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Suggestions For A Better Guitar PractiseBefore starting, I have to mention that I don't always follow my own advice; I get restless and bored at times, wanting to stray from rules and routines. Once in a while, for no reason except that I'm feeling lucky or looking for a fight, I'll dive right in to something difficult. But if I go by the stuff below, practises go better, I enjoy myself more and make fewer mistakes.
1) No matter what kind of music you play, nor the instrument, some kind of practise schedule needs to be followed. Why? Because it will help you not to slack off. Keep putting off practise and you won't get any further with music than your lazy-ass, no-talent friends who only pick up a guitar when they're bored or drunk. I practise at least once a day. Time of day isn't so important to me, only that I get it done. I even split it up sometimes, like maybe 45 minutes in the morning, another 45 to an hour later on. You can practise every other day or once a week if that's all the time you can manage, but if you want to get the best of an acoustic guitar and if you think you'd like to make a living at it (or even part of one), you need to practise every day.
2) You may have felt that sometimes the hardest part of guitar practise is the physical act of picking up the ax and playing the first notes. It's such an easy move to make, yet such a mountain to get over. I used to run into this a lot, and it still comes up when I'm in a lazy mood, or if there's something wrong with the whole day. Sometimes I resent the guitar, having to practise... Usually when this happens, the whole issue melts away once I'm into the first couple of tunes. Maybe it's like getting up-- you don't always want to, but once you've splashed cold water on your face and you're slobbering down that first coffee, you feel like you'll make it.
3) Of course you'll want a comfortable place to park it. Around here, a computer chair won out for being the most guitar player friendly, especially after I took the arms off. At gigs, I use what they give me, so long as they give me another armless chair and not a stool. I hate those things. How a person could be comfortable on one is beyond me.
4) You'll probably also want quiet around you, for sure if you play the kind of stuff I do. I practise in the living room or the kitchen, keeping the computer off, along with the TV and the radio. I might even unplug the fridge and all fluorescent lights. There is something about the sound they make that clashes with the guitar, makes it sound toneless or out of tune. And it's not the guitar player's fault either! :)
5) Loosen up a bit. I like to do a hand exercise before playing anything. It involves opening the hands to nearly as far as they'll go, then closing them into fists, though not tight ones. 20-30 of these is enough for me to get into the harder wrap-around chords I like to play up high on the neck. Whatever you do to limber up, don't strain anything or make yourself tired before practise even begins.
6) Start practise with a few tunes that you enjoy, tunes with which you're comfortable, tunes that make you feel good. Make a list of them and keep it handy. When you've done some of these, you'll feel more relaxed and confident about digging into the harder material. Even if you're mainly an instrumentalist, you might want to start with tunes that you can sing as well as play. And even if you think you can't sing, so what... Nobody (hopefully) will be listening in on your private rehearsal, assuming you're playing alone and without a teacher around. Think of it as the warm-up before the workout. If some practises don't amount to much more than a few fun songs, that's far from the end of the world... enjoyment is the reason for it all. Fun is what got you started with guitar and will keep you going if you remember to have some.
7) Try not to kick yourself for mistakes. This is practise after all, not show time. You're allowed to screw up.... that's why it's called practise. Take a break from the hard stuff and go back to playing something that you really enjoy. Playing a couple of non threatening pieces can be as good as taking a rest.8) For a change, practise a bunch of similar tunes in a row, tunes that have a common tempo, key, time signature, genre, composer, mood, or something else that ties them together. A theme can create a flow in the music and make practise more productive and enjoyable.
9) Whether you're new to guitar or been at it a while, never be afraid to let your fingers go walking in new places... you never know what new chords you'll find. It's like playing the game, 'what's this button do?'. only in this case nothing will blow up in your face. Just as an example, sliding all your fingers up by two, three or five frets from open-A-major, will give you some interesting variations to play with. But that's just an example; try repositioning individual fingers by one or more frets. Learn to use the pinkie finger if you don't already. Hooking the thumb over one or more of the lower strings, can make chords sound fuller, richer, more powerful. I have heard 'resonant' used to describe the effect as well.
10) Don't over rehearse a tune (or passage) just out of frustration with it. You'll only get tired hands, more frustrated, plus you'll get angry with the music or wary of it, maybe enough to avoid it. If you're getting really ticked off with how the music is going, put it aside, not indefinitely, but for the next few numbers, or the next practise. Technique is part of what goes into playing well; your emotional state makes up the rest. When you're feeling like crap (about the tune, or just in general), then you'll probably play like crap.
11) Don't spend too much time on tunes/songs that you have mastered. I find that I only have enough energy and interest to practise for an hour and a half or maybe two in a day.... If I loiter too long on a piece of music, I take time away from tunes that really need my attention.
