How to Practise

Playing things you can already play on your guitar is not practising - not unless you are focusing on improving a particular technique or inaccuracy in the way you play. Practice should be difficult - remember how hard it was when you learned your first bar chord? That's why absolute beginners improve so quickly - because everything they learn is new and difficult.

A few years in, keeping up this beginner fast learning pace isn't easy or straight forward. For many of us, progress slows down and seems to stop all together.

To get the most out of every time you sit down to practise, you really need a strategy. Learning how to practise is the most useful skill I ever learned so let me try and explain it.

What's the point?

Something that's easy to forget to do, is set a goal before sitting down to practise. Carefully consider what you are going to work on and make sure it's within your reach.

By clearly defining the outcome, the practice session can be kept short and will be much more effective.

Short practise sessions mean you can organise breaks in between. Taking breaks between short bursts of intense learning (10 -20 mins) really helps us to learn faster.

making music

Remember, learning to play the guitar is about making music. Something that comes naturally for most of us is being able to tap rhythms with our hands or feet and sing or hum melodies. This inherent human skill is your best friend when you are learning to play an instrument like guitar.

Whatever you are learning to play, try and tap and sing it and get the music and rhythm into your head, before you try to play it on the guitar. Not only will you find it much easier, you will learn and progress so much faster if you do.

learning principles

To learn you have to memorise. To memorise quickly you'd do well to apply efficient learning principles.

Traditionally, learning guitar meant following reliable classical guitar methodologies - students followed the learning method that guides them thoroughly through all the techniques they must learn to become a complete musician - providing performance pieces at every level to consolidate and help refine the techniques they learn en route.

Anyone who has learned using this kind of classical method has benefited from it's inherent use of these 3 efficient learning principles.

1. Learn by Association - Attach new knowledge to something you've already learned. For example, to learn a new chord, practise playing it with another chord you know well - If you wanted to learn Am, say, and you already know C major, you might practise the Am by changing from C major, since Am is the relative minor in C. You could just as effectively learn the Am by playing to it from any other chord you are familiar with, that isn't too far away.

2. Incremental Steps - Trying to learn too much information in the same practise session is counter productive. Sometimes when you can't play something, it's because it is just too big or has too many new techniques/concepts within that you have to dissect and work on independently

For example, let's say you are practising a pentatonic scale with alternate picking. The most effective way to practise playing it, is to isolate a fragment of the scale and work on that small fragment, then you can really focus on what you are doing with those 3 or 4 notes with both hands without being distracted by navigating the entire box pattern and sinking into a brain numbing repetition of the pattern.

3. Change Context - This means changing the rhythm or dynamics of the phrase, or changing where it sits within the bar - get yourself out of your comfort zone and make it harder - twist it sideways, turn it upside down and back to front.

For example, if you are trying to alternate pick a scale fragment, one of the best ways to modify and challenge yourself is to consciously start the scale on a down-stroke (pick), then repeat the scale fragment starting with an up-stroke. See how much harder it becomes.

You could also try changing the tempo by using Rhythmic Divisions against a static metronome speed, or play it with a swing feel (dotted 8th notes) , play it staccato with pick-muting, play it with accents in different places or palm-muting or play with some legato.

a word or two on callisthenics

Once you've acquired some difficult complex techniques it does become necessary to maintain them, especially if you want to call on these skills in performance.

It's like anything that's inherently difficult to do, as long as you keep using the skill, it stays sharp and tight. If you don't put it through it's paces once in a while, it gets a little rusty and loose.

So, these daily callisthenics are useful for maintenance and you can practise them like any warm up.

When you are practising, make sure you recognise what you are doing - what are working on - new material or technique maintenance?

I use different sets of calisthenic exercises for maintaining different techniques that are inherently complex and need revisiting often, so I will aim to post some of these on my twitter feed periodically with some of the technical challenges that I like to trip myself up with.

Good luck and do let me know how you get on!