Tag: practice

My First Practice Session After The Holidays

Nicole Neal2 Comments

The Christmas and New Year holidays are a great time for me to take some time away from the guitar – yes, I do this on purpose!

Why?

Well, a lot of things in life benefit from taking a breather from time to time and guitar playing is no different. I find that in the day to day learning, practicing and playing drill one can get stuck in a rut sometimes and lost in the minutiae that perhaps seem overly important at the time or challenging to overcome.

A couple of weeks break, as I’ve just had, allows me to hit the reset button. It allows me the chance to just step back and see those woods for the trees in my practice and playing. Having recharged my batteries it also sets me up ready and raring for a new year ahead of learning.

Having arrived back Down Under last weekend, I commenced on my very first practice session earlier this week. So how did I go about getting back into it?

Very slowly first and foremost!

John Price Guitar

It’s pretty much guaranteed that for the first practice session back after a couple of weeks of zero playing ones hands are going to feel more or less like you’ve had them amputated and replaced by a pair of unwieldy size 12 feet. Well, that’s what it feels like for me anyway.

So, first things first (after having tuned up and settled into position and all that) is to play some Segovia scales. My hands were feeling particularly sleepy (I think they must have had jet lag too…) so I decided to play a few – C major, A minor, F major, D minor, G major and E minor.

I played half free stroke (the first half I played) and then half rest stroke. All of them I played with the full gamut of right hand finger alternatives, namely i-m, m-i, m-a, a-m, i-a, a-i, and i-m-a.

The left hand knows where it’s going around the fingerboard without me really actively having to think about it (the product of years of solid practice), so that bit’s OK. The finger and hand muscles feel slightly strange though, as I said, in moving in this way after a nice cosy break doing nothing more than lifting a fork and glasses of whiskey! By the end of this element of exercise the left hand is starting to loosen up again though and “remember” what it’s supposed to be doing, almost saying “ah yes, here we go again chaps!”.

Similarly the right hand, which after 14 or so days of not playing has lost it’s sharpened edge of reflexive fluidity, begins to stir from its torpor and recall the movements involved in creating a beautiful sound.

And that’s a very important thing to do at this point too. Even in working out the knots of the first couple of slow and careful scale runs I’m listening in to the sound I am creating, tweaking the right hand angle of attack just ever so slightly if necessary to hit the sweetest spot on the nail and settle back into my “go to” sound.

Once I’ve played through these scales, very slowly initially before moving a little faster, playing very mindfully, I then decided to move into playing through the newest piece that I’d been working on prior to going on holidays. Playing nice and slowly of course, and cutting myself some slack that things will be slightly rustier than when I left it I progress through the piece. I progress to the point where I’d gotten to in my learning of the music and then I moved beyond that.

For some reason the reading and the movement of the music, and particularly the sight reading of the previously unstudied bars, seems far easier than when I’d left it a fortnight previously. It seems the break has done me good! See I told you! A bit of stepping back, removing oneself from plugging away at something day in day out can (only from time to time mind you!) can really do wonders.

I then “checked in”, as it were, with a piece which I’m much more familiar with and much further along in its development. Again, dipping into it at a reduced tempo, listening, mindful playing, mentally noting the trickier spots. Time away is good for doing this also – it helps you understand what really has stuck and what does need further work. This list of tricky spots then becomes the basis for my next round of practice sessions.

And that was about it for the first session back. It probably totaled around 30-35 minutes in terms of time and that’s about as much as my body is willing to handle on its first session back practicing. My advice is not to push it too much in terms of your physical time with the guitar in your first session or two after a break. Just slip in, nice and gentle.

 

How To Practice When You Don’t Feel Like Practicing

Nicole Neal2 Comments

Yes, it does happen from time to time, that you just don’t feel like doing your guitar practice today. It happens to those most dedicated to their learning. It happens to the amateur. It happens to the pro. And I can tell you it certainly happens to me too! We’re all human, not mindless, lifeless robots, so it’s completely understandable.

When you find yourself in this situation of not feeling like practicing it’s important to examine why it is that you don’t want to practice, or have minimal appetite for it, and act on that. I had a bit of that feeling this weekend, for example, and taking a look at why I didn’t feel like practicing may be relatively easy to understand – 6 aeroplane flights in the preceeding 5 days, working away from home in various locations all week, cramming Christmas parties in, shopping and family stuff all into a 48 hour period.   I could possibly be forgiven for wanting to flop on the couch and watch just one more episode of Game Of Thrones! But crack on with practice I did!

We can’t help situation and circumstance – Yes, I am busy. Yes, I am tired. And I completely understand where those of you are coming from who also have busy lives in terms of practice. But this is not excuse enough. Well, not for me anyway.

I’m saying this in a “let’s be hard on myself, go, go, go, more, more, more” kind of way. Nope. I’m saying this in a “consistency is key” kind of way. Even picking up the guitar for 10 or 15 minutes and working on just one small thing, I know from experience, has absolutely undeniable benefits.

It comes down to choice. You can choose to do something else other than practice (and sometimes if you’re really super tired that’s probably the right choice!). You can also  choose to pick up the guitar for even just a few minutes, reconnect and play at least something. And more often than not I make the choice to practice, if if I do feel like flopping on the sofa!

How do I do that? Well, here are some of my top tips for practicing when I don’t feel like practicing:

(1) I firstly examine whether I’m just being lazy or am genuinely tired. I also look at my schedule coming up and when I’ll next be able to practice if I don’t get a session in now or today. If I’m away for a few days and the next practice session is looking like it will be 3 or 4 days away then it’s a bit of a no-brainer – pick up the guitar and get on with it!

(2) But if I am genuinely over-tired (to be honest it doesn’t happen that often that I’m just being lazy!), then it’s simple. I may tinker for a little on the guitar, play a few favourite tunes to keep the fingers moving, but I won’t do what I call proper practice. You need a more-or-less switched on brain for that!

(3) I remind myself that I don’t have to sit there for the next 90 minutes! I tell myself to give it just 10 or 15 minutes. More often than not I end up then getting into the swing of it and practicing for 30, 40 minutes or more. Getting started can sometimes be the most difficult bit! Once you get going though you’re often off and on your way.

(4) I remind myself that picking up the guitar for just those 10 or 15 minutes I’ll be one step closer to getting that piece under the fingers and understanding the music than the same time yesterday, rather than two steps back (potentially) if I’d not practiced. Every little bit really does count when it comes to practice.

(5) I’ll often seek some external inspiration by listening to a favourite recording or a recording of a piece I’m learning. I’ll listen in to the sounds and shapes of the music, and think about how I’d create that myself on the guitar. This invariably starts the fingers itching for some play and practice.

(6) Set a schedule – practice is an art in itself, it’s true. You can also say it’s about habit. Set yourself a regular time slot, if possible, six days out of seven and stick to it. You may have to encourage yourself to practice in this manner for a while, but like practice the habit soon begins to stick with you.

Happy praciting!