Post by Paul on Aug 19, 2015 14:17:11 GMT -5
PART ONE
Practice, why are we talking about practice?
I will tell you why. I am often asked what, where, how often, and various other questions about practice. It may get a little mind boggling at time but practice is the key to learning guitar. I know right? Big trade secret. But the discussion amongst players is just what to practice etc. Below is my list of practice tips, tricks, and secrets to maximize your guitar practice routine.
I just wanted to start out by saying that I fully understand practicing can be rather tedious, boring, and just not a lot of fun. Hopefully some of these items will help motivate you into practicing.
I’m not going to get into the cliché topics about having a quite practice space with no distractions and all that other stuff we all heard in school on tips for studying. It is very helpful but not always practical. I spent a lot of my own practicing in front of a tv, which has its benefits as I will explain. I myself have fallen to a lot of the practicing pitfalls. Off the top of my head #2 has always been an issue with me due to my insomnia.
1. Use wall hangers or guitar stands. I don’t fully understand it myself, but when I walk across my wall of awesome (What I call my guitar room) I get the urge to just start jamming. I’ve also read about this from other instructors that agree that having your guitar or a guitar on display does increase the amount of playing. I’ve gone so far myself as to have a guitar next to my television so when I get that urge I don’t have to walk around the house to go get a guitar. Honestly I don’t like doing that at 2am when I just want to do some quick scale runs before bed. Problem being is those quick scale runs generally turn into a few hours of practice.
2. Who needs sleep right? Again part of the cliché school tips is getting a good night sleep, so don’t miss out on sleep. Just like those clichés this one that is also applicable. There have been a lot of studies done on getting a good night sleep and I’m sure we’ve all had our share of reading them. I’m not your parents; your bed time is your own business, but keep in mind that a rested mind is a productive mind.
3. Keep a log. Either if it is writing things down or recording your practice it is a great idea to keep a log. This is also a great way to track your own individual progress. I can create a log for anyone if they would like but keep in mind that each person has different musical goals. One student may want to increase their speed and another might be interested in learning songs. The log for those students would be different. Some example suggestions for those logs could be how many beats per minute you can achieve, or a list of songs. It is also a good idea to keep a separate space for notes. Not musical notes but thoughts on progress etc. Say you are learning a song and can’t get a certain chord progression down. Write in the notes “Practice XYZ progression,” or “Nailed XYZ progression.” It will start to show your progress.
More to come….
Practice, why are we talking about practice?
I will tell you why. I am often asked what, where, how often, and various other questions about practice. It may get a little mind boggling at time but practice is the key to learning guitar. I know right? Big trade secret. But the discussion amongst players is just what to practice etc. Below is my list of practice tips, tricks, and secrets to maximize your guitar practice routine.
I just wanted to start out by saying that I fully understand practicing can be rather tedious, boring, and just not a lot of fun. Hopefully some of these items will help motivate you into practicing.
I’m not going to get into the cliché topics about having a quite practice space with no distractions and all that other stuff we all heard in school on tips for studying. It is very helpful but not always practical. I spent a lot of my own practicing in front of a tv, which has its benefits as I will explain. I myself have fallen to a lot of the practicing pitfalls. Off the top of my head #2 has always been an issue with me due to my insomnia.
1. Use wall hangers or guitar stands. I don’t fully understand it myself, but when I walk across my wall of awesome (What I call my guitar room) I get the urge to just start jamming. I’ve also read about this from other instructors that agree that having your guitar or a guitar on display does increase the amount of playing. I’ve gone so far myself as to have a guitar next to my television so when I get that urge I don’t have to walk around the house to go get a guitar. Honestly I don’t like doing that at 2am when I just want to do some quick scale runs before bed. Problem being is those quick scale runs generally turn into a few hours of practice.
2. Who needs sleep right? Again part of the cliché school tips is getting a good night sleep, so don’t miss out on sleep. Just like those clichés this one that is also applicable. There have been a lot of studies done on getting a good night sleep and I’m sure we’ve all had our share of reading them. I’m not your parents; your bed time is your own business, but keep in mind that a rested mind is a productive mind.
3. Keep a log. Either if it is writing things down or recording your practice it is a great idea to keep a log. This is also a great way to track your own individual progress. I can create a log for anyone if they would like but keep in mind that each person has different musical goals. One student may want to increase their speed and another might be interested in learning songs. The log for those students would be different. Some example suggestions for those logs could be how many beats per minute you can achieve, or a list of songs. It is also a good idea to keep a separate space for notes. Not musical notes but thoughts on progress etc. Say you are learning a song and can’t get a certain chord progression down. Write in the notes “Practice XYZ progression,” or “Nailed XYZ progression.” It will start to show your progress.
More to come….