I have an example of this! I’m also in total agreement with you about what makes the app cool, and it’s partly because I immediately related it to the following.
I’m a martial artist, and I teach newbies regularly as part of my training, and a friend I was teaching told me I had to read a book about tennis, which *really* confused me. (I also thought at first that he meant Infinite Jest, but he didn’t. :P) The book is The Inner Game of Tennis, and it was a huge hit in the 80′s that spawned a lot of useless, ignorable, X-For-Dummies-type spinoffs. But the original is one of the best books on learning I’ve ever read period, and it both confirmed and revolutionized everything I knew about learning and teaching martial arts (and swimming and singing, which are also interests of mine—hello, friend!).
The book is by a dude who trains tennis players, who’s played his whole life, and who had SILLY successes with total noobs and never-been-athletic people, and finally wrote down how he was doing it. And there’s a ton of great detail in the book about specific methods and tiny brain things that, for the most part, it’s very easy to translate out of tennis and into a million other things (the tendency for spinoffs to happen makes sense here, at least); but the main crux of it is almost exactly what you’re describing with the app: Give the brain “what it feels like to do it right”, and then let it constantly compare what you’re doing to that, in real-time, and adjust all the little sub-skills however it needs to to get the right result. Everything else is just sauce; Practice is the brain making that in-the-moment comparison and learning to adjust for it, and Practice is everything to developing skill. Thus, by focusing directly on training people to feel the difference, in the now, when hitting the ball, he trained them in the one fundamental of tennis that would give them the fastest possible access to actual expertise: How to Practice.
Anyway, I think I’ve said enough; you should definitely check out the book if you’re interested in further information on this lesson about learning; and I’m super geeked that there’s a singing app that uses this type of feedback, it sounds like, to excellent effect! I’m also equally annoyed that it isn’t for Android, but that’s not your fault. :) Thanks for the awesome post!
I’ve had The Inner Game of Tennis on my recommended list for several years, as a general rationality-related book; clearly I should just go ahead and read it!
I did a quick Google for you, and it looks like there are a lot of apps for Android that are similar (though I can’t speak to which of them are actually good).
It’s not a good book, except it says: focus/visualize on the result you want, not on verbal coaching cues. That can be good advice, but I object: when there’s time+space to consciously plan some part of your gameplay, verbal (self-)coaching is fine.
I have an example of this! I’m also in total agreement with you about what makes the app cool, and it’s partly because I immediately related it to the following.
I’m a martial artist, and I teach newbies regularly as part of my training, and a friend I was teaching told me I had to read a book about tennis, which *really* confused me. (I also thought at first that he meant Infinite Jest, but he didn’t. :P) The book is The Inner Game of Tennis, and it was a huge hit in the 80′s that spawned a lot of useless, ignorable, X-For-Dummies-type spinoffs. But the original is one of the best books on learning I’ve ever read period, and it both confirmed and revolutionized everything I knew about learning and teaching martial arts (and swimming and singing, which are also interests of mine—hello, friend!).
The book is by a dude who trains tennis players, who’s played his whole life, and who had SILLY successes with total noobs and never-been-athletic people, and finally wrote down how he was doing it. And there’s a ton of great detail in the book about specific methods and tiny brain things that, for the most part, it’s very easy to translate out of tennis and into a million other things (the tendency for spinoffs to happen makes sense here, at least); but the main crux of it is almost exactly what you’re describing with the app: Give the brain “what it feels like to do it right”, and then let it constantly compare what you’re doing to that, in real-time, and adjust all the little sub-skills however it needs to to get the right result. Everything else is just sauce; Practice is the brain making that in-the-moment comparison and learning to adjust for it, and Practice is everything to developing skill. Thus, by focusing directly on training people to feel the difference, in the now, when hitting the ball, he trained them in the one fundamental of tennis that would give them the fastest possible access to actual expertise: How to Practice.
Anyway, I think I’ve said enough; you should definitely check out the book if you’re interested in further information on this lesson about learning; and I’m super geeked that there’s a singing app that uses this type of feedback, it sounds like, to excellent effect! I’m also equally annoyed that it isn’t for Android, but that’s not your fault. :) Thanks for the awesome post!
I’ve had The Inner Game of Tennis on my recommended list for several years, as a general rationality-related book; clearly I should just go ahead and read it!
I did a quick Google for you, and it looks like there are a lot of apps for Android that are similar (though I can’t speak to which of them are actually good).
It’s not a good book, except it says: focus/visualize on the result you want, not on verbal coaching cues. That can be good advice, but I object: when there’s time+space to consciously plan some part of your gameplay, verbal (self-)coaching is fine.