As I have grown as a musician and guitarist, I have come to the conclusion that two separate entities need work. The first is in the physical ability to move around the guitar known as technique. The second is the internal ability to make and understand music. It is very possible to be a great musician without being a good technician just as it is possible to be a great technician without being a good musician.
Any good practice regimen requires one to think about these two separate and connected ideas. Our fingers must be able to play that which we want to hear. Yet to be able to hear that which you want to play is another separate issue. The technical aspect is usually the easiest to practice for most people. This, of course, has to do with the fact that it means you’ll be putting your hands on the guitar through scales, arpeggios, and pieces. The musician part is not as easy.
Becoming a good musician is a much more difficult thing to master. It involves being able to hear chord structures, sing melodies, know where to put an emphasis on a phrase, and even the simple or difficult ability to count a rhythm correctly. The study of all of this falls under becoming a good musician. Therefore, in your practicing this area must be one that takes a good bit of your time. Being a good musician is not dependent on you being a good technician and vice versa. However, you must attain ability in both to allow your music to actually convey its intended result.
Recently I came into ownership of a series of magazines title The Etude. Most people born after 1940 probably never heard of such a publication. It began publication in1883 and continued in its publication until 1957. I have been amazed at the content in these publications.
It is geared toward the home musician rather than a professional musician. The amazing thing about the publication is that it has very little “fluff” in it. There are serious discussions on interpretation of musical styles as well as some serious and simple music for play at home. This tells me that the musician at the beginning of the 20th century was truly interested in being a musician and understanding the music they played. This is, of course, much different than many students today that just want to figure out how to play three chords and then write their great rock anthem. I am not suggestion that the music of today is inferior in its use. I am suggesting that our microwave society has created a much less capable home musician than it did 50 to 100 years ago.
As I research each issue, you will undoubtedly find their content making its way to my blog. I am sure that you will be amazed at how much of it is still of great value today. It seems that humanity and music changes very little over time. I leave you with this excerpt from an article titled, “Practical Considerations in Pianoforte Interpretations” by Walter Gieseking. Though it is written with the piano in mind, I am sure you will agree that the concepts are valuable for the serious guitar student as well.
One of the first things I learned from Mr. Leimer was to practice with my head as well as with my fingers, to concentrate intently on every note of the scale or arpeggio, to play with the utmost accuracy. It is only through constant attention to the individual note that fingers accustom themselves to play evenly and acquire the ability to effect exactly each nuance desired for giving appropriate expression to a musical phrase. When one practices like this, three to four hours a day is the limit of mental endurance – and anything beyond the point of mental endurance is time and effort wasted. It should be spent more profitably in health-building out-door exercise and acquainting oneself with the other arts – literature, painting, sculpture.
After weeks of the unknown this guitarist is finally settling back into life. Though I have to be away from my wife and son for another two weeks with trips to see them on the weekends, I am beginning to get refocused on my teaching, playing, and goals for both of them in the future. It is an exciting time for sure.
Just to let you all in on the progress. We are finally moved and are getting a bit organized in our new location. Students are beginning to find their way to the studio and it is exciting to see new faces and potential. Each new student brings me excitement as I have a chance to see and hear them become who they want to be in their guitar playing.
The online guitar lessons are busting at the seems as far as the demands they put on my time. I work very hard to give them the exact same level of expertise as my personal one-on-one lessons. This makes me think about raising prices, but I want to keep it affordable for the average Joe looking to get somewhere they never thought possible.
As I said in the previous post, it will be very difficult to leave many of my students in Pittsburgh when the time comes. They have brought me much joy and taught me so much in these past 8 years. However, I know that they have plans to keep moving on and upward in their playing. I am grateful that many of them have decided to continue on the path with me through our online lessons. For those of you who visit here for insight into your guitar playing and aren’t students yet, I will be getting back to regular new post in the coming week.
That’s it for this new post because I have some lessons to teach and lessons to write.
Those of you who visit this site have probably noticed a slowing down of current posts. This is due to a sense of urgency for finding a new place to live. Our landlord has sold the property we rent from and hence the new landlord is forcing everyone out. I’m bummed but not down. Therefore, other priorities have taken order.
