Comparing Interleaved and Blocked Practices in Secondary School Music Performances

A well-established principle in cognitive psychology is the interleaving effect, which refers to alternating between different tasks during practice. Although interleaving has been shown to support long-term learning across domains, its application in secondary school music classrooms remains underexplored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interleaved and blocked practice schedules on music performance and retention in a general secondary music setting. Intact groups of first-year secondary students ( N = 60) completed an 11-session, 5-week teacher-led intervention while practicing four similar melodic pieces on a recorder. Music performance was assessed at pretest, posttest, and a 4-week follow-up using a performance rubric. Results indicated that both groups improved from pretest to posttest, with no significant between-group differences. At follow-up, however, students in the interleaving group maintained performance levels, whereas those in the blocked condition showed a significant decline. These findings suggest that teacher-directed interleaving may support longer-term retention of music performance skills in secondary general music classrooms.