If you've read a lot of my articles then you know that I'm a huge believer in developing a daily practice habit. And for good reason. Consistent quality practice is essential to getting good on guitar. There is no way around it.
But what good is knowing the importance of practice if you can't make yourself do it? Knowing what you need to do isn't good enough. You need to make sure that you actually do it!
Click Here To Continue Reading: Building Guitar Practice Motivation - Quitting…
OK…fess up. I know you've done it. You've really wanted to master something that you have been learning, and you've just spent a whole days worth of practice on that one thing. Maybe you even spent a whole weeks worth of practice on that one thing!
And I've got to admit here that I used to do this a lot when I was younger. I would get obsessed with something and spend an obscene amount of time on it. (I once spent three hours practicing a single bar of music!).
This is what I call binge guitar practicing. It's when you spend your entire practice time on one specific thing. And I think at times, if we're being honest, we've probably all done it on occasion.
So what's the problem?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Is Binge Guitar Practicing Like Amputation?…
It's not complicated improving your guitar playing. In fact it's pretty simple. All you need to do is follow these three steps…
- Think of some area of your playing that you'd like to improve.
- Understand what changes you need to make improve in that area.
- Do the necessary repetition (i.e. practice) until those changes become permanent.
So why do so many guitarists struggle with improving in a consistent and predictable way? And why do so many players hit a certain level but never really get better?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Why You Need To Think While Practicing Guitar…
Many guitarists usually learn their first chords by rote memorization. In other words, they learn to play the chords with no real understanding of the chords they are learning. And to be honest, that's a fantastic place to start! You can learn a few chord shapes and start making some music fairly quickly.
Although learning chords just by memorizing the chords shapes is a great starting place, it can be extremely limiting for a few main reasons…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Chord Theory – Understanding Major Triads…
With the exception of a few part time jobs, I have been self-employed for my entire working life. And although I love it, at times it can be challenging to maintain enough motivation to get stuff done. When you don't have a boss telling you what to do, and when to do it, it's easy to fall into lazy habits at times!
So what the heck does this have to do with guitar and musical goals?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Using Time Boxing To Achieve Your Musical Goals…
Let me ask you a couple of quick questions…
- How long did it take you to memorize the alphabet when you were a kid?
- How many times did you write it out, read it, and say it out aloud before you had totally mastered it?
If you're like me then you probably can't remember.
And what about the multiplication tables?
How many times did you have to go over those bad-boys before you had them totally down? Hundreds of times? Thousands of times? And how long did this take? Hundreds of hours? Longer?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Success Mindset - Embracing Repetition…
If you've come across the term "guitar arpeggios" and are not quite sure exactly what it means, then you're not alone. (There are plenty of guitarists out there who are confused as well). But luckily, arpeggios are pretty easy to understand once you've been given a concrete example. So, let's do that right now…
Click Here To Continue Reading: What Are Guitar Arpeggios?…
Quite a few years ago I was having my weekly lesson with my jazz guitar tutor, and he said something interesting to me…
"If you learn one lick a week, in twenty years you'll be able to play jazz".
Now obviously, he wasn't being totally serious when he said that. After all, there's a lot more to learning to improvise than just memorizing licks. But the overall idea is this…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Licks Lesson: The Ultimate Three-Minute Guitar Lick Experiment…
Would it surprise you if I said that you are a master of improvisation? You can already improvise with great fluidity, effortlessness and skill. You have the skill to think of unlimited ideas and express them in a way that is uniquely you.
At this point you might be thinking that I've totally lost the plot…especially if you're brand new to guitar improvisation! But no, I can promise you that I am perfectly sane (Well at least I think I am!). And I also promise you that you'll see what I mean when I ask you this question…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Improvisation Lesson - You're Already A Master Improviser…
Are you ready for a challenge? Yes? Great! Please do the following experiment that I devised…
- Choose a new guitar lick that you would now like to master.
- Practice the lick diligently everyday for the next two weeks. (Or take even longer if you need it). The aim is to practice the lick until you can play it without thinking.
- Once you have mastered the guitar lick, then grab your metronome and set it to 80 bpm. This speed is very important. Make sure that the metronome is clicking at 80 bpm
- Now go to a piano and play the lick to the metronome click.
So how did it go? If you're not a very competent pianist, I'm assuming that it didn't go too well! Why was that? Well, let's take a step backwards…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Improvisation Success: Understanding The Importance of Motor Skills…