With the above in mind, I have been pondering the sense of urgency for the guitar. Did you ever think about urgency when you were in school? Probably not, but I bet you felt the sense of urgency. Remember those assignments that you had all semester to finish? When did you begin working on them? I bet for most of you it boiled down to the last week before the due date. Even for those that worked throughout the semester, you put in longer and more intense hours the week before the due date to ensure the best results. The same applies to guitar, even when it is for enjoyment.
We all need a sense of urgency to really motivate us to finish what we start. We need it to drive use to a higher level than we would otherwise achieve. That’s why you need to create a sense of urgency when it comes to learning the guitar. There are a few ways to do this and probably many more in reference to your own life.
- Create a deadline for a YouTube video. This forces you to get your work done because it is a performance to be seen by millions of people over the web.
- Create a deadline for sending a recording to a friend. This isn’t as “out-there” as a YouTube video but still puts a sense of urgency into your practice. Another way to think of it is to record something for a birthday or anniversary.
- Schedule a live performance. This is the end all of everything you are doing to learn the guitar. The goal is to share music. Even if you are not performing to a huge audience, this type of motivation is hard to beat. Schedule a dinner party and let everyone know that you are going to perform for them after dinner and before dessert.
The above are just a few ways to encourage you to begin to create a sense of urgency in your playing. It will make you a better player and will reward you by getting feed back and giving enjoyment to those who listen.
Alright, for those of you who don’t know Blackberry Blossom, this post is for you. Many folks I run into don’t understand the usefulness and joy of bluegrass guitar. I am by no means a bluegrass expert or player. However, I have learned much about myself and roots music throughout the years I have dabbled in the genre.
It is funny to me to hear a jazz player criticize a bluegrass player and vice versa. If either one looks at the style objectively, then they will notice that they are much more similar than they are different. Just take a look at the form. You play the head (melody) and then you improvise. Then lo and behold, you’re replaying the head again and the song is over. If you look at it that way, then the forms are identical. Sure each uses different chords but both take just as much practice and skill to master. Believe me, I have tried.
This brings me to Blackberry Blossom. It is considered a rite of passage in learning bluegrass guitar. It is a lovely eighth note melody that moves a player out of first position and back again. This is great for those players that are beginning to intermediate and wanting to practice moving up the fretboard. For those that are more advanced, then there is the rhythm and solos to work on. Many great performances exist on YouTube. Tony Rice is probably the standard by which the guitar playing in this genre is measured. In any case, take a look at the song and enjoy the simplistic melody and harmony that it has to offer.
Click to Enlarge Blackberry Blossom
Other Editions You May Enjoy:
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Many times it is frustrating to keep hacking away at the guitar without taking a step back and asking what the underlying problems in our playing are restricting us from moving forward. There are countless exercises to asses problems in our hands, especially our left hand. But without an understanding of how and why your hands move is sometimes more imporant than the actual exercise you are working on. It is important to pinpoint the problems rather than run through an exercise trying to constantly improve while making movements that have no benefit in the long run. You can make your hands do anything, even bad movements, and they will remember and execute them just as they have programmed.
In other words, creating a solid, agile fretting hand begins with getting comfortable with the way that the muscles in your hand work:
• The muscles that close your fingers into a fist are called “flexors.”
• The muscles that straighten your fingers are called “extensors.”
• When you use the flexors and extensors at the same time, your muscles work against each other and unnecessary tension is the result.
• The goal is to make sure that in as many cases as possible (there are always exceptions to a rule) only your flexors are used when fretting a note, and only your extensors are used when releasing a note.
The most common problems that cause both the flexors and extensors to be used at the same time are:
• The old rule of holding unused fingers above the frets for your next movement in a very rigid fashion is not always useful. Drop this rule whenever it is causing excess tension and never look back. It will only cause you problems. Looking ahead to what notes you will be playing and adjusting your hand and fingers accordingly is one thing, but holding your fingers in place just to hold them there makes no sense.
• Not releasing with the flexors before using the extensors to lift a finger off the fretboard.
• Watch that thumb and avoid putting it in a position that causes tension in the rest of your hand. Your thumb will more than likely be comfortable “outside” your fretting hand (try this without a guitar and see what I mean). The more you move your thumb towards your pinkie finger, the more tension you will build.
• Not putting your hand in the most comfortable position for whichever finger happens to be fretting a note at the time. This can be over or under rotation at the elbow, tension in the wrist or shoulder, etc.
