If we are dedicated
to our growth as artists who play the guitar, we must be very smart to get the
best out of ourselves. Part of the difficulty in doing so lies in combating
the forces and conditioning of the world around us. The world around us tends
very strongly to condition us in ways that will lead us far from our goals as
artists, as people who have the power to express a deeper level of reality and
convey that to other people through their art, in our case, music and the
guitar.
One of the most
destructive mindsets we can have is a hurried and worried attitude about our
daily work, our daily practice. We are conditioned in our schooling, and later
in our life in the working world, to a fearful attitude which tells us we need
to perform to a certain standard, or else! We need to get those high marks, or
else we fail our class. We need to finish that project, finish that report, or
else the ax will fall!
This is why we have
the word "deadline". It means "if you do not finish this
required work on time, you're dead!"
Some people become
so used to this feeling that they begin to believe they "work best under
pressure". They need to feel they have a gun pointed at their head, so
they believe, to even get any work done!
Well, I want to tell
you that if you wish to develop as an artist, you must get very far away from
this belief system. You must discover a whole new way of motivating yourself
to perform that does not depend on the fear of some terrible thing happening
to you. You must find a way to give yourself completely to your daily
work, your daily practice, that is motivated only by the pleasure you are
getting from every moment of every day's practice.
I have often had a
student tell me that the reason why they did so poorly on the 4 different
things I gave them to practice was because they were worried about " getting
everything done perfectly in time for the lesson", so they rushed through
the material, hurried and worried. Of course, rushing through the material
meant they missed just about everything that was important, like the
fingering, and whether or not they were actually able to play to a steady
beat, or even whether or not they were playing the correct notes! And as far
as being aware of all body tensions, forget it!
So, I have to break
the news to them that their entire week of practice was worthless, and must be
done over. I also have to explain that the very attempt to "get it
perfect" is what lead them to "get it very imperfect".
Understand this:
there is no such thing as perfect. "Perfect" by itself, is not a
goal that your mind can grab hold of and set itself to accomplish. The word
"perfect" must be used in connection with a given, knowable, and
obtainable goal in order to do us any good. Otherwise, "perfect"
is a big fat scary word that can only be used to intimidate and rattle you so
much that you will probably accomplish very little.
We must learn to
think in terms of goalines, not deadlines, when we practice. Week by week, you
or your teacher must set out the proper "next goal" for you to
accomplish with any given piece of music you are working on. For instance, if
I am working on a scale with a student, I will say something like "next
week, I want to hear this scale at 60 to the quarter note, with your
fingers working exactly the way I have shown you. I want you to work it up
every day using the Basic Practice Approach, to that speed throughout the
course of the week. Don't worry about any faster speeds, just get it as
perfect as you can at that speed".
If it is a song, or
a solo that needs to go at 120 bpm, I might set out the goals this way:
1st week: get the
notes and the fingers right. Start to walk through the notes no tempo, and
discover the most challenging parts, and start to analyze why they are
difficult, and what you are going to do about it.
2nd week: test
yourself by playing small sections of the music at 60bpms, taking 4 clicks for
each note. Make sure all the movements can be done smoothly at this speed. If
they can't, there is no chance of being able to do it any faster. Then, start
to work those sections up in speed using the Basic Practice Approach.
3rd week: begin to
play to the actual rhythm of the music, giving all the notes their true
rhythmic value, not all equal time as before. Discover where the problems are
now. Start to work on them, and find what tempo you can play everything at
with no mistakes, section by section.
4th week: here, I
will begin to assign specific tempo goals for different sections, as I see the
student is ready to accomplish those goals.
All along the way, I
am giving out other goals as appropriate. "Your pick is going too far out
from the string on your up-pick on that scale. Fix it this week with correct
practice." The next week, when that student walks in, I look at the
notebook to see what goals I have given, and I'd better see at least some
movement toward that goal. (The worst thing a student can do is not look
at their notebook, not look at the goals I have set forth.)
This constant
process of setting the next appropriate goal, and setting it out clearly
along with making sure the means to accomplish it are understood, is
what brings constant progress in our study of the guitar. The lack
of doing so is why there is so little progress for so many people.
People often go for
a very inappropriate goal. If they are working on a fast solo or piece,
they try to play it almost right away just like the guy on the record, who probably
spent ten years practicing it before recording it! By reaching for this very
advanced goal right away, we usually guarantee failure and frustration.
Progress as a guitarist, as Segovia said, is a step by step process, and no
step can be missed. If I am standing on the ground looking at a staircase
going up, and I try to jump up to the 10th step instead of walking up the
first nine, what do you think will happen? I will fall flat on my face or
fanny, and may be too black and blue to make another attempt.
And yet, that is
what many people do when practicing guitar. They do it because of two reasons,
the same two reasons responsible for most of what is wrong with the world: ego
and ignorance. Don't be this way. As far as ego, remember this: be humble,
don't stumble. Don't try to play that solo at 120bpm right away. Spend a month getting
it perfect at 60. That way, the path to getting it at 80 is simple. Then
100 and 120 will follow, and be solid, not shaky.
As far as ignorance,
I often tell students "the only reason you are practicing badly is
because you actually think, deep inside, that you WILL learn this music
successfully doing it your way, and skipping so many steps. You are wrong, you
won't. And your faulty playing, when put to the test, is the proof. When you
become wise enough (and honest enough) to see the truth of this, you will
practice correctly."
When attempting to
set the next best goal for yourself in any situation, ask yourself this
question: "if I apply everything I know, up to this moment, about guitar
and how to practice, and I apply it to this music I am working on, AND I give
it my very best effort, what level of improvement can I reasonably
expect?" Ask yourself this question, and pick short term goals, ones that
can be obtained in a week to a month.
If you are
practicing your lesson material during the week and you start to feel
pressured to "get it right" in time for the lesson, don't start
hurrying through things and getting sloppy just to cover everything. Adjust
your goals. Forget that scale for this week, and just work on those chord
changes. Re-focus your goals and re-focus your efforts. That way, at least you
will accomplish something instead of nothing. Better to juggle 3 balls in the
air successfully than to drop 5!
Remember, the
achievement of each goal IS the way to reach your final goal, just as taking
each step up the stairs is the way to the top. Have fun, and don't make
yourself crazy. Even if you do progress correctly, as you should, people move
at different speeds. I tend to work hard and move fast, but I like to sit on
the steps every once in a while, and just play my guitar while I look around!
Copyright 2002 Jamey
Andreas.
“The
Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar,” by Jamey Andreas, continues to
bring the highest acclaim, world renowned as “The International Bible For
Guitarists”, and the “Holy Grail Of Guitar Books.” With a straight
forward writing style, his tried and true, result-oriented guitar book
powerfully reveals the correct practice methods that no other book has
revealed…taking the student from the beginning stages all the way to the
highest levels of virtuosity.
Jamey is
already familiar to aspiring guitar players, as his wisdom is present
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