by Jamie Andreas
(www.guitarprinciples.com)
More guitar, musician articles
Here is a very common question I received recently:
What specifically should I
practice, chords, scales or songs?
I am feeling overwhelmed with lessons, books,
methods, skills, &
principles of practice.
This is a common feeling that troubles many beginning
guitar students,
and can rear its head from time to time with advanced
players as well. It
is a paralyzing, immobilizing feeling, and so it very
dangerous for our
progress, and must be dealt with. If you are feeling
this, it is a warning
sign that you are NOT proceeding properly with your
efforts to learn to
play the guitar.
Getting down to the specifics of things is always the
tough part. One of
the things that makes it so difficult is the fact that
when it really comes
down to it, the only person who can GET down to those
specifics, stick
with them, review and revise them on a regular basis,
and set goals and
make sure they're accomplished is YOU! Some people
have just never
really developed the skill to take that feeling of
being overwhelmed, and
getting past it by stopping, thinking, observing,
analyzing, and coming
up with a plan.
I always think of it like walking into your room, when
it's really messy,
with things thrown all over the place, and it's time
to clean up. The very
sight of it drains your energy, and makes you want to
collapse in a heap.
At least, that is the first reaction that comes up.
But, the only way to
get the job done and straighten out that room is to
stop, focus, start
somewhere, and only focus on what you are doing, one
step at a time.
As soon as you focus like this, you will begin to feel
energized.
Of course, you need some idea of the over-all picture,
some idea of the
end result to be achieved, and how to get there,
before focusing really
helps. If you didn't know where everything was
supposed to be placed
when you went to clean your room, your focusing
wouldn't help much. In
that case, you would have to DECIDE first where
everything goes, and
then put it there. The "deciding" part is the hard
part for students,
because they don't know enough about the whole process
of becoming a
musician to make those decisions, as expressed by the
writer of the
question above. They don't know what to practice
first, what skills to
master first, what goals to achieve first. So it is
easy to get
overwhelmed by all the materials out there. It is a
lot easier to BUY
books, than it is to USE them and LEARN from them.
Of course, laying out the proper course is supposed to
be the job of the
teacher, but many of you don't have teachers, and many
teachers don't
DO their job anyway! But in any case, the best
attitude for you to have
is SELF-RELIANCE. Even a teacher doing their job
cannot relieve you of
your own responsibility to be aware, in control, and
organized. The first
thing to realize is that creating and maintaining YOUR
day to day
working method is YOUR responsibility. It takes
effort. It takes writing
things down, keeping schedules and routines. It takes
trial and error. It
takes regular review of results, and renewed effort
based on those
reviews and assessments.
In all my years of lessons, I never once had a teacher
make any attempt
to organize my practicing; I had to learn to do it
myself. Not that I think
this is a good thing, but I do think it is what
happens for most guitar
students, so I tell you what I tell you because you
need to be aware of
the ongoing effort you must make. Early on, I realized
that without
notebooks, schedules, goals and so forth, I would be
swimming in a sea
of confusion. Sure, in the beginning, you feel
helpless, like you don't
know where to start and WHAT to even organize. But
realize this: any
plan is better than no plan, because you can revise
and improve your
plan once you begin it, but you can't improve one you
never begin.
I found as soon as I had SOMETHING written down, I
felt calmer and
more in control.
I remember complaining to my father once about all the
"crap" I was
learning in school that I wasn't interested in. He
said a great thing to
me. He said, "the important thing is that you are
learning how to learn".
He was right, and that is one of the greatest skills a
person can have.
One of the first people to buy my book was a retired
educator. When he
later contacted me for some lessons, I found that he
had taken my book
apart, chapter by chapter, exercise by exercise, and
made notes on
everything, and re-organized things in different ways
to help him make
certain connections. THAT is an example of someone who
knows how to
learn.
Now, having said all that, and made my point about the
necessary
quality of self-reliance you must cultivate as a
student, let me add
another important point. Part of your approach to
forming an effective
working procedure is to go for outside help, to ask
questions of people in
a position to help you, as the writer of the above
question has done.
Notice that the educator I mentioned above, after
giving it his best shot,
came to me for help. That is wise. I have harped on
the points made
above because I have found that most people DO NOT
GIVE IT THEIR
BEST SHOT, they don't use the materials in front of
them, but stay stuck
wallowing in feelings of helplessness.
Okay, Answer the Question!
Okay, I'll stop sermonizing, and tell you something
you can use! Yes,
you must have certain goals to work toward as you
begin learning guitar.
While the specifics of those goals will change
depending on what type of
player you want to be (rock, classical, folk, blues) I
will lay out for you
some general achievements that I guide all my students
toward, things I
want them to be able to do, as soon as possible.
First, I want all students to know how to practice
correctly. Without
knowing that, there isn't much point in me giving them
things to
practice! That of course, is why I wrote my book, and
I begin each
student's training with the Foundation Exercises
contained in it.
Second, it is essential that, right from the
beginning, the student is
beginning to cultivate, through proper practice, the
awareness of
sensations that lead to good and great playing instead
of habits of
tension that make playing difficult or impossible.