Now it is time to spend a bit of your practicing by focusing on your muscle movement. There is not need to actually play any music when you attempt to begin this type of practice. The whole point is to understand and begin to “feel” how your muscles were meant to move in order to use that movement to effectively and effortlessly play the guitar (not that it does not take effort but as effortlessly as possible). The more you focus on the movement rather than the actual music the more you will begin to discover that the music is actually in the movement itself. With this knowlege it is only a small step to improving that left hand technique over an extended period of time as you focus on the movement rather than the song itself.
I have to say that re-committing my time to playing has become challenging in just the first few days. Yesterday I had to squeeze every thirty minute time slot out of my day. I, unfortunately, had some down time during teaching yesterday and decided to not waste the time and put in the hours I need to get back to par. My hands are feeling quite good and I am amazed at how much I have not lost due to the time gap between now and the last time I prepared for performances.
I have found that having a baby boy, a business, and a lovely wife to fill my time has presented challenges. I many times want to be with my boy rather than just pick up the guitar. Here are few things that I keep in mind:
- I know my goal. I can see where I need to be in 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. This forces me to always ask, “How am I doing and what do I need to do today to meet those goals?”
- I know my plan. I have a plan written out. I know what pieces I want to have finished and polished by a certain date. I have measures and tempos to meet by certain times. If I don’t meet them, then that’s o.k. But I will still be closer to my goals.
- I am preparing to perform. My goals are all focused on presenting new videos online. Therefore, I am, in essence, working towards a performance. There is no more driving factor than having to perform for others. In this case, I am not in front of them in time, but rather a recorded time.
Like I mentioned before, I may not reach these goals in the time specified. Even so, I will have made it one step closer to their accomplishment. As for you, make some goals, make a plan, and try to reach them on a daily basis. It is the only sure way of somewhat predicting success.
Last night was my first night seriously practicing in a couple of years. I have spent my time really learning how to teach the guitar effectively in the meantime. But in my inner most being, I still desire the joy of playing and performing. Therefore, I have chosen to resume my practicing and given myself deadlines to persue for performances.
Returning to a three hour practice session was quite interesting to say the least. Sitting for three hours with a guitar in my hands felt wonderful. However, I had to take a few precautions to ensure that my hands made it through the session and did not hurt this morning. I stretched very slowly before and after the session. I also took a few breaks throughout. I made myself get up every 30 minutes to stretch and refocus my mind (or to let it rest after deep concentration).
All-in-all, I enjoyed the three hours. I worked 30 minutes on technique and spent the rest of the time on new and old repertoire. I always encourage people to work on sight-reading but my goals have a different purpose at the moment. I feel that my time teaching has greatly benefited my sight-reading to a point that I am much better than when I first began teaching seven years ago.
I have much to work on, but I am delighted to see that I still have quite a bit of movement in my hands after such a long hiatus from practicing. It’s not that I have not played entirely for the past couple of years. I have spent many hours playing in lessons. But the difference, of course, is the focused work that can be accomplished during practice to reach a desired performace.
I feel good and look forward to keeping you updated as I return to my performing form.
Suggested Resources:
A Guitarist’s Guide to Better Practicing by Pete Huttlinger
I obviously teach many students of many different backgrounds. They have very different goals and ambitions when it comes to their guitar playing. I can honestly say that all of them are committed to learning the guitar. But today I thought I’d hit those who think they want to learn guitar.
I have people contact me for lessons that are excited about learning the guitar for any number of reasons. The next thing they will ask is about purchasing a guitar. I first ask them their price range and try to give them the best response that I can. But many of them don’t heed my response to quality of the instrument. The always come back with this type of statement, “I don’t want to spend much money until I know that I will stick with it.” At this point, I already know what type of person I am dealing with. If they decide to take lessons, then I know they will be gone in two months or less. Why you ask? Commitment.
I am not suggesting that a new student go out and buy a five thousand dollar guitar. But I am suggesting that the lack of willingness to spend the money for a good instrument, a tuner, and any other necessary items shows that there is no commitment to them playing the guitar. Without a good instrument the learning becomes a struggle because the instrument is harder to play. Without a tuner the guitar sounds awful. Without the right materials to learn from, you just flounder in progress on the instrument.
It is important to know that to get good at the guitar takes time and persistence. It comes with many frustrations before enjoyment is fulfilled. Before you call for lessons to your local guitar teacher, take a moment to ask if you are willing to commit the time and the money to play the guitar well.
