I believe we should always strive to work on our weaknesses in order to improve in our craft. I also believe we should practice what we feel like practicing in that moment.
Once we establish which are our weaknesses, we often find out they are many. When we are preparing for our playing session, what should we pick? In my opinion, it should be whatever you feel like practicing from your weaknesses. There are times when it’s better to follow a schedule, but often you get better results if you enjoy your practice time.
It’s all about experimenting since we are all different. Take tips from other people and ask yourself how that would apply to you. Don’t follow other’s practice routines, you are not them. Experiment and find out what works the best for you and do it.
Posted in Practicing.
Browsing the internet I found an interesting article on the Up to Speed blog covering how to become a master at anything. I think it is a very good read for everyone trying to become better in their craft.
The article also contains a nice story about Wilma Rudolph, which I found to be very inspirational. Check it out and follow the steps provided so you too can become a master guitarist.
Posted in Inspiration.
Ever had one of those days in which you simply can’t play anything decently? I just had one today.
My recommendation for when that happens is to simply take a break. Get away from the guitar for a couple of days. Go and experiment different things, maybe play another instrument or just listen to the sounds of nature. Look for inspiration everywhere.
Chances are your body just needs to relax a little. I mean, you do practice every single day, right? Just like when going to the gym, you need to stop every once in a while for your body to recover — and your mind also.
Posted in Mind, Tips.
Stop! Don’t you dare play your guitar before warming up. Ever seen someone begin running without stretching first? It often ends very ugly. So why should playing guitar be any different? Always warm up before playing. You will have a lot of benefits if you do it: Continued…
Technorati Tags: Guitar, practice
Posted in Practicing, Tips.
Tagged with Guitar, practice.
The most effective things you can practice to develop left hand finger strength and dexterity are hammer-ons and pull-offs. They require a lot more precision so you will also become more accurate on your overall playing if you work on this. Continued…
Technorati Tags: efficiency, Guitar, mastery, practice, progress
Posted in Practicing.
Tagged with efficiency, Guitar, mastery, practice, progress.
A while ago I decided I wanted to learn to read music on guitar. I did this because I think it provides several advantages to any musician regardless of instrument. First I’ll list the advantages to reading music and then I’ll recommend you an excellent and affordable method I am currently using that works great.
- Communicate with other musicians. Regardless of instrument, music notation is the only universal music language that any other musician will understand. You can then write down your ideas so other musicians can learn them and you can do the same with their ideas.
- Interpret songs without ever listening to them before. Because of the way music notation provides pitch and rhythm, you are able to interpret complete pieces of music on the fly. Imagine how cool it would be to pull off a gig without even knowing which songs you were going to play.
- Credibility. The fact that you know how to read music tells people you are better prepared than other musicians because of the work this involves.
- Become more flexible. You can adapt to many different situations and genres. This is an invaluable asset for any musician, for example when working as a session player you can go there and play your parts without further explanation.
- Interpret pieces arranged for other instruments. Ever heard beautiful violin pieces and thought you would like to play them? Finding good tabs for these is hard, but the music notation is generally available.
Now that you know several advantages to why you should learn to read music on guitar, I want to share with you an excellent method I bought and I’m studying. It’s called A Modern Method for Guitar and it’s released by Berklee Press. This method will not only teach you how to read, but it’ll also develop your theory knowledge, fretboard awareness, and guitar technique.
The method is very well designed and builds skills gradually so you keep using them on every chapter of the book. You will have to dedicate time to practicing, maybe half an hour a day, but I can assure you after going through this method you will be able to read music on guitar. Besides, the fact that it is published by one of the best music universities in the world says it must be good.
Take a look at the reviews on Amazon and buy this book, I guarantee you won’t regret it.
Technorati Tags: Guitar, practice, progress
Posted in Music Theory, Practicing.
Tagged with Guitar, practice, progress.