Tag: 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!

 

Motivating Students

Nicole NealLeave a comment

This one is a topic that came up through the survey at the end of last year. A number of you are also teachers and wanted to hear a bit more about my thoughts and experiences on teaching. So here we are! It is an interesting topic and I wrote a post on a similar topic very recently, on motivating oneself for practice.

I’ve been very fortunate with my students to date in that I’ve never really felt the need to have to intentionally and explicitly motivate them to learn, to think about things differently or to do practice. They are all highly motivated – intrinsically motivated – individuals (some even turning down tickets to the tennis this week so that they didn’t mis their lesson – such dedication!). So yes, I am very lucky to have such students. And this may be partly reflected by the fact that I choose to teach only adult and older learners – people coming to the guitar after a hiatus or for the very first time tend not to need too much external motivation and pushing along.

I appreciate that this may not always be the case, however, and some teachers with younger students in particular may need to give their charges a loving and helpful prod along from time to time. It is also worth bearing in mind that when you have a poorly motivated student or a student that seems to be flagging in enthusiasm or commitment, it may be a good time to stop and look to yourself as teacher – the issues may not be with the student. Perhaps there’s something that you as teacher need to tweak, sharpen up or refresh.

So here are my thoughts on putting, and keeping, the bounce into your students’ steps and nudging them on….

Give lots of feedback and keep it positive

The student wants to know that they’re doing well and that they can do it (which they can!). Sure there will ALWAYS be room for improvements to be made (and that goes for pretty much any guitarist, regardless of level), but it’s the delivery of the feedback for improvement that counts. Deliver it in a sandwich format like so:

* Really good positive stuff – “You really played that phrase beautifully.”

*Area for improvement – “How about you try it this way the next time through?”

* Really good positive stuff – “Awesome playing overall; really great sound.”

Good for student morale and feels really nice as teacher to deliver it in that way too. Smiles all round!

Ask questions, don’t bark instructions

Well, you can give instructions, and obviously they’re needed at certain points. However, when you ask them a question (“Was that phrase how you wanted it to sound?” for example) it really engages the students, gets them thinking for themselves, gets them involved, gets them really owning their learning and accessing their own internal resources (and embedding the patterns of critical thinking, questioning and problem solving, ready for the day when they no longer need you – yes, this day has to come!).

Have fun!

I find that this is so very important and so very simple – if it ain’t fun your students are not going to want to come to lessons, to work or to practice. Yes, that simple! As a teacher one should always strive to be kind, loving and fun to be with in the first instance. If you can do this then the rest will pretty much take care of itself.