Tag: learning

Getting Into Classical Guitar Again After A Long Break

Nicole Neal1 Comment

Following on from a recent post on getting yourself playing a again after a holiday or a relatively short time away from the guitar, a few folks have emailed me to ask how they go about getting back into playing classical guitar again after a much longer time away from it. Of course, it’s difficult to give specific advice as different folks have reached differing levels of proficiency prior to a hiatus, learn at different speeds, have different goals with their playing and many other variable, but I thought I’d share with you some of my thoughts and ideas on getting going again with some serious classical guitar learning and playing.2014-01-18 04.42.32

1. Don’t over think it and have fun!

Regardless of what level of proficiency you got to when you went on your guitar playing sabbatical, it’s so so important at this stage to rediscover the reason why you started playing the guitar in the first place – because it’s fun! Yes, it will be important after not too long a time to get stuck into some technical exercises, but perhaps a good place to start is just sitting down with the guitar and having some fun with it.  Enjoy holding the instrument, strumming it, plucking it, playing a few bits of tunes that you remember, recalling and remembering how to make a beautiful sound with it.

2. Build good habits

This is the time to build good practice habits, and ensuring you’re doing a little playing each and every day is a great way to do this. Even if you’re not really feeling like it, just sitting down for 10 minutes with the guitar to play something, be it a scale or two, a little piece or a couple of technical exercises can help build in that practice habit once again.

3. Make sure your gear is up to the task

If your guitar has been sitting in its case under the bed for a long time, perhaps a year (or more!), then I’d dare say it probably needs a new set of strings. Strings degrade and corrode over time due to atmospheric exposure, even if you’ve not been putting your grubby little mitts all over them for a while. Put a new set of strings on your guitar and you will start out playing the instrument sounding at its best.

Of course, this could also be a good opportunity to treat yourself to a new guitar too! 😉 Any excuse….

4. Treat yourself to some new music to learn

You may have gotten bored of that same old tune you were learning before you packed your guitar away under the bed or into the cupboard, so give yourself something brand, spanking new to learn. If you’re finding it tricky to get back into the practice habit a brand new piece of music to learn is 

If you’ve not played in a long while I’d probably advise giving some music a try that’s a little easier than the level you’d previously gotten to. This will give your brain and fingers a chance to get back up to speed again without you getting frustrated or disheartened by something that may feel too tricky at this stage.

5. Find a good teacher

If you’re serious about really getting stuck into playing classical guitar again, improving your proficiency on the instrument and becoming an even better musician then you can’t really overlook the help and advice from a good teacher or mentor. If you’ve not played in a long time, yes, you can take tips and so on from blogs like these, but this advice is rather general. A good teacher, through regular weekly lessons, will be able to talk with you about what you want to do, observe your playing, listen to your sound, look at your physical state when playing, observe your reading (amongst many other things) and really help you, as an individual, to get firing on all cylinders again with your playing.

Making Your Brain Melt – Focus and Classical Guitar Practice

Nicole Neal1 Comment

Let’s face it, most of us have not got the luxury of spending hours and hours and hours of time to practice every day (as much as we’d like to). And even for those that do have that time available to them, there is one thing that everyone of us can benefit from – focus!

What do I mean by focus?

In a nutshell it’s that period of supreme concentration with no external distractions (no phones beeping an incoming text, no checking Facebook) and no internal distractions (no invading, obtrusive or otherwise unhelpful thoughts). It’s that period where time can seem to flow faster than normal and you feel like you’re achieving something.

So how do I get focus?!

Well, some days you’re going to be more in a focussed headspace than other day, but there are a number of things that can help you get into the zone and ready for some good quality practice:

  • Think about what it is you really want to get out of your practice session before you start it and think about the things you might need to do to achieve that.
  • Break your practice session up into bite-sized pieces, as there’s only so long you can maintain quality focus for. I often set a timer for 25-30mins, giving myself a little brain break of 5 minutes before diving in again for another 25-30mins.
  • Avoid the temptation to check any incoming messages, emails or calls and set you phone to silent, flight mode or turn it off.
  • Focus on the task at hand. Don’t concern yourself with what’s coming up in the rest of your day. Lay aside for a time any concerns, worries, day-to-day kind of stuff and just be present, right in the moment for your practice. Give it all of your attention and energy for that period you’ve set aside. And enjoy it!
  • Make sure you’re well hydrated, just with plain simple water, prior to your practice session and perhaps have a glass of water handy in your practice room. Make sure you’re well fed too – I know that I absolutely cannot focus in any way, shape or form when I’m hungry.
  • Avoid thinking about what others are doing, that video you saw on YouTube of that four year old kid playing your favourite piece or what you think that others may be think of your playing – this when things can go awry. Why? It’s simple really, if we can only really focus on one thing at a time, if you’re thinking about a myriad of other things, you’re taking your mind and your focus, off of what it is that you’re doing. You’re not present for the music you’re making.
  • If you’re struggling to focus and you feel like it’s really not happening for you today or at this moment, don’t struggle on with it – put your guitar away for a while, do something else and come back to it later.

When you come out of the other side of your supremely focussed practice session you probably will feel like your brain is going to melt or fall out of your head or some other similar sensation. Which is not surprising given that you’re using a whole load of brain power and building new neural pathways. Along with that sensation, I can guarantee that you will have achieved something – nailing that tricky chord change, working out a fingering, checking out a new piece for the first time. So, try a little focus and see what happens!

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