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Anyone any good new year resolutions? And how did last year's one go?
Last year I made the mistake of setting a 500 day 'play flamenco guitar everyday' resolution. So still have 135 days to go of that (ok I missed 32 days with tennis elbow and UK trip but still pleased as normally my NY resolutions don't last a week .)
But this year I might go for 'learn a falseta I haven't attempted before' every 2 weeks.
Not very imaginative I know
And while I'm here a very Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all
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nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)
ppl joking bout it, but its real thing given by universe. every new year, new moons, full moons, something starts or ends in our lives. since universe is what it is as we know - everything goes from minimalism to maximalism (or upside down), the moon cycles are less important, the new years are also the ends at the same time D. so ppl getting mad, bad is they mostly have no clue bout it, they dont believe - yes in god, ppl didnt get the right meaning of that word, so theres evil in the world. they will laugh to you cos u believe to astrology, trees, nature. i have what could be called resolution, most important in my life, but cant realize it, since we living in babylon. hope once i will.
Some resolutions for the year but unfortunately nothing related to flamenco. Flamenco is going to have to stay on the back-burner for a while as I sort out other things in life. Oh well.
So are you trying the new falseta every 2 weeks thing? I guess one of the things to look out for is to make sure you don't just end up learning a bunch of falsetas you'll forget and won't be able to pull up from memory. I haven't had time to try it yet but I've been wondering about whether I could make use of spaced repetition programs to solve that problem. I've used programs like that for language learning and found them to be effective. I wonder if it would be effective as well for memorizing falsetas.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
whether I could make use of spaced repetition programs to solve that problem. I've used programs like that for language learning and found them to be effective.
They're both open-source apps that use an older version of the "SuperMemo" algorithm, so if you want the more up-to-date but proprietary version, it would be here: https://www.supermemo.com
Basically you make your own question and answer cards to help memorize. Once you have your cards, it works basically like a quizz. The software will show you the question first. You answer and then check against the answer you'd written down when making the card at the beginning. As such it's not different from flashcards you'd make at school, or even just hiding one side of a vocabulary list with a sheet of paper or whatever. The interesting part is the "spaced repetition". The card will show up in your list at increasingly large intervals. The first time I answer a card, it will show up at n+1 (the next day). When I answer it the second time the interval will be longer, like n+2. The third time maybe n+4. etc. (not the real figures, just giving those as example). When you answer the card, you also rate how difficult the question was (on mnemosyne it's from 0 to 5). That rating will have an impact on the interval after which the card will appear again. (The interval always increases, but if you rate a question as difficult, the interval will increase less than if you rate it as easy). I don't think there's an upper limit to the duration of these intervals, so theoretically you can just keep going until the interval is longer than the amount of years you have left to live. ^^
I use it for retaining vocabulary words, phrases, expressions and sometimes full sentences and I've found it quite effective. I figure it might also work with memorizing musical ideas or pieces. The only thing with falsetas I guess is that you'd have to find a way to formulate the question without already giving the answer. So you would have to label each falseta and remember what the label is. I guess you could always put a sound sample as the question, but then you would just be focusing on remembering how to play that falseta and not on recalling the whole falseta from scratch.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
Thanks! I like how with mnemosyne you can download cards sets contributed by others so you can start on something immediately. For example, there is one on guitar fretboard memorization.
So are you trying the new falseta every 2 weeks thing?
Yup but .... I will often be doing a classical guitar study instead of a falseta. My intention is not to retain these. I always play them reading the tab. I want to improve sound quality, sustain, plus accurate left hand (fret board).
The falsetas I mainly use come from my man in Valencia but he always wraps them in compas. Again I'm not worried if I forget them. I'm working under the theory that if I play them so infrequently I forget them, then clearly I don't enjoy them that much
Must admit I'm being tempted by more Dylan, Animals and Police stuff these days. But still well over 50% Flamenco.
But too early in 2020 to say I won't suddenly change course before the years out
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nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)
Very interesting. I tried Mnemosyne and had a play with it. I think the self assessment followed by automated selective testing could work really well for lots of things.
However, I was hoping that I might be able to use it for English teaching but I’d need question imaging, or at least variant question types (multiple choice, true/false, etc.). From what I can see of Mnemosyne it doesn’t seem to do that.
I tried Anki but it failed I believe due to a compatibility issue with graphic drivers. So I had a look at a youtube presentation. Sadly, it uses grahics but only as part of the answer.
The problem I have when teaching a language is that it would teach how to translate, and not how to think in English.
So, if anyone sees one that can handle question imaging, and if not that then at least various question types, I’d be very, very interested.
Should say at the moment I use Moodle as a Learning Management System and have lots of questions formatted to standards. With a bit of an edit I should be able to get all the simple ones imported into Mnemosyne.
But anyway many thanks Piwin. A good find. I’ll for sure have a deeper look at Mnemosyne for perhaps early learners.
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nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)
Dunno, I have a hard time imagining how you could use it as a teacher. I think the concept of spaced repetition is important and you could perhaps find ways to build that into your curriculum, but Mnemosyne itself probably doesn't lend itself all that well for use in class. Perhaps just something to suggest to your students as a way to memorize vocabulary more efficiently on their own time.
For me the benefit is entirely in the spaced repetition algorithm and that's pretty much it. The way I use it is just to make my own cards with words, phrases, etc. and then all in all I spend maybe 5 to 10 minutes on it a day. The key is that I check in every day and review whatever comes up. It won't teach you how to think in a language, nor will it teach you how to play a falseta. The way I use it, its value is strictly as a trigger to help me consign things to long-term memory.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
Piwin yup with you. With these tools I'm looking for ways the student can learn when not in class. I certainly don't want to use lesson time going through lists. Had too much of that as a kid
But I mostly have one to one with people in a hurry. They need a B2 or C1 for a Visa, Uni entry, or whatever. So I need to avoid the normal two step approach: learn how to translate, then learn to think in the new language. And to date linking a word or phrase to an image is the best, and for me, only way to do it. I even remember from 40 years ago Paul Daneils opening a draw and finding a carhorn. Draw is Cajon. Slightly different approach but I've seen it work
I normally use Moodle so hadn't looked at these tools before. So you've opened a new door (or should that be draw)
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nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)
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as normally my NY resolutions don't last a week 
.) 
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