Just practicing isn’t enough. If you want to see true results in the quickest time possible it’s not about quantity, but quality of the time spent woodshedding (that’s guitar-speak for “practicing”). With the proper focus you can improve in days or weeks what might have taken months or even years. In this article I am going to try my best to outline some guidelines that will help you get the most out of your practicing time. In this, as in any article or lesson I may write, I do not claim to have or know all the answers. Most of this stuff was picked up from my own teachers, method books, articles, magazines, books or my own revelations made in those brief moments of clarity. What you can count on is that this stuff has worked wonders for me as well as my students. An important lesson in life is to take what you learn here, digest it, and experiment with it to the best of your ability… and when you truly understand it in your bones… forget everything I have ever said and just play.
One of the first things that I highly recommend is that improvisation should be a part of everyone’s practice schedule. You need to be able to apply what you’ve learned or else you just spent a lot of time on nothing. So, one of the things I do is at the end of the week, or even at the end of a practice session, I will throw on a jam track and try to apply the ideas and techniques I’ve been working on. Sometimes the results aren’t very pretty, but it definitely gives me a better idea on how to use the stuff I’ve been working on. My teaching style is based around this whole idea and it’s worked very well for my students and improvisation is a great way to work this stuff out after you’ve had some time to absorb it.
Another approach to this idea is to write your own etude, or “a piece composed for the development of a specific point of technique”. Basically it’s taking that exercise and making a short song out of it.
I recommend BOTH of the above ideas, but writing etudes is just extended improvising, so if you had to pick only one (read: lazy) go with improvising. Whatever the case may be, learning the material is only half the battle. You have to able to work what you are learning into your playing style. This came has a pretty heavy revelation to me and was something I didn’t understand until just a few short years ago. I, for the most part, was just practicing what my teachers gave me or working out of method books on topics that interested me. I stunted my own growth because I didn’t take the time to fully digest the material I was working on and many topics and techniques that I spent many hours of practice went quickly out the window when I didn’t try to make music out of it. Use it or lose it, as the saying goes…
The Tao of Practicing … so you want to get serious? You’ve made the decision that it is time to take playing to the next level. You’ve read articles on your favorite players and you’ve found that Steve Vai and Joe Satriani use to spend 6, 8, 12 hours a day practicing back in their former years. Don’t kid yourself. While the more practice the better, understand that you need to be realistic with the amount of time you can commit to practicing. There’s nothing more frustrating (personal experience as well as that of some overzealous students) then coming up with a big, detailed 4-hour practicing sessions and not being able to fit more than 2 hours of it in on any given day. Sometimes procrastination is to blame (once again, personal experience), but sometimes we overestimate the amount of time that we have available to spend just on practicing. Not to mention you will burn yourself out, quick, trying to cram an 8 hour practice session when you are use to spending 30 minutes to an hour. The trick is this: really be honest with yourself with the amount of time you have available to spend on playing the guitar every day. If you can only fit an hour in every day than that is fine. Try to build up to longer and longer times as your focus on the instrument increases and your consistency has been…well, consistent. If you are finding you can fit that hour in everyday for, say two weeks, then add an extra half an hour and see how it goes. Don’t get overzealous; you will just burn out as quickly as you started. Just as the weight lifter must start out with lighter weights and a less intensive exercise program in order to avoid hurting themselves so must you begin with a less intensive practice schedule. When the muscles have healed and strengthened themselves then the bodybuilder may increase the weight, reps and range of exercises. Only when you adjust to the practice schedule you have laid out can you increase the intensity. It’s difficult to remain focused on something for long periods of time, especially if you are not use to it. You will bore easily and practicing will become some torturous and arduous chore that you will not be looking forward to everyday. You picked up the guitar because it is fun to play. Don’t forget that. Keep forging forward but no matter how far you get you picked up the instrument for a genuine love for it and music. Don’t lose sight of the beginning no matter how far down the path you travel. Always “wear the white belt” (one of my favorite martial art references) and play with the true heart of an amateur; someone who does something for the love of it. You’ve stepped off the path if you aren’t excited about learning anymore, but it’s not as difficult as it may seem to get back on track.
I would like to add one more thing concerning the amount of time spent on practicing. We all know that life can throw some unexpected curve balls at us and it can seem like on some days everything is working against you getting that hour of practice in. If after a hard day you find you only have 5 minutes to spend on practicing… take it. Choose one scale, one exercise, one chord, one arpeggio and practice it! I heard someone say awhile ago that if you practice for 5 minutes you will be 5 minutes better at the guitar than you were before you picked it up! How does the saying go? Oh yeah… carpe diem.
After a time has been set aside you must gather the material you intend to use. Even if I am your teacher I can not exactly tell you what you need to practice. I will most certainly make suggestions, and if you are currently a student of mine you know of the “laundry lists” I write down at the end of every lesson. But these are just suggestions based on the observations I made watching you play. Sometimes it’s advice on correcting a particular technique. Other times it’s exactly a laundry list: Practice this chord progression, then this scale, then this song. What you practice will be based largely off what your own goals are, where your interests lay, temperament, current playing level, and a myriad of other variables. Understand that I am not you and you are not me. What works for one person may not work for another. What should I practice you ask? You have to answer that one yourself. Take an honest and constructive look at your own playing and make your own laundry list based off of your own goals.
And that brings me to the next point. Prioritize. Once again, personal experience speaks for itself here. I have the tendency to get WAY in over my own head; attempting to practice more things then I have time for. I end up with the above scenario. I “practice” a lot of stuff, but I never fully focus on any one thing enough to assimilate it into my playing style the way I’d like. The key here is to first write down everything you want to learn and do. Then order that list from most to least important. Now you have to figure out how much time you can spend on each topic and cut the things you don’t have time for. Save them for another day. Prioritize. Focus. And before you know it you’ll be on to the next thing. Also, do not be afraid to break your practice session up throughout the course of the day. No one said you had to sit there for a two hour block staring at your music stand. Larger practice routines can easily be managed by working in a half an hour here and a half an hour there. Practicing in bursts will also help to keep your focus. It is much easier to focus for 15 minutes at a time then for two whole hours.
When overwhelmed with the amount of material to cover take to heart and old Samurai adage: “Attack the corners” … the little things that stick out. Then move on to the big stuff.
I think I need to take the time to point out something very important that should be thought long and hard about. Don’t make the mistake of comparing your progress to others. While it’s healthy to be a little bit competitive as it can drive us to practice harder and focus more, it can also become a hindrance. But unlike sports, music is not inherently competitive. It is an art and should always be treated as such. Music should never be confused with a competition. It is a life long journey that is something you can constantly improve and reshape. The goal in sports is to run faster, jump higher and score more than the opposing team. There is an end in sight: winning the game, the competition, breaking a record… there is no concrete destination in music. The journey ends the day you die and for those special few may carry on to further inspire those of future generations. No sooner. In music, the only opponent is within.
Until next time…
Dan is a professional teacher and guitarist located in northern New Jersey. You can check out Dan’s work at the following sites:
www.dansorber.com
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