Music Lessons, Little Rock
Trouble playing guitar? Make better progress by analyzing your playing...
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Our adult students have likely heard us talk about "analyze your playing" when you have difficulty with something you're working on.
Too often, when a player encounters a difficult passage, they think the only way to get it right is to hammer it over and over until they "get it".
Now, repetition is key to many things we do while learning how to play. However, if your repetition is developing a bad habit, poor technique or perhaps a more complicated way of playing something, then you are going in the wrong direction and actually slowing your progress.
Here is a real life example from my own playing just the other day.
I was working on a repeating lick on the G B E string set. The lick uses alternate picking and a few pull offs. I could manage it at slower tempos, but when I built up speed, I lost it. I stopped what I was doing, slowed it back down and really looked at how I was picking and fingering the lick.
What I found was surprising. I originally suspected my left hand was the one slowing me down, but found that my right hand and shoulder was the cause. As I built up the tempo, i found that I started getting some tension in my wrist and shoulder from the quick alternate picking.
Realizing the tension was keeping my speed down, I isolated the part of the lick between the B and G strings where I found the tension starting. I then looped that pattern over and over. As soon as the tension started, I physically tried to release it by relaxing my shoulder and wrist. Slowly, I was able to get the lick up to tempo, but only after I eliminated the tension and then did the reps to get it under my fingers.
So, back to the point of the article...
Had I just decided to beat this thing over and over until "I got it", I would have been training myself to play through the tension rather than eliminating the tension. Bad, bad, bad - that's a future stress injury there folks!
Starting today...
When you have a difficult piece, exercise, solo or chord change, take a moment to watch what you're doing and think about the cause of the difficulty. Once you have identified the cause, isolate the section, or better yet, create an exercise to help you perform the action correctly.
Once you are doing it the best way, it will take much less time to get it under your fingers and will save practice time and frustration.
Good luck and keep practicing!
guitar guitar lessons practice tension alternate picking pull offs repetition
Our adult students have likely heard us talk about "analyze your playing" when you have difficulty with something you're working on. Too often, when a player encounters a difficult passage, they think the only way to get it right is to hammer it over and over until they "get it".
Now, repetition is key to many things we do while learning how to play. However, if your repetition is developing a bad habit, poor technique or perhaps a more complicated way of playing something, then you are going in the wrong direction and actually slowing your progress.
Here is a real life example from my own playing just the other day.
I was working on a repeating lick on the G B E string set. The lick uses alternate picking and a few pull offs. I could manage it at slower tempos, but when I built up speed, I lost it. I stopped what I was doing, slowed it back down and really looked at how I was picking and fingering the lick.
What I found was surprising. I originally suspected my left hand was the one slowing me down, but found that my right hand and shoulder was the cause. As I built up the tempo, i found that I started getting some tension in my wrist and shoulder from the quick alternate picking.
Realizing the tension was keeping my speed down, I isolated the part of the lick between the B and G strings where I found the tension starting. I then looped that pattern over and over. As soon as the tension started, I physically tried to release it by relaxing my shoulder and wrist. Slowly, I was able to get the lick up to tempo, but only after I eliminated the tension and then did the reps to get it under my fingers.
So, back to the point of the article...
Had I just decided to beat this thing over and over until "I got it", I would have been training myself to play through the tension rather than eliminating the tension. Bad, bad, bad - that's a future stress injury there folks!
Starting today...
When you have a difficult piece, exercise, solo or chord change, take a moment to watch what you're doing and think about the cause of the difficulty. Once you have identified the cause, isolate the section, or better yet, create an exercise to help you perform the action correctly.
Once you are doing it the best way, it will take much less time to get it under your fingers and will save practice time and frustration.
Good luck and keep practicing!
guitar guitar lessons practice tension alternate picking pull offs repetition
Trackbacks
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8 Jun 2008
beginner electric guitar reviews wrote:
This is a brilliant album that will no doubt top some‘ best of 2008’ lists, but it’ s hard to work out if it’ s a one- off or not. Perhaps the answer lies in the one original track,‘ Song For Jo’, which stands out as a result of its sparseness. A lone acoustic guitar strums, as an ambient orchestra plays in the background. It recalls Karen O’ s Squeak E Clean collaboration‘ Hello Tomorrow’ and suggests that if Johansson and Sitek collaborated on a second album, similar ghostly magic could happen again. Let’ ... -
6 Jul 2008
Gibson Les Paul wrote:
Play the acoustic/ electric guitar: Wear only the acoustic/ electric guitar with or without the marching band hat, dance, and you will start playing the guitar. -
14 Aug 2008
Guitar lessons wrote:
I agree
The tension advice is great. As a true beginner, I've been working SO HARD to get things right that I work up a sweat! I'll try to relax, slow down and see where it takes me. Thursday's lesson with Brian was a real eye opener, too. Thanks.
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Glad the hear that. You should only sweat when practicing guitar if it is the middle of July and your air conditioning is out. Then, you've got a reason to sweat!
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This is a great idea. I asked a friend of mine who is a great guitar player what he thinks about when he is playing. He told me that is isn't thinking about anything. The point is. Once you isolate your problems and get a handle on them, you can get in a Zone much easier. Always make sure you do the grunt work FIRST! This will make your soloing much more free and enjoyable. Great post!
Brian
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