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The
Principles of Practice
Based on "The Principles of Correct
Practice for Guitar"
by Jamie Andreas
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| IN
THIS ISSUE |
December 24, 2000 Volume
25
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Changing Bad Habits Part Two
Understanding and Allowing the Step by Step Process
You must understand that your ability to effectively change bad
habits is going to depend completely upon how deeply and truly you
understand the fundamental mechanics of the process of playing the
guitar, and the process of "practicing" the guitar, meaning
the actual process of how we teach the mind and body new things.
If you do not have a sufficiently deep understanding of these things,
you will not be able to change bad habits.
I hope you realize the importance of what I just said! I suggest
you read it over a few times, and think about it. I suggest you
take some serious time right now, and in the next days and weeks
to size yourself up, and answer this question "Do I feel like
I have a sufficient understanding of the mechanics of playing the
guitar so that I know how to practice in a way that will "change
bad habits", which means "solve problems" which really
means "fix bad things about my playing".
And the reason I am saying this is because so many people write
to me and ask me the simple, basic question "how do I change
this bad habit of mine"? Or, they may be asking the question
in reverse. They may ask a question like "how can I play faster",
which is really saying "how can I get rid of the elements of
my present playing technique (a bad habit) that are preventing me
from playing as fast as other people play", so it is really
the same question.
So my point is this: if you do not have sufficient understanding
of how things work, of what really happens when you sit down to
practice, then you will not be able to change bad habits. So if
this is the case, there is no answer to such a question. The answer
to this question, for a person without the sufficient understanding
is "you can't change that bad habit".
Then, of course, the real answer, the necessary next step, is to
go and GET that understanding, and learn how to do the kind of practice
that is based on that understanding. THEN, we can talk.
So, the real answer to the question is " the way you get to
be able to change bad habits is by understanding how you got them
in the first place". If you can understand that Muscle Memory
put that bad habit there, while you were busy spending hours practicing
with your shoulder tense, or your wrist and hand tensed up, then
you will see that Muscle Memory will also change, or rather, allow
you to REPLACE the bad habit with a new, and better one. If, that
is, you know how to summon the mental focus necessary to make that
happen, if you know how to become aware of, and stay aware of, what
you were not aware of before.
Now understand this. It is often extremely difficult for me to get
results from a person sitting in front of me, to get them to REALLY
have this mental intensity, pay that much attention, and keep doing
that in their daily practice at home. It can be extremely difficult
to get someone to REALLY be aware of what they are actually doing
when they play, even what they actually sound like! And I have no
hope of getting results with someone if I cannot move them to that
level of intensity.
That is why I am always so happy when someone writes and tells me
of progress they are making using my methods. It proves to me that
people CAN be moved to that intensity long-distance, as it were.
But I am going through all this to really drive a point home to
all the people with one of the "how can I change bad habits"
type questions. You can't, unless the level of your understanding
of all aspects of the process is sufficiently deep! So make sure
it is, and continue to deepen it.The way to do that is to educate
yourself, by reading my writings, and any other sources you discover
that are out there, and also to constantly THINK for yourself, experiment,
observe, draw conclusions, and re-experiment in your practice.
It just happens ( the devil made me do it) !!!
There is a statement that students will often exclaim, and it is
a big tip-off that they DO NOT HAVE the sufficiently deep understanding
that I am referring to. That statement is, when referring to some
bad behavior a finger may be exhibiting, "I can't help it,
it just happens by itself".
This statement shows that the person is the unfortunate victim of
the dynamics of the practice process, such as Muscle Memory, instead
of being the master of those dynamics, so that Muscle Memory is
put to work for us, instead of against us. The person who has the
necessary understanding MAKES the right thing happen because they
can do two things: they can summon the strong Intention and Attention
(mental focus) necessary to make the correct thing happen, and they
can have the stillness of mind and body required to do real No Tempo
Practice and Posing, which will erase old muscle memory and replace
it with new, improved muscle memory.
A strong mental focus, and the stillness of mind and body I am talking
about, make your practice sufficiently deep, sufficiently powerful
to change bad habits, or in fact, acquire good ones. I call this
"the bottom of your practice". If the bottom of your practice
is not deep enough, your practice will have no effect. Essentially,
most of what I do with students is simply to deepen the bottom of
their practice for them, and try to get them to be able to keep
it that deep for themselves.
So, if you have that "it just happens" feeling, well,
now you know what it really means, and what to do about it.
Take Things In The Proper Order
Once you have begun to get this deep understanding, you will be
able to take certain aspects of playing the guitar in their proper
order. You are not going to address the issue of how your hands
and fingers function until you have addressed the issue of something
more fundamental, like how you sit with the instrument, and how
aware you are of your body in general while playing. If you don't
know that the way you are sitting and positioning your arms is forcing
you to tense muscles needed to play, you will always be working
with a handicap that limits your progress. Unfortunately, I have
found this to be the case MOST of the time with players.
The remedy here is to CONSTANTLY EXAMINE the fundamentals of your
playing. Your sitting, hand positions, finger action, pick action,
etc. Observe, think, analyze, experiment, repeat the process in
every practice session. DO NOT TAKE THE FUNDAMENTALS FOR GRANTED.
Once your understanding of the mechanics of playing and practicing
are sufficiently deep to allow you to see things in the right order
of importance, and you have addressed the necessary fundamentals,
begin to get specific about the other elements of playing technique.
Whatever level of player you are, begin to get a clear focus on
your weak areas, and BE SPECIFIC!
