The Perfection of Practice

“Perfect practice makes perfect” was once said by a famous baseball instructor.   The whole point of practicing is to do something perfectly.   The Olympic swimmer strives to make each stroke perfect, the basketball player strives to shoot the ball with perfect form.  Likewise, the guitar player strives to play each note perfectly.

We value perfection because it is so hard to achieve, because we are prone to make mistakes.   That’s the challenge.  If we become too self conscious of our playing, we tend to make more mistakes.  In other words, being self conscious means that we are thinking about what our hands are doing, or something other than just playing.  The key to perfection is to lose our self consciousness by practicing.

The time to be self conscious is when we practice; think about how your fingers are moving, and how the note sounds, and how everything flows.  Move your fingers slowly, and deliberately.  Then slowly build your speed to where you play the piece without thinking.  When we practice slowly with deliberation we are teaching our fingers to develop their own intelligence (muscle memory)…to the point when thought becomes action without any interference.  Our skill becomes a natural part of ourselves.

If you practice you will improve, and you will begin to play perfectly.  With practice, our fingers no longer rely on our conscious thought; they just know where to go.  I used to be amazed when I would see a guitarist play amazing pieces without looking at the guitar neck…I now know all of that comes from many hours of practice, and superb muscle memory.

When you are playing something and it just isn’t right, slow down and focus only on the difficult part.  Practice the difficult part very slowly, and deliberately for 10 min, then take it from the top.  It’s amazing to feel your fingers move to exactly where they need to go when they need to …and when your fingers fail, slow down and let them learn.

The Feel of Guitar Practice

I truly believe music is more about feeling and less about knowing the right notes.  Don’t get me wrong, knowing the notes is very important, but it is much more important to play the correct notes with feeling. 

It’s like two actors who recite the same lines in a play.  The better actor will add feeling to his/her voice and facial expressions.  Likewise, two guitar players can play the same notes, but the better guitar player will add feeling to those notes.

Feeling for the guitarist is in the technique….bending, sliding or holding a note just a little longer is what makes the difference.

Indeed music is an emotional thing.  The best songs create an emotion in the listener.  Whenever you are practicing, connect with the feeling of your music, and try to transmit those feelings to the listener.

One exercise that I love is playing a riff in as many different ways I can feel…I don’t think about it, I just play it.  I’m playing the same notes, in the same order, but I’m adding different feelings to those notes.  The cool thing is when you hit on a certain style that sounds “right” to your ear.  That’s when you have infused your feeling, your emotion into your sound.  Start improvising with a riff, and then build and extend it to song you know.

Record your improvisations and listen to them later.  Can you hear feeling in your music?

The Technique of Guitar Practice

Technique allows us to speak with our guitar clearly and effectively: but we first must have something to say.  There is a ton of information on technique.  There is so much information on technique that the beginning artist can become lost in his/her technique and not have anything to say musically.

There is no doubt technique is important, but don’t focus all of your energy on technique.  I believe the goal is to play without having to think about technique.

Here are the basic guitar techniques that every player should be familiar with.  Over time you will become more skilled in certain techniques because you use those techniques more frequently to articulate your song.   

Bends:

Bending a note is simply pushing the string up towards the sky or down towards the floor in order to change the pitch of the note. In this tab we play the G string, third fret and then bend the note until it sounds like note played on the fourth fret.

e --------------------------

B --------------------------

G --------3b4-------------

D --------------------------

A --------------------------

E ---------------------------

Slides:

Sliding a note is when we play a note and while keeping the note pressed (fretted), we slide our finger to a different fret. In this case we fret the G string third fret, and then slide our finger to the seventh fret.

e --------------------------

B --------------------------

G --------3/7-------------

D --------------------------

A --------------------------

E ---------------------------

Hammer Ons:

A hammer on is when we play a note and while the note is still ringing, another finger hammers down on the next note. Here we play the G string third fret with the index finger, and then we hammer down on the fifth fret with our ring finger.

e --------------------------

B --------------------------

G --------3h5-------------

D --------------------------

A --------------------------

E ---------------------------

Pull Offs:

A pull off is the opposite of a hammer on. The index finger is on the G string third fret, we then play the G string fifth fret with the ring finger, we then pull the ring finger off the G string, basically plucking the string again causing the note at the index finger to ring.

Another way to explain it is to quickly slide your ring finger off the string in a downwards motion (this keeps the string vibrating) and the pitch will change quickly from 5 to 3.

e --------------------------

B --------------------------

G --------3p5-------------

D --------------------------

A --------------------------

E ---------------------------

Vibrato:

Vibrato is when we quickly move the fretted finger in an up and down motion causing the string to vibrate quickly causing a pleasing oscillating sound. In this case we play the G string third fret, and quickly vibrate the string.

e --------------------------

B --------------------------

G --------3~-------------

D --------------------------

A --------------------------

E ---------------------------

Learn the techniques that dominate your style of music, and pick up new techniques to round out your style.

The Rhythm of Guitar Practice

The focus of my playing is the groove, and every time I find a new rhythm, I find I can write a bunch of new songs. Learning how to dance, or drum, or to swing my body in a new way is the fundamental way I find a new riff. Because when you learn to swing your body in a new way, you begin to swing with your instrument differently. Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam


Place your hand over your heart and feel your body’s rhythm…just feel, and mentally absorb your body rhythm. We all have a natural rhythm, and when we play our instrument, we must allow our body rhythm to flow into the natural rhythm of what we are practicing or playing. When you’re listening to a song that moves you, your feet will naturally tap to the groove of that song, or you might snap your fingers to the rhythm…that’s getting into the groove. It’s not scientific, it’s a feeling, a feeling that we can develop into an instinct.

So the key to developing a better sense of rhythm, and timing is to work with a metronome. The Internet is full of all kinds of metronome exercises, so take some time to look at various metronome exercises and then incorporate them into your practice schedule. Practice playing both chords, and notes to a metronome. The important thing to remember when playing with a metronome is start playing slow, and then slowly build up your speed over time. If you attempt to play fast in the beginning, you'll only be playing your mistakes fast.

Record your practice sessions. Recording your practice is an ear opening experience…it’s like the first time you listen to a recording of your own voice…really weird. When you record and listen to your guitar playing, you can hear mistakes, as well as those sparks of brilliance.

Learn some music theory in terms of time signatures. Learning how to play in different time signatures is a great way to jam to different groves, and to create your own rhythms.

Music is rhythm, and by developing your rhythm, your music will naturally develop as well.

The Spirit of Guitar Practice

The spirit of guitar practice must be one of resilience, and self discipline. When we first start our guitar journey, we are excited, and full of dreams of being the next guitar hero. As we start practicing new physical challenges are experienced. First our fingers become sore and tired. The sounds coming out of your guitar sounds nothing like the song you hear in your head.

Now what? Quit, yes and many do, because they lack the spirit of total resolution and focus.
The old Nike slogan was: “Just Do It.” Pick your guitar and practice…something…anything, but keep at it, and don’t quit. Stick to your schedule as best you can. If you slip in your training, get up, and keep going. Block out any self defeating thoughts: “My hands are too small,” “I suck.” Whenever any negative thought pops into your brain, imagine that negative thought being destroyed by a sledge hammer!

Focus on the task at hand. Obstacles don’t matter, it’s how we respond to those obstacles that really matters. I believe this to true of life, not just practicing guitar.