The Four Archetypes of Learning
3rd March 2022 | Posted By Erin Harrington
The 4 ways we learn Ukulele (or other new skills)
Which one are you?
When you’re learning a new skill it can be overwhelming at the start.
We sometimes start with the best intentions and doing so can expect too much too soon, only to be discouraged and give up.
Through my years of teaching I’ve found my students learn in 4 different ways. I use a range of different styles in lessons to work out which one sticks the best.
Read below to find out which one you are.
The Doer.
You are the person who only learns by doing the action, and doing it repeatedly.
You learn by feeling your hands doing an action.
The best approach to this is to set challenges to practise a set skill a number of times before the muscle memory kicks in. E.g ‘do this 10 times in the next 5 minutes’ and set a timer.
I find this approach really helps by drilling in a new technique such as scales. I run the same sequence of notes 10 times with my fingers until I can do it without looking.
Having a Ukulele teacher or practise buddy will help in this scenario as you can make it fun by setting challenges. I have a student who absolutely LOVES scales because we make it into a game of how fast we can play, then play it in canon with each other which gives her confidence in feeling her own progress.
This is best for those who like to learn in person with Face to face sessions.
The Observer
You learn by seeing with your eyes and then processing information.
This is where we watch someone else doing a skill and we copy it. Great for online learning or video tutorials where we can slow down an action and really hone in on what is happening. These are the visual learners I love working with on zoom.
A trap to watch out for however if this is your strong point… is copying instead of thinking.
It’s great to learn by copying, but if you don’t have the person demonstrating in front of you… you are stuck.
Make sure to support your learning style with other activities such as practising sight reading and music theory or audible learning.
The Book Worm
You learn by theorising what you are doing first.
This is where reading and writing in a program is your strong point. You love reading music and take in knowledge by thinking about it before doing.
Fantastic for learning sight reading and practising TAB music. You find online learning easy as you like to see the words and symbols matching up with what you are doing.
I have a student that became the master of sight reading. I gave him a new song every week to read and he would be able to play the music within minutes! The only downside was he expected new material every week to read so he had less patience when it came to diving deeper into the dynamics and meaning behind the songs.
This works well with the initial stages of learning, but make sure to memorise what you are doing rather than just reading. Try practising intervals with reading, and then doing.
The Noise Maker
You learn by hearing yourself doing the action.
This may be audibly saying what you are doing, or literally hearing the notes as patterns that can sound correct or incorrect.
This is great for singers or those wanting to learn how to sing and play with their instrument!
Start by saying what you’re doing out loud (pairs well with strumming practise such as saying the direction of the calypso strum; down down up, up down up).
Your brain hears the direction, while your hands are doing the action and helps cement the skill faster.
I use this often with learning new notes and scales. I will sing and play the C Scale for example, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C ascending and descending.
You might lean towards one or all of these learning archetypes. Why not try them all and see which one works for you.
If you would like more support with your learning, you can check out our online DIY courses here, or book in a session with our coaches here depending on your needs.
So which one are you?
Comment below.
Rock on.
Erin😎
Want to learn with us? Check out our courses here
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