Always Set The Proper Next Goal
Once you are able to get this specific, see into the heart of some
flaw in your technique, and are able to approach it in a fundamental
and effective manner, it is now just a matter of continuing that
process, and setting one goal after another.
When you work on a fundamental, such as the one described above,
you make it a project that may last anywhere from a month, to several
months, or even a year. You hammer at that aspect of your technique
relentlessly. You do whatever exercises you know that will help,
if properly practiced. You make up exercises that will help, if
properly practiced. You use the actual passage that gave rise to
the whole "investigation". You take note of and measure
your progress and results.
Once you see that bad habit begin to weaken, and new habits come
through in your playing, you ask yourself, "ok, what is the
next worst thing about my playing, what is the next fundamental
aspect of playing that is underlying various trouble spots in my
repertoire". Find it, and go after it.
Get and Keep the Correct Attitude
The final point I want to make in considering the subject of changing
bad habits, which is another way of saying creating Vertical Growth
as players, is the adoption and full acceptance of the CORRECT ATTITUDE
of someone desiring to achieve their full potential. And that is
the attitude of ABSOLUTE OPENNESS about yourself, about you as a
guitar player, and about the endless possibilities of things you
have yet to learn. Here are the attributes of someone who has this
correct attitude:
They don't get upset when they discover some major flaw in their
playing, they become curious and interested.
They don't feel sorry for themselves when they begin to clearly
see the source of some problem in playing, and realize that it could
have been avoided if someone pointed it out, or they had noticed
it themselves (that tensed up shoulder they have been playing with
for years). They are thankful that they finally see it, and resolve
to set about integrating the new awareness into all their playing,
right away. They are in fact, happy, every time they begin to become
aware of how wrong they have been about some aspect of their playing
and practicing approach.
Whenever I have one of my "wow, what an idiot I've been"
moments, I am always very happy. Now I know I am on the verge of
becoming an even better player than I am now. How could that upset
me.
And this is something all of you can say at such times. Make sure
you do. Make sure you keep the feeling of excitement and gratitude
if you read something, by me or someone else, and it makes you realize
that you have been missing something in your understanding and approach
to the guitar. Do not get whinny and negative because something
has come along to upset the nice opinion you have managed to create
and maintain about yourself as a guitarist!
And make sure you maintain that attitude of excitement, discovery
and gratitude every day on your path of development as a guitarist,
musician and artist. It is an endless journey, and those who have
gone farthest know that best.
Teacher Directory
I keep getting letters from people asking me if I know of a teacher
in their area who uses my methods. The best I can do is let you
know about people who write to me who at least read my work, or
have my book, and are in sympathy with my approach. That is why
I started my teacher directory.
But, where are all you teachers! Many of you write to me and ask
me questions, or make comments, but you have not put yourself in
my directory. Don't be shy! Let people know, unless you don't want
any more students!
You can get into my directory here:
Teacher Directory.
Am I Too Old To Learn Guitar?
I am 41 years old , and love all kinds of music , most of what
I play is the new style of country , Vince Gill , Brad paisley ,
ect.. . My problem is that I never can seem to progress past basic
cords. I have a strong musical background , my brother and grandfather
were great guitar players , but I cant seem to reach their level,
my brother tells me that it would be next to impossible at my age
to ever get really good, is this true?
Thank You
Phil H
Hi Phil,
No, your brother is dead wrong! It is in fact "next to possible".
Whether it WILL be possible for you is up to you. I suggest you
read everything on my site to get the right "attitude".
I always advise my students to IGNORE whatever wives, husbands,
brothers, sisters, etc, say to you about learing the guitar. They
never know what they are talking about! Only listen when they tell
you that you are starting to sound better, which starts to happen
after you learn how to practice.
Re-String For Left Hand?
Hi Jamie,
I have a potential student who is left handed. She feels most comfortable
and natural holding it in a "left handed" way, meaning fretting
with the right hand, picking with left. My question is: Does it make
more sense anatomically and ergonomically to re-string the guitar,
or should she just learn to play with the strings 'upside down'?
Vicki
Hi Vicki,
In all my years teaching, I believe I have seen only one or two people
who I felt were better off playing "lefty". Here is my thought
on the subject. I am right handed. When I started to play, naturally
my right hand was stronger, and more under my control. And yet, I
began to learn the "normal way" which is to have the left
hand do all the things requiring strength and agility! And yet, my
hand adapted no problem.
My point is I really think it makes absolutely no difference. I think
I could just as easily have learned the opposite way. I think left
handed people ASSUME they should do it the opposite of what the "righties"
do, simply because they are used to that in all other activities.
There is nothing inherent in the actions of playing the guitar that
make it a "right handed" or "left handed" procedure.
Now, it may be true that if a lefty BELIEVES it is true, it will be
true for them. Because of that, here is my approach. I try to get
a lefty to learn righty, just so the rest of their life will be a
little less complicated. If they insist that it doesn't feel right,
and does feel right doing it lefty, I say go ahead. The students personal
and bottom line feeling about this matter, I believe, must rule the
day.
Jamie,
First of all, thanks for making your deep and fundamental knowledge
of guitar playing available to all us wannabes out here. I ordered
your book a little while back and it really hits the spot, covering
everything that all the others don't. I also appreciate the emails
you regularly send out. Keep up the great work!
Henry
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material copyright © 2003 by Jamie Andreas, GuitarPrinciples.com |
