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The verb 'To Assimilate' has two distinct definitions:
1.To take in and appropriate as nourishment:absorb into
the system.
2.To take into the mind and thoroughly comprehend.
Comparing the learning process to the process by which we
take in food for nourishment proves quite a useful analogy.
Indeed you may have heard the phrase: 'Read and inwardly digest'
used in this context!
So just how do we assimilate knowledge and understanding?
Well the first steps have been covered under the previous
two articles in this series. You have to contact the subject and you have to apply mental processing to ensure that relevant
points become fixed in medium-term memory.
You're not home and dry yet, however, because the mind appears
to have a very efficient housekeeper who periodically checks
through the medium-term memory banks and clears out any data
that haven't been recently put to use!
So part of the process of assimilating is to associate new
data with existing familiar data that does get used frequently.
Say you have got your student to learn the notes on the open
strings: E A D G B E. You've done this by getting them to
play each string and name them out loud one at a time (contacting
the subject). You have taught them one of the standard mnemonics
(Elephants And Donkey's Grow Big Ears) thus employing mental
processing to help fix the note names in memory. The third
stage is to help them assimilate this new knowledge by finding
relevant links to other concepts they are already familiar
with and using frequently.
This takes creative imagination on the part of the tutor.
A good example of how you might go about this would be to
use open chords (lets assume our student has already learnt
to play A, D and E major chords). I would get them to play
an E chord and then play the open E strings and listen to
how they relate to the chord. I would explain that the E note
is the 'Root' note of the E chord. (Most students will be
able to hear the relationship between the root note and the
chord)
I might then show some examples of how the root note is used
say in finger-picking or flat-picking to enhance the sounding
of an E chord. I would move on and apply the same ideas to
the A and D chords.
Doing this thoroughly might take the best part of a whole
lesson with some students. But this is teaching time well
invested because the student will then assimilate this knowledge
in a way that not only means you won't have to repeat the
lesson later, but their level of certainty and confidence
with the knowledge will ensure that subsequent steps like learning
scale notes etc. will be that much easier to teach as well.
This is the way to build strong foundations that mean that
the rest of your students' progress is enhanced and your job
as tutor is kept relatively simple!
Assimilating new knowledge takes time. Just like digesting
food. Don't be tempted to rush on to the next step too quickly.
That's like spooning food into a baby's mouth faster than
they can digest it. It doesn't take much imagination to see
that leading to quite a messy result!
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