Have you ever said a word repetitively enough to question if it is even a word at all? “Semantic Satiation” is the name for this phenomenon. About the seventh time of repetition, the word loses meaning and becomes just a collection of sounds. This satiation point can occur in music practice as well. I have heard it called the “break-down point” when looping a small chunk of music. It seems our brain goes cross-eyed, our fingers aren’t able to facilitate the chunk, and it ceases to make sense, but just beyond the satiation point, comes clarity. What happens mentally and physically during this satiation?
In an article written by John Loeppky, Semantic Satiation – Why words become meaningless, J. Ravin states,“A word in itself doesn't actually have meaning. A word is a symbol for something, so, when we can move away from the meaning and just think about sound production, the physiology, it's helpful.” A note in itself doesn’t have meaning, so when its sound production and physiology is isolated, it is helpful; it contributes to the dilution of meaning within the music and laser-focuses on the necessary specifics. It helps to highlight that the music does not serve the instrument, the instrument serves the music.
When practicing repetition, I often tell my students to push through this satiation point even though it is frustrating (and often comical), because, as I say, “their brain is working it out.” It turns out that according to some research and theories, that is correct! When we get away from what we actually think we are reading as it becomes a nonsensical pile of mush, our brain has to piece it back together in a different way to make sense of it; so we take it out of the aural reasoning and place it back into the mental construct of a collection of notes put together in a particular order.
“Sometimes, losing the meaning of a word can actually be helpful….focus more on how your muscles need to move in order to make the sounds required, rather than the meaning of a particular word. Using semantic satiation allows learners to worry less about whether they understand the tense of a word, or the exact meaning of the word, and just focus in on how to make the required sounds.” (Ravin, J)
In practicing, if you can reach this point of repetition, breakdown, reprocessing, reprioritizing, and subsequent accuracy, then it will stick. It is as if it has traveled from short to long term memory, and along the way, our body figures out how to release tension, blow through mistakes, and build endurance to expand the limits of mental fatigue. J. McCarthy states in Loeppky’s article, “In practice, semantic satiation is our brain wanting to get back to how it absorbs information naturally…We want to be able to flow back and forth between paying attention to something and being able to take a step back from it.”
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Rewind to my 9-year-old self practicing for a piano recital. In the days leading up to it, I was told to not over-practice as it will lead to a disastrous performance. They weren’t wrong! It never failed. The more I practiced to try and sooth my panic before a recital, the worse I got!
Can you over-practice? Really? I love to say, “Practice until you can’t miss it.” Over-practicing is just practicing incorrectly or in a state of frustration, worry, anxiety, and fear of failure. At this point, when a piece in it’s final stages of performance readiness, it can be repeated more often in a shorter amount of time, therefore, we come back to notation satiation; playing something over and over again usually results in it getting faster and faster with more and more tension and less and less ability to make sense of what is being played. Muscle and brain fatigue sets in.
To work through this frustration, the key elements of mental and physical organization need to be resourced including mental reorganization, deeper and calmer breaths, tension release, and reprioritizing fundamentals. Practicing through this satiation point is important for mental and physical endurance and success. In Terri Sanchez’s book The Aspiring Flutist’s Practice Companion, Chapter 8 has “100 Practice Games” that are invaluable to help the brain “work it out.” Retention of what it feels like, sounds like, and looks like to be consistent and confident is developed only through repetition, and through that repetition, breakthroughs happen so if panic and a cross-eyed brain check-out moment happens during a performance, we can figure it out on the spot, make adjustments, and get back into focus without missing a beat.
Sanchez, Terri. https://www.flute4u.com/Sanchez-T-The-Aspiring-Flutist-s-Practice-Companion.html
