interesting - although I’d never heard of ‘Spaced Learning’ before, I find I seem to use a similar technique when learning guitar parts.
I used to practice unamplified late into the night and find that even after hours playing the same thing over and over I’d make no real progress.
If I practiced a lot less and then went to sleep the next morning I’d almost always get up and nail it first time.
I’m working on learning a set of covers for a wedding band later this month so I’ll be giving this technique proper shot.
Thanks for sharing.
sometimes I amaze even myself