I find that I do much better when channeling theory through a bunch of different instruments and so I'll play for longer than an hour but not with one, singular instrument.
By working some melody through three of them, I find I'm not learning some idiot pattern, like a nintendo code, but rather understanding how the instrument works. If nothing else its going my brain working in ways it hasn't in awhile. This is hugely helpful when learning the accordion because honestly its one of the harder things I've done. I look at the really good players now as not some fringe oddity but as someone whos at worst smart as a whip.
As for the cycle, I'll give it a swing. But I don't mean like recalling it when soemone asks me, I mean mid-song going "nope, hit the sharp because F's are sharped in this key" (as an example)
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