What’s the best way to practice to get good at _____

Rote learning is vilified by educators, yet it is quite effective and lasts a lifetime. Times tables learned by rote are in the mind forever. Yes, a thousand times. Please forgive a second comment, but this comment cannot be stressed enough. It is a common belief that "rote learning squashes creativity". The fact is that a large base of knowledge is absolutely essential for creativity to occur. MacGyver could only think of amazingly creative solutions because of his wealth of knowledge regarding the physical sciences. I think it is also worth noting that learning can be repetitive yet not be rote. If you learn a lot of fact but view them as interacting components of a larger whole, the learning will not be rote, even if you have to repeat the task many times. (such as the pottery cylinders or welding lines) By themselves, the exercises might seem meaningless but they are actually integral and essential components.

In music, scales. Every scale. So many scales. There is a reason piano teachers make you practice your scales. Because if you have your scales down, playing almost everything becomes so tremendously easier. Sight reading is much easier, difficult keys are much easier - because all the notes are already there in your fingers. So when you sit down to play Bach or Beethoven or something, you are recognizing and playing patterns you already have down instead of trying to string together a bunch of disparate elements. You are looking for variation on a theoretical theme, which is way easier than trying to keep track of sharps and flats. Scales also help with finger strength, coordination, dexterity and such - but the theoretical aspect is really key (no pun intended). If you learn your modes and exotic scales too, even the 20th century stuff becomes way easier. Oh, look at this crazy nonsense melisma of notes here. I'll have to learn this random thing. Oh wait, that's just the octatonic scale. Ha Igor, you can't fool me!

In clicker training dogs, the timing of the click is very important and can be really difficult if the dog is moving fast and you're looking to isolate a behavior that occurs in a fraction of a second. To work on your timing, you can practice with the television, clicking every time someone blinks, turns their head, moves their right hand, or does some other unpredictable behavior.

//Suicides" in basketball require one to run ¼, 1/2/ and the length of the entire court only to come back each time to the beginning before fulfilling each remaining running interval. // I just want to point out that suicides did nothing for my basketball game. The desire to avoid running suicides when I missed a layup or free throw did wonders for my game though.

When you're learning juggling, throwing a single ball up in the air over and over and over again, learning where the hang is (that moment between moving upward and falling downward) is the most important thing to begin. You want to time your throws and catches by the hang, and not worry about where you think the ball is going. If you watch where it hangs, you'll know where your hands need to be.

The best thing you can do for your editing skills is to read: read widely, read deeply and broadly, read all the time. No prose too low or too high, read everything, and read constantly.

Hi. I'm learning math, and reviewing the Pre Calculus and Trig before I retake the placement exam. Some tips I've learned that have helped me along the way (particularly from Mefi folks): 1. Write out all the steps in the problem. If this means that one problem takes up an entire sheet of paper, so be it. There's a reason I have a six inch high stack of scrap paper from work on my desk. 2. Do all the problems, not just the ones assigned to you in class. This was helpful for me in class, when I was taking them. 3. Do a little bit, often. Don't try to cram it all in, as that just doesn't work. 4. This is the biggest one for me - if something is frustrating to me, and/or I'm getting angry or depressed over the math (or something else), WALK AWAY. Come back to it another day. Because then the little mistakes will be made, which will complicate the big mistakes, and when you get 6 as the answer when it's really pi, it's easy to go 'oh, screw it all!' and give up. When all you need is an hour/night/weekend off from it all. Take the break you need, and come back.

Although nobody really loves to do it, playing arpeggios, scales (3 octaves, all keys, all types of minor, etc.), octaves and tenths will really, really help violin technique. As will doing Sevcik-style bowing exercises. Practicing in front of a mirror to address postural and positional problems, especially during shifting, is very important. If you're taking advanced science classes, take notes during class (but don't bother with multicolored pens or whatever), and then THAT EVENING (before you forget what you heard), re-write your notes more coherently whatever way looks good to you. When it comes time to study for an exam, write your own study guide by synthesizing the important parts of each lecture in to a summary packet. This is an extremely effective way to retain information without rote memorization. If you write complex technical material of any sort, you MUST read what you have written out loud to yourself at least 6 hours after you think you are done writing it. You will find tons of terrible wordings and mistakes. It also helps to get a screenreader to read it out loud to you. An editor helps even more but there's a lot you can do on your own. Never consider anything you have written "done" until you have reviewed and edited it many hours after finishing writing. I suspect that the fastest way to become a good scientist is to have impeccable lab notebook skills from day 1. I know a lot of scientists including myself and none of us did this - we all had to learn the hard way how crucial it is to keep good records. Ultimately everything you do as a scientist is wasted if you don't write down the appropriate data. Knowing what information is actually important enough to record is not nearly as obvious as you might think, and people tend to screw up for the first several years.

Oh, and here's some really specific stuff about learning a new piece of music (on violin in my case). I got these instructions from a really amazing teacher of mine. Best way to learn a new piece (never move on until you have mastered each step): 1. Play one page, with every note as a whole note and whole bow, no rhythm, no vibrato, no dynamics. If you are out of tune, do not simply correct the note you are playing, return to the previous note and practice the transition without adjustment until it is perfect on the first try. 2. Play the page in rhythm but extremely slow, using one note per bow. Use a metronome. 3. Play the page in rhythm but extremely slow, using one note per bow, adding in vibrato and dynamics. Use a metronome. 4. Play the page in rhythm, as slow as possible while using correct bowings, using vibrato and dynamics. Use a metronome. 5. Play as written. 6. Start over with step 1 on the next page.