Tag: learning

A marathon starts with a single step or starting on the journey to guitar playing success and general awesomeness!

Nicole NealLeave a comment

 

There’s no denying we live in a world of Facebook posts lost in the ether within minutes, Tweets posted and gone in seconds (unless you make some kind of idiotic, racist, sexist or otherwise bigoted statement which then comes back to bite you big time!), ads here there and everywhere,

World Athletics Championships 2007 in Osaka - ...
Catherine Ndereba. Not a guitarist. But pretty handy at the marathon. Play like she runs and you’ll have no worries! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

more of this, more of that, quicker this, faster that, more, more, more, now, now, NOW!

And oftentimes this feeling, this sensation, of constantly wanting to have more, like, right now, can translate over into various areas of our lives. Our guitar playing and learning included.

I too have been guilty in the past of wanting to play super fast RIGHT NOW! I too have been guilty of wanting to play such-and-such piece like RIGHT NOW! Why can’t I make that phrase sound like so-and-so RIGHT NOW!

OK there are some things that don’t take too long to fix up or change. For example, some focused and concentrated listening in to the sound you’re making can really help to make a difference in your tone quality in a relatively short period of time.

But some things just take as long as they need to take.

Part of this is about the amount of practice that you put in. As I’ve also said before a lot of this comes down to consistent, very regular practice and focussed practice.

But a significant part of becoming a generally awesome guitarist is making those initial steps.

A marathon runner cannot hop straight to the end of the marathon (unless you get on the bus and cheat, but no one likes a cheat and you get found out in the end!). A marathon runner has to start the first of 42 kilometres with the first 100 metres, the first kilometre.

Perhaps even more importantly than that, they can’t really even line up on the start line on event day to run the marathon without having put the hard yards in first. There has to have been months of preparation in the lead up to the event. It’s all about the work that you’ve put in to getting you to a point.

Just to reiterate one of my favourite points about being consistent – can that marathon runner do sufficient training for a marathon by cramming it in a couple of weeks before? I would think probably not. Time is crucial – time for the body to adapt, time for the brain to adapt, time for the unconscious mind to adapt.

It’s the same with learning to play this most fantastic and wonderful of instruments. Nope we don’t have to go on a funny diet and have ice baths like the marathon runner, but we do need to take our time, we do need to take the first steps first and we do need to take each step at a time.

So guitarists, which step are you taking today in your practice?

How are you practicing?

Nicole Neal3 Comments

Ooh that’s a funny sounding question isn’t it? We’re used to hearing perhaps “how often do you practice?” or “how long do you practice?”

And both of those are important questions.

Practicing often, as often as one is able really, certainly on a daily basis is extremely important if you want to make some good headway into really getting to grips with the instrument. One of the keys to making good solid technical and musical progress is to get frequent and consistent practice going on. Novak Djokovic (to get topical) didn’t get good at tennis by hitting a ball about once or twice a week. Yes, he has a fairly large serve (ahem…) of talent one assumes, but he would also capitalise on that by hitting a tennis ball about the tennis court each and every day, more or less.

How long do you practice can also be an important question. And the answer can be affected by a number of things, including amongst others time you have available, other life stuff going on, what it is you’re aiming to achieve with the guitar, your level of focus and your priorities. Understanding that can help you define how much you can and/ or should be dedicating to your practice.

In an average week I’d say I spend in the region of 8 – 12 hours practicing. Now to some people that would sound like not very much; to others it would sound like a heck of a lot. It is what it is. We all come from different points of view.

And I sometimes think this way of thinking is a wee bit like clocking into work and getting “face time” at the office. Being present and putting the hours in doesn’t necessarily equate to producing good quality work (presentee-ism I think they call it!. Taking on more of a results-based approach to your practice, rather than time put in, can (a) take the pressure off in terms of you having the guilts thinking you should have done so many hours practice, or however many hours Joe Blow has done and you’re not matching it and (b) actually help you achieve or get closer to your guitar goals in a much easier (and possibly quicker) fashion.

So yes, it’s what you do with the time that is available that is really crucial. One could spend in excess of 30 hours with the guitar each week and not really achieve much if you’re not practicing in a way that serves what you’re trying to achieve at a given point in time. This is of course making the assumption that you’re aiming to achieve something in particular. If you’re just playing for playing’s sake and you’re cool with that, then I’m totally cool with that too!

However, if you are practicing and playing with the express aim of achieving certain goals, you need to be somewhat strict with yourself in how you practice. And what do I mean by that? Well, I mean avoiding the temptation to play through a whole piece, or section, or even phrase when you really don’t need to be doing that. I’d even go so far as to ask yourself all or some of the following questions:

  • “Do I really need to play this through right now?”
  • “Is this actually practicing or am I just playing through without really focussing?”
  • “Is practicing in this way helping me right now and in the lead up to my bigger goal?”
  • “Is there something else I could be or should be doing instead?”
  •  “Should I be practicing in a different way?”
  •  “Which elements need the most work right now?”
  •  “Which bits do I need to focus on first?”
  •  “Am I making this sound like I really want it to sound, or do I need to do something differently?”
  •  “How do I want a particular section/ phrase/ bar to sound at the end of my practice session?”

By practicing in this focussed manner you may just surprise yourself as to what can be achieved in a relatively small block of time. Give it a whirl and let me know how you go!