12) If you're feeling like neither you nor your ax handling are amounting to anything, try to imagine that you're playing for people you like and wish could hear you play when you're not screwing up. These could be good friends, people who don't know about your music and think you're a loser, or some hot chick / guy whose admiration would just make your day. Musicians need to be loved and admired for what they do, though I doubt that many would openly admit it.
13) If you feel your fingers, hands and arms really getting sore and fatigued, even after rests, that's when you know that practise is over. Try not to worry over tunes that aren't going well, tunes that seem like they'll never come together-- you're tired-- and when you've *really* had enough, no amount of practise will help. It's time to go do something else... A break from the instrument can be almost as helpful as time spent with it
On the flip-side of the last suggestion, there have been times when I decided to stop practise while the guitar and I were still on good terms, somewhere before we started really grating on each other, and after the last tune that went ok.
14) When it comes to playing guitar, talk can get cheap in a hurry. I don't hang out at guitar forums. Most of them are no more than social clubs where people indulge in idle gossip (on topic or otherwise) when their time might be better spent practicing, that is if they are really serious about playing. Unless you have real nagging guitar questions whose answers can't be found elsewhere online or in the real world, avoid forums and chat rooms like the plague.
15) Here is a wish I have for myself, as well as anyone reading this... Never stop learning and discovering. Always be a student of the guitar, no matter how old you get or how good you are or think you are. Keep practicing, and remember that not all mistakes are bad... some actually turn into ideas for new chords, even new tunes.
16) If you really believe you want to play guitar and play it well, don't give up. Never let a number or the ax get the best of you. If you walk away from it totally, you lose. If you grind away at the problems you're having, and yourself in the process, without timing out and cutting yourself slack, you'll still lose. If you're just getting started with guitar, remember that it takes years to get where you want to be, no matter what sort of music you're into. Try not to worry over it... you'll get there. Meanwhile, have fun playing and enjoy the ride.
Things To Do If You Make a Mistake During A Performance (this section ranks more under humor than anything else)
These work best if you're playing where you're the atmosphere, not the main attraction.
1) Smile. Make like you're laughing at yourself, like it's some kind of musicians' inside joke. You might get away with it.
2) Put a finger or a thumb to your mouth, like you're nursing an injury the strings just gave you. The idea here, is that it's the guitar's fault, not yours. Some of the crowd will buy it and feel sorry for you.
3) Look down with grave concern at the amp and the guitar. Play with the knobs a bit, examine the guitar closely. Untune a string, then re-tune it. Again, you need to make like it's the equipment's fault. Most people don't know anything about guitars or amplifiers, but they understand the aggravation machines can give. And they will sympathize with you.
4) Do what the jazz players do, try to recreate the mistake, repeat it like it was what you meant to play in the first place.
5) Stop playing. Say "s**t" or "oops" or "sorry, folks", something like that, then start the tune over.
6) Keep playing, pretend nothing happened, pray no one noticed.
More Ideas (serious ones)
So much has been said and written about the search for the right guitar, the right effects, the right amp, that ultimate sound. It's all over the place, it's what keeps music sellers going, what keeps musicians broke, that elusive goal that is always out of reach or always changing once reached. By comparison, little is said about working on the musician.
Though it's taken me years, I've come to believe that for the most part, buying and trading in gear is a dead end when it comes to better playing. If someone were to ask, my advice would go something like this:
- Settle on one guitar that you can live with and make the best of its faults.
- Keep the effects to a minimum. Don't let them define you. Reverb and chorus might be all you need. I spent years playing around with effects, thinking that if I could just have the right ones and enough of them, then I would sound good. My reason for using chorus and reverb nowadays, has to do with compensating for the thin dry flat sound that acoustic-electric guitars put out on their own, namely the ones with piezo-electric pickups. A bit of each effect fills out the music and helps mask a lot of tuning annoyances that get worse as I go up the neck.
A more recent idea I bumped into, is to open up the mid-range, either from the amp or the guitar or both, and maybe drop the volume a little.. This brings out more of the guitar's natural sound, more overtones and harmonics happening, widening out the music and relieving many of the never-ending problems I have with getting chords to agree, tuning-wise. For light fingerstyle, it works out especially well. I think of it as adding more color to the vowels that come out of the guitar's throat. This, combined with chorus and verb, has made "relative" tuning more tolerable in my situation. I've also heard it put in this way-- If you can bring out enough of the harmonics, the fundamental notes will show up too.... To me, that means less trouble getting the guitar, as a whole, in tune.
- Try not to get sidetracked by other instruments for too long. Again, I did this and paid for it in time I should have spent on guitar.
- practise, focus more on your technique and less on your rig. The goal is to get good enough to flatter the gear, not vise versa. This is where the real search for your sound begins and ends.
