Learning how to practice means learning how to learn.
Understanding your own learning process is vital for accelerating your progress in the studio.
Your instrument unfortunately did not come with a user's manual, but here are some resources to give you an idea of how the learning process works:
The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle
Coyle's highly accessible book explains the physiological reasons that "a targeted effort can increase learning velocity tenfold". All movements, thoughts and feelings create neural circuits, and you can consciously target, reinforce, and accelerate movement along desirable circuits while weakening the ones that correspond to old habits. Chapter 4, "The Three Rules of Deep Practice," provides excellent descriptions of how to break your work down into manageable chunks, how focused repetition supports learning, and how to detect whether what you're doing will actually yield the results you want.
Mastery, by George Leonard
I find this book so inspiring. There are many reasons you should read it right away, but one item that is highly relevant for singing practice (or any practice) is Leonard's description of what he calls The Mastery Curve. Our culture is always chasing the breakthrough or the quick fix, but real progress is organic and occurs relatively slowly: "Learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it…To take the master's journey, you have to practice diligently, striving to hone your skills, to attain new levels of competence. But while doing so – and this is the inexorable fact of the journey – you also have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere."
The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge
If the brain actually came with a comprehensive, user-friendly manual, this would be it. Doidge presents recent ground-breaking work in the field of neuroplasticity. While the book sometimes focuses on extreme cases, e.g. the need to rebuild function lost to a massive stroke or to compensate for autistic conditions, these examples demonstrate essential capabilities common to all brains and prove that well-targeted learning strategies can yield extraordinary results. I especially recommend this book to teachers. Reading it gave me a much clearer picture of how motor learning works and led me to radically transform my teaching methods.
Your instrument didn't come with a user's manual, but user's manuals are often over-rated anyway…
Fortunately, recent advances in neuroscience are now generating books that are accessible even to those of you without a strong science background. A little information about how the learning process works can make all the difference in the way you practice singing.
A big part of learning vocal technique is replacing lifelong speech and movement habits with new ones that are better for singing. Practice sessions often feel like wrestling matches with deeply ingrained muscle memory.
You're much more likely to win the match if you align your efforts with the way your mind and body actually learn.
Any books on the learning process that you'd care to add to this list? Feel free to recommend them in the comments section!
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