Carla Davis Cash wanted to know whether short rest periods would help college students mentally consolidate keyboard sequences they were learning. In an study published in the October 2009 Journal of Research in Music Education, she discovered, among other findings, that

“Immediately following 5-min. rest intervals, participants showed large gains in performance” on the keyboard.

These short rest periods improved both performance and retention of material learned. In the author’s words, “The brain continues to learn and process material while it is at rest.”

Although much more needs to be learned about how the mind works, results imply that short breaks help learners process and remember new material. Like the subjects in this study, who were not musicians, younger students in bands and orchestras might also benefit from short rest periods.

Students who took breaks early in the learning sequence remembered things better than did those who waited until they’d been practicing a long time.

The study, “Effects of Early and Late Rest Intervals on Performance and Overnight Consolidation of a Keyboard Sequence,” appeared in the October 2009 Journal of Research in Music Education. For more information about this publication, visit SAGE Publications.  MENC members can purchase a subscription by e-mailing Member Services at mbrserv@menc2.org.

Carla Davis Cash is an assistant professor of piano at Texas Tech University in Lubbock where she coordinates the group piano program and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in piano pedagogy and applied music.

 --Ella Wilcox, Oct. 21, 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)