I just started a blog (yeah, I'm only 5 years behind the times . . .) and wrote a quick post about practicing.
Very often I see posts here asking "How much time" or "What practice schedule" and I think that these questions are simply the wrong starting point for a discussion about how to practice.
Anyway, I'm reposting here and hope you enjoy it :)
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from my little hunk of cyberspace
The Wrong Approach to Practicing Guitar (or any other instrument)
Anyone who has spent a few minutes on the web looking for information on how to get more out of their guitar practice time has run across sites telling them that they need to spend 10 minutes on this and 30 minutes on that every day and that then need to practice X hours a day where X is some number unachievable by mere mortals living in the 21st century.
And while it is true that if someone does practice diligently for 3 hours or more a day they will get quite good, it really is the wrong message being sent. The simple reality is that most adult players, and even relatively few kids, have that kind of time to spend on a single activity. Thus the implicite message is “since you can't spend all this time doing it, you'll never be good, so don't bother trying.†The reality is quite different. Great results can be had with a relatively small investment of practice time.
Simply having a schedule is the wrong approach to practice. Don't get me wrong, a schedule is important. A person should know what they're going to be working on, and they should know how much time they're spending on that aspect of their playing. But efficient practice is about getting the most out of one's time and simply having time blocked off to be used does nothing to ensure that time is being used well.
We all have known someone who practices hours a day and doesn't seem to get anywhere. Every teacher has had a student that will confidently tell you how hard they work, but their playing doesn't reflect their effort.
The reason is that good practicing isn't about how much time is spent playing, but rather it's about how that time that is spent. Further, there's a lot a person can do in terms of practicing that is away from the guitar! For example, on my daily bus ride to and from work I go over scales in my head. Imagination and visualization are powerful tools! But that's for a later post, this is about real, instrument in the hand practicing!
If I, for example, am quite comfortable playing scales, then I probably don't need to spend 30 minutes a day practicing them. I can probably get by with running through my scales as part of my warm-up. Playing eighth notes at 120 bpm I can easily get through several forms of each scale in all twelve keys in 10 minutes. Now instead of warming up for 10 minutes and practicing something I already know for 30, I've warmed up and am ready to start working on something I need to improve.
Good practicing is about intentionality. I need to start each practice session with a solid idea of what I intend to accomplish. I need to play every note of that practice session with the intention of gaining something specific from that note. To do this, I have to spend some time before the practice session planning out what I am going to do.
In order to plan what I'm going to do so that I can achieve some intended goal, I need to have set some goals.
These aren't lofty, out there, “some day†goals. A good practice session starts with a clear idea of what specific, measurable, achievable target I will get to that session.
Good goal examples are things like “I will play this passage 5 times in a row, at tempo, without an error.†Or “I will be able to make this chord change at a tempo of 80 bpm.†A bad goal example would be something like “I will play this well,†or “I'll ‘learn' how to do a pull-off.†Goal statements have to be as objective as you can make them. There has to be a standard I can compare myself to to determine if I've achieved my goal.
My daily practice sessions need to be part of a larger plan that outlines, in some detail, what I want to achieve each week, and for the month, and even for the whole year. Today's practice session should directly contribute to goal statements for each of those time frames.
Once I have a goal, it is important to spend time figuring out how that goal will be reached. A practice session doesn't need a schedule of “spend 10 minutes doing A†then “spend 30 minutes doing B.†That sort of schedule is meaningless. But a schedule is still needed. I need to know what I'm going to do to achieve my goal.
If my goal is to learn to play a particular lick at 120 bpm, then I might start out by simply memorizing the notes and how they're fingered without regard to tempo and phrasing. Then the next step might be to play the lick with the right timing and phrasing at 80 bpm. Once I have that down, perhaps I'll speed it up in 5 bpm increments until I'm playing it cleanly at 140 bpm, knowing that doing so will ensure I can play it cleanly at 120 bpm, which is my goal.
Notice I don't say anything about how much TIME I'll spend doing each of those things. I don't know how long it'll take for sure. I do have an idea from previous practice sessions how long this all will take. But it isn't the time that is at issue. What's at issue is performance. Practice is about improving performance, so it's not spending 30 minutes or 13 hours playing that counts. What counts is learning what I need to know!
When I started taking the time to set goals and plan my practice sessions to achieve those goals, I found that I was practicing fewer hours each week. But I also found that I improved at a greater rate. By making certain that I recorded my goals, and kept them measurable, I also increased my level of motivation because I had a daily record of achievement. I could literally see myself getting better every single day.
Most people practice completely wrong. They are worried about how much time they spend, and thus waste time by going over things they already have mastered. This of course does make sure that those bits of knowledge are habituated and readily available for use. But it doesn't drive improvement the way a goal oriented practice regime will.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
see, i don't agree. i play guitar for enjoyment, not as something that has finite goals to accomplish. i also don't really believe you ever master something on the guitar. my only goal on the guitar is to try to play stuff that i like, that impresses me or makes me feel a certain way. there are only two ways i've found that i can do that. one is to not touch it for a few days, so when when i do play again, the tension of not playing makes me play with a certain intensity that catches my ear. unfortunately, this doesn't work over the long run. the other way is to simply play a ton, fighting against the 3 practice killers: the urge to do something else, boredom or frustration, and self-satisfaction. i find that when i play a lot, i get results in a day or two or three, and it's cumulative, as well. the more i play, the more musical ideas i come up with.
but i'm not a metal guy or speed monster (even though i can play pretty fast), so keep that in mind.