These necessary
physical sensations include The Light Finger, The Firm
Finger, Heavy and
Floating Arm, and in general, a growing awareness of
the body and
active playing muscles.
(Because of points One and Two, I advised the person
asking the
opening question to first of all concentrate on the
exercises in my book
as the first priority of his practice, since I knew he
had just got my book.
For those who don' t have "The Principles", do the
exercises in my
essays "Discover Your Discomfort", and "The Secret of
Speed", where you
can begin to discover the correct physical sensations
for playing.)
Third, once students have begun to train their fingers
properly, it is time
to teach those trained fingers some of the basics of
playing the guitar. I
want all my students to know first position chords,
beginning with G, C,
and D. We work on getting those chords, changing those
chords
smoothly, and most importantly, applying them to a
song. I do this as
soon as possible, probably the second or third lesson.
It is most important to make music as soon as
possible! I start this by
the second or third lesson. I will keep a student on a
simple song for 3
months if I have to, until they can play it through
smoothly. This is
building Vertical Growth, which is the first kind of
growth that must be
achieved. After that first song is mastered (something
simple, like "This
Land Is Your Land"), we do some Horizontal Growth,
that is, more songs
at the same level, building a repertoire.
Being able to strum through chord changes smoothly is
priority number
one. It's the quickest route to making music for a
guitar player, and is
usually what people most want to do. However, for some
people, being
able to play a simple melody might be more rewarding,
but it is
technically more difficult in the beginning, (doing so
with good form, that
is).
I look for songs the student is emotionally connected
to. I don't care
what it is, as long as they like it, and it is within
reach of their ability.
For instance, if it is a rock, electric student, I
will use something like
"Born To Be Wild", which has the basic open power
chords. With this
type of student, I will want them to master these
chords before the
traditional folk chords, because open power chords are
what is needed to
get them playing songs they are emotionally connected
to. I will give
them the larger, folk chord forms later.
So, the first few goals are:
1 Ability to Practice Correctly,
2) Beginning to Build the Correct Foundation (and the
discovery of the
proper physical sensations) with the Foundation
Exercises,
3) Applying the developing abilities to music with
simple chord changes
and songs, until a few songs are well on the way to
being mastered, and
the student is not developing habits of tension in
their playing.
Here is a very important understanding. Learning a
complex skill like
playing the guitar is not an entirely linear process.
It is not a matter of
"do this, accomplish that completely, then do that,
and finish it, then
that" and so forth. Learning the guitar is more a
collection of
simultaneous processes, occurring and maturing
together to produce an
end result. It's like cooking. You start lots of
dishes, each one at the
right time so everything comes out right and ready at
the end. You
watch the potatoes, the chicken, the broccoli, and the
rice. You give
everything the proper attention, making sure nothing
gets burned. You
don't wait till the potatoes are done before you start
the chicken. (Man,
I'm getting hungry).
Okay, I'm back; I had to have a snack.
So my point is that at any given time, the actual
details of our practice
material is carefully arranged to produce that final
result we desire. The
exact details will be tailored to each person, and
must be constantly
reviewed and revised. It takes great energy and
intelligence. Read all
you can about learning the guitar, ask questions, and
USE everything
you learn to chart your own course.
After the things mentioned above, scale Playing will
come next, but only
after the fingers have been trained in the
micro-details of proper
movement.
Many players suffer from the fact that scales were
practiced and learned
while the hands and fingers were still full of tension
and not developed
properly. So their scales are in horrible shape, and
always a struggle to
play. This is because scales are composed of extremely
complex physical
movements, which must be minutely studied in their
micro details before
being assembled into the movements required for
playing scales. Scales
on guitar, for instance, are much more difficult than
on most other
instruments simply because every note is the result of
the precise
co-ordination of both hands, and the sound is not
produced by just one
finger, as in piano.
For rock electric students who want to play
blues/rock, the pentatonic
scales are the first priority. We spend many months
working on form,
and speed. At the same time, we begin developing the
basic rock licks,
and learning how to bend strings. I give them a
special set of solos I
wrote that use those licks. Again the principle in
teaching is to present
new material, and then re-enforce by application. And
do not leave the
material until you have gone a long way toward
mastering it, at least being
able to play it without error at a slow tempo. For the
rock guitarist, or
improvising guitarist in general, continuos study of
the solos of great
players is essential, as well as constant playing with
other players and
taped backgrounds, where licks and scales you have
learned are used.
And for you beginner students, take this as a great
caution: do not
accumulate a bunch of songs that are never put
together, and never
played to a smooth beat! That is the sign of someone
who doesn't know
how to practice. That is easy to do. Many such players
have their
collection of "One hundred bits and pieces of My
Favorite Songs"! Do not
jump from one thing to another, you will play them all
badly! Do not let
your teacher push you through either. Make them
produce results with
you, or find another teacher.
Now, if you cannot take all of this material and begin
to create a useful
practice routine, well, it's your own fault!
Copyright 2000 by Jamie Andreas
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