Welcome to a new Monday post with 3 random thoughts on all things guitar, music, and life, including solving a Rubik’s Cube, reducing brain age, and more…
Here we go…
#1 – Does being creative help improve your brain age?
This is a question many ponder, and I saw something about it in the Fingerstyle 101 Facebook group the other day.
Well, a few years ago, there was a show on BBC, called “The Twinstitute”.
On the show, they split pairs of identical twins up into separate groups.
The test was to see if diet or creativity can make a difference to someone’s brain age.
Group A ate a nice healthy nutritional diet and group B simply did creative art for a period of time each day.
Before and after the experiment, both groups were again tested for their brain age.
The diet group showed no improvements in brain health.
The creative group, on average, took 6 years off their brain age.
It was not a peer-reviewed or overly scientific study from what I remember, but this and other more clinical studies certainly help to answer the question many people wonder…
Yes, being creative is great for your brain health.
…And what is a great way to be creative?
Well, pick up and play your guitar each day, of course!
#2 – The Rubik’s Cube!
I enjoy learning new skills, not just on the guitar, but off it too.
So recently I decided to have a crack at solving a Rubik’s cube.
It is a fun little project for me and Archie to do.
As a kid, I was mystified when I saw one being solved.
It was like magic to me.
Honestly, I don’t think my brain is wired for this sort of thing, but…
Learning how to demystify the magic, one layer at a time, in a methodical way, is very cool.
The one thing I realised early on with it though is that just like learning guitar, hopping from one YouTube lesson to another is just confusing.
Most people do this with guitar, and I made the mistake of doing it here.
It can be tempting to go from one lesson to another without really digesting what you have learnt (or worse, skipping through and having the lesson make no sense at all).
That rarely works for anything – whether it’s solving a Rubik’s cube or learning guitar.
#3 – Everyone learns in different ways
I am not a huge fan of a one-size-fits-all approach to learning.
Everybody learns in their own way, and this should be accounted for.
For example, when teaching in person, at the end of a lesson, I always ensure students get a reminder of what they have learnt during the lesson.
Some students prefer to take notes of what they learn in written form, some prefer writing down the TAB, and others prefer a video of me playing/teaching the main ideas from the lesson.
Video was always the most popular, and it really resonated with many people.
There is a lot of research though, that shows many people learn best through a combination of the above methods.
This is one of the reasons why I like to release video courses with TAB and notation as well as books.
…And a very short while ago, I decided to convert my Fingerstyle 101 book into a video course.
Now you can get this course.
The course contains everything from the paperback book and PDF versions but with a few little extras here and there that are not possible with a book.
The Fingerstyle 101 video course is out now and on sale this week.
Its full price will be $81, but this week it is on sale for just $27.
The course contains three modules, and it will teach you all the basics of fingerpicking and beyond.
At the end of the week, the price for this will triple, so if you want in, you can get it now.
I have updated the following page with some answers to questions that I know some of you will have. Feel free to ask me directly if you have any questions though.
Here is the link to find out more.
Find out more about the Fingerstyle 101 Video Course
Enjoy your Monday!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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