Jason,
I'm talking about making practice efficient. I'm not talking about why you play the guitar.
I am a huge proponent of spening lots of time noodling and just having fun with no purpose other than having fun. But if you want to get better, you have to practice.
Talking about how to practice says nothing about what you do with your guitar when you're not practicing.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
well then, i guess i don't really practice, except an occasional scale or finger exercise when i'm completely out of ideas... although i do feel like i'm working to improve even when i'm "noodling", either by trying to clean up my tone, come up with new phrasings, or new rhythms, or adjusting my vibrato or bends, but to me that's just a matter of focus. as you play, your focus is constantly shifting from one aspect to another, you know? so to me it's just a matter of what i'm paying attention to. i have run licks and techniques repeatedly, but i just do it for a while, then i move on. if i'm not satisfied, i'll work on it some more, but since it's all a matter of taste and so subjective, the only real standard i can hold myself to is whether i like it.
funny, when i started out, i'd read statements like that and just hate it. i wanted to get good, and i wanted to know exactly how to get good. i was dissatisfied, and i thought that once i knew the fretboard, i'd be satisfied. 14 years later, a lot of people have told me i'm good, and i'm still dissatisfied a lot of the time. i'm just not surprised by it anymore and i know more ways to get into that ever-widening place where music flows and strange magic occurs... or maybe that's just the drugs.
anyway, i think metronome work is kind of limiting if you have a good sense of rhythm and can play with a drummer. i always lose track of which blip is the one if i into it, and then i end up completely losing my momentum. besides, have you ever tried to play the blues with someone who's right on the beat every time? you just want to smack em. it's so painfully sterile and soulless. play it, be in the groove, but feel it, you know? dig in sometimes, lay back sometimes.
complexity has always drawn me more than linearity, anyway.
Some of my best practices are the one's where I didn't know what I wanted to practice and all I did was noodle. That's how hit songs are created! :lol: :wink:
However on the same note, some of my WORSE practices are the ones where I didn't know what I wanted to practice and all I did was noodle. Sort of make me a hypocrite! :shock: I guess what I am getting at (which is what I believe kingpatzer wrote in his post) is that there is a fine line between creating a practice that includes the things that NEED to be done and the things you WANT to do. I don't know of to many people who truely enjoy playing scales...but they do have a purpose and need to be learned. I know a LOT of people who just want to play the songs they love....BUT as we all know, too much of a good thing isn't necessarily GOOD!
I agree with Kingpatzer but it's a difficult subject. I have similar conversations with other guitarists and it always leaves me kind of bewildered. There is nothing wrong with doing none of the above if you are happy to just noodle, strum chords or whatever, for some people that is their goal already achieved but for the others (and I know many) I suppose it's just hard for them to truly beleive it. I know a lot of guitarists that want to improve but haven't, yet the reality is they could have improved a long time ago with advice like Kingpatzers but they just don't do it.
I suppose it's really down to each persons different ideas because many will think advice like this makes it all sound like a chore. Myself I have as much fun with efficient practice as I do noodling, if a guitar is in my hands then there is nothing I can do on it that I consider boring, it's all thoroughly enjoyable and I guess that's the difference.
Lee
I tell my students to break their practice down into five parts:
1. Warm-up
2. Review (you get to be good at things by doing them over and over)
3. 'Study piece' - one piece you're trying to absolutely perfect
4. New things
5. Play - just have fun
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
I want to emphasis that I think that "noodling," "having fun" or whatever you want to call it is just as important as practice. And I just see a difference between practice and that. Not that practice can't be fun, but rather, it's a matter of knowing when you should be working and when you can just let loose.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
I agree with that article entirely. I believe that if you want to learn something on the guitar, you just have to practice it 'till youre blue in the face and then practice some more. Periodizing your practice time only makes sense if there are multiple things that you want to learn at the same time.
You should practice something until you can do it in your sleep and then move on to the next challenge. Make one thing the focal point of your practice time and then JUST DO IT after your warm-ups and then do it again and again.
At this time I would like to tell you that NO MATTER WHAT...IT IS WITH GOD. HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. HIS WAY IS IN LOVE, THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE. IT IS TRULY -- A LOVE SUPREME --. John Coltrane
I normally practice a song and work on the skills in this book I got off my teacher about how to play metal guitar.
This does get me thinking. My goal is..........know those guitarists everyone says are over-rated? I wanna be one of those guitarists. Wonder what I would have to do to get there.............
Really good article KP. I enjoyed it alot.
Jim
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
I'd have to say King that was a well written article whether or not you agree with the content which I do, although I can't say I adhere to it strictly.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Very worthy article, King.
Especially for the many of us who are constantly hunting that elusive prey known as "spare time". :D
From little things big things grow - Paul Kelly
