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!