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By: Craig Bassett
Most of us have heard of the power of being consistent in our
guitar practice. You know what I mean. Practicing something
EVERY day until mastered. But do you do this? I know that in the
past, I definitely didn't... When I first started playing I was a maniac! I had no real
structure to my practice. I just put in the hours and hoped that
I got better. And I did! But there was a problem. I practiced
something different almost every day. My practice "schedule"
changed from one day to the next. This created two major
negative side effects... 1. Sore hands. For example, I would often go so berserk on
alternate picking exercises that my picking wrist would get
incredibly sore. It would be so sore that I couldn't practice
alternate picking the next day. So what did I do? I then went
crazy with legato exercises. So much so that I wouldn't be able
to practice legato the next day. So I went back to my trusty
alternate picking. Mmmm...there's a pattern emerging here. :-) 2. Slower Progress. Now, don't get me wrong. I progressed faster
than any of my friends. But I definitely don't think I
progressed at my fastest possible rate. If I had practiced less
on an exercise, but did it EVERY day I think my progress would
have been much faster. I guess the moral of the story is to temper your enthusiasm with
intelligence. Let's look at how to start to be more consistent
with your practice... ***Step One*** Decide on something that you would like to master. Make it
something short like a lick, scale or perhaps a few bars of a
song. ***Step Two*** Decide on a speed goal for the thing that you have chosen. This
will be your target tempo. Make it challenging. Something that
will make you a significantly better player once you have
achieved it. Of course, you need to keep in mind your current
playing level. If you are a beginner and you set a speed goal of
sixteenth notes at 240bpm, you are definitely setting yourself
up for a failure! ***Step Three*** Decide on how much time you'll invest practicing the thing that
you have chosen. I would recommend setting a goal of 10-15
minutes a day. A small amount done daily will give you better
results than hours done irregularly. ***Step Four*** Make a commitment to practice what you have chosen on a daily
basis. The key is to practice it every single day until your
speed goal has been reached. No excuses,no crying, no moaning,
no exceptions. ***Step Five*** Get to work! This is the step that requires discipline. It could
take weeks or months to achieve your speed goal! Just keep in
mind that anyone can write down a goal, but unfortunately VERY
few people will follow it though to completion. That's probably
why there are so many more guitar OWNERS than guitar PLAYERS ;-) I invite you to try this approach to guitar practice. I've found
that it really helps me, and I'm sure you'll benefit from it as
well!
About the author:
Craig Bassett is a professional guitarist, author and guitar
tutor. To gain TOTAL mastery of the guitar notes,
please go to: www.GuitarNoteMastery.com
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