How Hard Have you Been Practicing?

I haven't posted in a while, I have been busy with things like obtaining a green card and some awesome work with a local Studio that I’m really excited about. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about me, what I’d really like to talk about is practicing.

My last posts had too much substance for my liking. Chord charts are fundamentally useless compared to an easily obtainable and comprehensive system of understanding the fretboard. I will therefore never post another page of chord charts. You’ve had enough! They might be easily digestible but why give you a fish when I can teach you to...

http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/003679.php

If you’re interested in how to build chords, you should probably check out the Introduction to chord theory post which shows a brief and easy way to figure chords out. I will of course expand further on how to build them but the truth of the matter is, you will come across chords as you learn songs from your favourite band.

On Practice

If you want to get anywhere with any instrument, you have to practice. This goes quadruple for guitar. Why? Because everyone who plays guitar is practicing more than you and it’s a competition to see who can complete ‘it’ first. Here’s a list of high scores from the current leader board, unfortunately only living players are permitted entry and everyone is judged on current ability.

Guitarist	Points
Guthrie Govan	9,874,264
Tosin Abasi	180,050
Nuno Bettencourt	55,555
Marty Friedman	55,554

Meanwhile at the bottom end of the leaderboard we have:

Guitarist	Points
Average Beginner ~1 yr Experience	10
Jack White	6 (Good effort)
Josh Klinghoffer	3 (You are not John, get out)
Lil’ Wayne	-9

For those of you still reading, I have a confession. That isn’t the real leaderboard. No, there isn’t actually one at all. No arbitrarily assigned points or competition really. I kind of like everything Jack White does but I am pretty sore about Josh being in the Chili Peppers, I just don’t think he sounds like he ‘gets’ what they’re about. One last word Ladies and Gentlemen, Lil’ Wayne.

My extremely long winded point is that it is so easy to practice guitar.

It takes no more effort than watching T.V. to practice low intensity guitar. As long as you’re not drilling bad habits into yourself, you should become familiar with the instrument through sitting with it as often as possible. As a beginner, the guitar is a mere funny shaped piece of wood with some kind of wiry stringy stuff attached to it.

Eventually with enough practice, it becomes a penis extension fully fledged musical instrument that can make some incredible sounds and is an exciting and rewarding pastime/hobby/profession. 

Here’s a checklist of things you can do when you practice. 

It’s probably best you space them out to focus on what most engages you but be sure to change things up for each different practice session. If you’re serious about the instrument, explore even the aspects of music which don’t jump out at you as being ‘flashy’ or provide instant gratification. Those parts usually help develop a solid framework…

Here’s a list of 10 ideas of things to work on while you practice guitar.

Aspect of Practice	Guideline
Warm up	Stretch and massage your hands and fingers! You’ll be surprised how much more your hands will be willing to work after you get the blood flowing.
Songs	Learn a new song or practice an old song. Set a milestone like nailing a specific part or a song in its entirety.
Scales and Arpeggios	Widdly widdly, diddly diddly learn and play scales until you’re blue in the face (the same face you just melted off… you just melted your own face off. Seek medical assistance. This is not a drill). But seriously when you practice scales and things, pay attention to the sounds you are making, not just the shapes your hands form as you make them. Watch for ‘avoid’ notes and play the scale without them! Make sure these things ring out with a quality that only practice brings.
Chords, Harmony and Theory	Research things like I guess you’re doing right now by being here. Immerse yourself in the language of music theory. You have to know your I, IV, Vs from your II, V Is.
Ear Training	You can do this online or even on your phone or tablet. Learn to recognise intervals and sounds with simple interval ear training exercises… Seriously google it or er, click here.
Posture/Technique	Make sure you practice in ways which reinforce good habits. ‘What habits are good?’ You might ask. Well that’s complicated in this day and age. I would just advise that you make things easy for yourself and try to make your playing efficient and your movements effective, oh - and be comfortable.
Improvisation	Make something up on the spot. Chord progressions, or phrases. Unaccompanied or with backing tracks that you can search the internet for. The important part is being engaged in the processes you enter unto when you are translating your ideas into sounds with your instrument.
Listen to other musicians	Even ones from ‘genres’ you don’t normally listen to or people playing other instruments. Especially horn players and drummers. These instruments specialise in phrasing, breathing and rhythm. Guitar is a jack of all trades kind of instrument; make sure to master at least one aspect.
Compose	Write some music. Find one of those phrases you created in the improv section and expand upon it. Use chord theory to create progressions suited to the key and resolve tensions that your phrases create within the key.
Jam	Invite your friends around (who are musicians) and play together. Scientists estimate that guitarists progress approximately 7x faster when they play with other musicians. Also many statistics are made up on the spot. But seriously, I can’t stress how important it is to just forget your hang ups and play together. I’m at least somewhat certain that music is in large about community and not just playing alone in your bedroom until you can play Yngwie Malmsteen tunes.

Practice is important because you are never going to get better if you don't do it, and if you don't use it, you lose it. How else are you going to get better? Practice. You can't know how good you are if you don't practice. And if you don't feel like practicing, then do one of the activities outlined above - you know, trick yourself into thinking you are not practicing even though you are.