As students of the guitar- or indeed
any musical instrument - we are often told that “practice makes
perfect”. But this is really only half the story. A truer statement
would be that you will only get out of a practice session what you
put into it. Two minutes spent intensely practicing a technical weak
spot or a persistent problem area within a song is immensely more
valuable than an hour spent vaguely strumming with one eye on the TV
and an ear not concentrating on the sound produced.
Consider two beginner students, both
given the same task- in their respective lessons, they have both
learned the chord shapes G, D and C. Their homework, over the week,
is to familiarise themselves with these shapes to the point where
they can play them perfectly and consistently so that in the next
lesson we can use these shapes to start playing some basic songs
(Knocking On Heaven's Door, Sweet Home Alabama, Sweet Child O'Mine-
all use these simple chord shapes).
The first student follows the practice
routine diligently- he starts with the chromatic “spider” warm up
exercise, playing slowly and carefully, taking care to line up each
note perfectly before playing it. He then goes through each of the
chord shapes one by one, arpeggiating each one and taking care to
adjust his thumb to find the “sweet spot” where the notes ring
out. There are muted notes and clicks, but he perseveres- no one else
is going to get it right for him, are they? By this point he's been
practicing for about 10 minutes, so spends a couple of minutes
practicing basic strumming patterns (whole notes/semibreves, half
notes/minims, quarter notes/crotchets) and then winds down with that
old staple, “Smoke On The Water”- he knows it well, knows he can
play it and have it sound recognisable, so he finishes the 15 minute
practice session with a positive feeling, looking forward to playing
again tomorrow.
By the third or fourth day the spider
exercise is getting quicker and more accurate, and the chord shapes
are becoming more consistent as the student can recognise patterns
and shapes amongst the chord shapes- the C resembling a curve with an
“open window” on the G string, the D resembling a pyramid or
triangle pointing up the fretboard toward the body of the guitar- so
the student starts to string them together, slowly at first, and
notices how some changes remind him of songs he knows well.
By the time the next lesson has come
round, the student's “Spider” warm up exercise is more
controlled and accurate (although still slow, which is fine- speed is
NOT the goal here) and the three chords are clear and secure, as are
the three basic rhythms. As a result, we can start to combine them in
different ways to start playing some actual songs, albeit in slightly
simplified fashion. Over the next week, the student starts to add
these songs to his repertoire, and also feels confident enough to
start experimenting with alterations to the chords and combining them
in different ways to some up with his own ideas.
The second student skips out the
“Spider” warm up as he finds it boring and decides to go straight
to the chords. He lines up the chord shapes and strums them
listlessly while browsing the Net or watching TV, not really
listening to or engaging with the results. His fingers don't learn to
grasp the sweet spots on the fretboard to have the notes ring out
cleanly and his chords are muffled and muted. However, he figures
he's putting his fingers in roughly the right places and he can call
the time he's spent “practice” so he thinks he's done his
homework.
Come his next lesson, his “Spider”
warm up is sloppy and messy, muted notes and incorrect strings
ringing out everywhere, his chords are full of basic errors, sounding
muffled and muted and hideously unmusical and the entire lesson has
to be devoted to redoing the same topics as theprevious week. Result- zero progress
for the student. “But I practiced for almost an hour every night”
the student protests....
The moral of this story is pretty clear
– practice WILL bring results. But it will ONLY bring them if you
are fully engaged with what you're doing, eyes, ears, fingers and
brain all working together to shape the sound and create something
musical. Patience and concentration is an absolute must, as it is
when you are learning any sort of craft or skill, and it is
astonishing how many students fail to recognise this, condemning
themselves (and their poor teacher!) to frustration. Think about
learning to drive – what would happen if you failed to pay
attention to the road? Think about someone learning to paint without
bothering to look at what they're painting, or someone trying to
master a martial art without concentrating on balance, movement etc.
You will only get from practice what
you put into it in the first place in terms of focus, concentration
and awareness. Fifteen minutes of practice, fully engaged with every
aspect of what you're doing, beats out two hours of mindless
strumming any day of the week. It's not about marking time, it's
about results.
The medicine works. But it will only
work if you take it.
