Seth Godin recently wrote:
The second time you rewire a system after finding a hum, it might take two minutes. The first time, the time you figured out what the problem was, it might have taken two hours.
It’s true! My second virtual choir project was much faster than the first. The third even faster. But then I had five months off, and my quickly-won skills had faded. If you’re only “finding a hum” once in a while, it might take two hours every time. Skills aren’t permanent.
It’s also true that we learn music faster as we acquire more music-learning skills. BUT. I’ve had choirs for whom that was true, and choirs who took just as long in June as they did in September to learn a new piece. It’s only when we learn broadly applicable meta-skills that we can pick up speed. In other words, how you learn this piece will affect how effectively you learn the next piece. Just as how quickly you find the hum this time is dependent on how you found it last time, and what you learned from it.