Exercise for couch potatoes!

When I ask students why they didn't practice the typical response it get is "I was very busy last week".  Life can get hectic and no doubt that at times being "busy" is a legitimate reason for lack of practice time.   I will often follow that question with "did you watch TV or play video games last week?"  I can't really think of anyone who has ever said "No, nope!... not at all".

My point is that we often fool ourselves into thinking that we don't "have" time when in reality we don't "make" time.  It is true that we may have to sacrifice some "entertainment" time to practice, but the in the grand scheme of things having the skill of making music will be far more rewarding in life that any episode of a silly "reality" TV show.

This brings me to my "reality" as a teacher.  I know that even if my students are practicing regularly the odds are that they are still going to spend more time in front of the TV than practice time with the guitar.   So what I am proposing today is an exercise to help develop your guitar skills whilst mindlessly watching that video box. 

I want to emphasize that these are supplemental exercises and not a substitute for actual focused practice time.   

Much of guitar playing relies on muscle memory that is developed by repetition.  Take chord switching for example.  As guitar players we are always trying developing quicker and smoother chord switches no matter what skill level we have. For beginning players just switching from a G to a D chord is a difficult task to achieve let alone being able to switch "on beat" with the music in real time. 

So while you are sitting in front of that TV you can hold your guitar and practice switching between two chords that give you trouble.  You don't have to do anything with your strumming/picking hand.  Just quietly go through the repeated motion of switching the chords or even try just one chord at a time (ie. like those pesky bar chords!).  You can also expand these exercises to include scales too.  Slowly walk up and down a scale of your choice carefully placing each finger down on the correct fret.  These exercises work on both acoustic and electric guitars just fine, however, with an unplugged electric guitar you can also incorporate the picking hand with out making too many disruptive sounds.  

Again the purpose of these exercises is to improve your muscle memory of chords and patterns on the guitar through repetition.   This is NOT a substitute for real practice time, but it is a good way supplement your practice and make use of time that is not usually productive.

So next time you turn on the tube grab a guitar give it a try!

Practice vs. Playing

The next time you sit down to play your guitar, ask yourself this question: Am I playing or am I practicing?  Confused yet? Didn't think there was much of a difference, don't worry you are not alone! When people tell me they are in a rut, then I will often ask them that question. So what is the difference? Is one more important? The answer, to become a truly well rounded musician you need to spend time doing both.
Practice is when you are focusing your time on expanding your skills and ablities on your instrument.  Playing is when you go through the songs you already know or maybe even  jamming or experimenting with making music.   Both Playing and Practicing have there place, but I find that most people who are in a rut are doing only one of these two aspects.
 I have two students, A and B, (wow this is starting to sound like a math problem) Student A sits down and works on scales and learning new skills, learning new songs, but maybe not commmitting them to memory.   Student B plays through his song list memorizing songs and just having fun, often playing the same songs with other people.  Both students feel like they are in a rut and both are missing a vital part of  playing music.
Most of the time I see people with the problem of the student B. They like their instrument, they like playing, they enjoy playing the songs they know. They will sit down and play through the songs they have learned a few times a week maybe look up some tabs on line, but never really focus any of their time on expanding there skills.                                                                                                                                                                                Sometimes I encounter the opposite when a student does practice dilligently, but doesn't "loosen up" and spend some time playing for fun or experimenting. Sometimes a player who is more rigid like this will have a harder time feeling the rhythm and playing with other musicians.
So the best way to solve these problems is start by practicing first. Practicing will still be the most important part of the equation, because this will build the skill set that you will bring to the table when playing around and experimenting. And when it comes to down to it consistency is much more important than quantity. 15 minutes of actual practicing daily will get better results than 1 hour once a week.   Of course more time will get you better results. Some professional musicians practice 4 to 5  hours a day, every day! You will want to set aside a time, maybe even make it an actual appointment,  i.e. every weekday at 7 pm. Then when 7 pm rolls around you stop what ever you are doing, video games, tv, internet, and practice.    For those of you who practice diligently try take some time to improvise or be creative at the end of your practice sessions.

Beginner Metronome Exercise

As a music teacher, an area of practice that I often see students overlooking is rhythm. It's too easy to fool yourself into thinking that a song or solo sounds fine when you are playing alone. The problem arises when you start playing with other people and it becomes difficult to establish and maintain a rhythm. But luckily this is a problem that can be remedied! All you need is a metronome and as little as 10 minutes of time before each practice session to really lay a solid foundation for great rhythm.    
A common mistake that I see all the time in lessons is trying to play the piece too fast (myself included!) Often this comes from trying to get whatever you are playing to sound like the finished song. When you  play slow its hard to hear the familiarity in the song, this is where the comments like "it doesn't sound like anything," come from. But playing slow is important, it keeps us from practicing in mistakes, something that happens a lot when playing faster than our ability to cleanly execute the song . It comes down to that if you can't play it slow you won't be able to play it fast! Simple idea, but sometimes a tough one to incorporate into our practice.
Using a metronome with whatever songs you are practicing is a good idea but builing a solid rhythm foundation starts with something even simpler! 5 to 10 minutes of scales with a metronome done several times a week will really help you understand and feel rhythm.  Begin simple, by using a major scale  (any key) and setting your metronome on a nice moderate setting of 60 to 80 beats/minute.  Work with quarter notes then 1/8th notes and progressing onto triplets as your rhythm becomes stronger over time.  

We have included a diagram of a major scale pattern. This pattern can be played starting at any fret. The starting root note is played with your 2nd finger.  The Red circles represent the root notes in our video example we have used the 'A' Major scale. The first root note of this scale can be found on the  6th string, 5th fret. Then play the pattern accordingly.