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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 |
August
26, 2001 Volume 57
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Questions to Ask Yourself When You Practice
A few weeks ago, I wrote a little piece called "Problem or Process" in which I was giving you some insight into the proper attitudes to
maintain in order to solve the problems you will encounter in learning
the guitar. I would like to take a further step in that direction
now, and give you some specific questions to ask yourself as you practice.
Realize that in all things in life, the questions you ask are more
important than the answers you find, because the question determines
the answer you will find. The question is the road, the answer is
the end of the road. It doesn't matter what is at the end of the road
if you are on the wrong road! The word "question" is based
on "quest", that is, searching for something. When you practice,
in order to find what will lead to better playing, ask yourself these
questions. They will lead you to the awareness that will make improvement
possible:
Questions to Ask Yourself When You Practice
(The answers to these questions will tell you if you're paying attention,
and if you are paying attention to the right things.)
1. As I am playing this note, what is the finger to be used next doing?
(it should be getting ready for its note)
2. As I am playing this note, what is the last finger I used doing?
(It should be preparing for its next note).
3. As I am playing this note, what are my shoulders doing?
4. Am I listening to, and hearing the note I am making?
5. As my finger touches the string, what does my shoulder do?
6. Am I breathing? Am I aware of the need for air as I play?
7. Am I able to think of every note before I play it?
8. Am I able to hear every note before I play it?
9. Am I able to think of each finger being used, and each finger to
be used next?
Principled Player Eric K Runs with the Ball!
As I have stated many times, the ultimate goal of the teacher is
to enable the student to teach themselves (as expounded upon in
my essay "The
True Teacher".
The surest sign of this is when a student applies a concept they
have learned to a new situation. The other day, Eric K. (who very
ably fields questions related to using The Principles, and has done
so well in absorbing the essence of The Principles), sent me an
article describing the approach he has come up with for developing
one of the most important aspects of electric guitar playing: a
good vibrato. In fact, he came up with the same approach I use and
teach. I have reproduced the beginning of Eric's essay here, and
if you have ever (like me at one time, and like Eric recently) been
frustrated by some teacher telling you how important and difficult
vibrato is, and then tells you to go out and discover how to do
it WITHOUT giving you an approach to do so, then I suggest you read
the full article which is posted in the Tips and Tricks section
of the Forum.
I always tell my students that on electric guitar, a good vibrato
makes you sound good (professional), and a bad one marks you as
an amateur. There is no in-between. In other words, vibrato is a
DEFINING element of your playing ability. People respond subliminally
to a good vibrato. When they hear a bad one, they won't know WHY
they don't like the guy's playing, but they won't like it. So it
behooves every electric player to work hard on getting a good, even,
controlled vibrato. And I have never seen an actual, systematic approach
offered. So, many thanks to Eric for taking the essence of the logic
of The Principles, and devising a routine for developing a good
vibrato. As I said, I use this approach for myself, and in my teaching.
Of course, make sure you do a lot of LISTENING to the vibrato of
great players. You must have that sound in your ear, as you are
using the approach that Eric outlines.
Thanks Eric, for taking the time to write this.
How To Develop Vibrato on Electric Guitar
by Eric Krueger
As a beginning metal and rock player, I more or less had my practice
routine, approach, and thinking toward one simple element: getting
faster. Faster with chord changes, scales, licks, trem picking,
the whole gamut. And, no doubt, speed is critical for metal players,
and some speed is necessary for all guitar. However, after incorporating
the Principles into my practice and playing and seeing the stepwise
improvement happening day by day and week by week, I had a realization.
Namely, I came to the point where I was suddenly convinced that,
given continued attentive practice using the basic approach, I will
get as fast as I need or want to be - no need to worry about it
anymore; just work it and it will keep coming.
So, now I needed something else to worry about!
But seriously, one major hallmark of a really effective, emotive
electric guitar player is VIBRATO! If we study the solos and riffs
of the greats, we'll see that it's a common thread. And it comes
in all types: slow and wide, fast and narrow, and everything in
between. There's the classical "back and forth" type vibrato
executed with horizontal hand movement, the electric-type up-and-down
approach that is probably the most common, and circular vibrato
which combines the two into a (big surprise..) circular movement.
For my purposes, I'm talking primarily about the standard electric
vibrato, although I believe what I'm going to suggest will apply
to all vibratos, at least partially.
I was told by an instructor to begin working on vibrato at about
4 months on the guitar. Unfortunately, I don't recall him providing
a framework for working on it - just a "demo" followed
by instruction to "start on it". So, I fuddled around
with it for perhaps a year after that with no real progress - my
hand position was wrong, and I just didn't really know where I was
going with it all. When I decided I wanted to learn to play Cream's
"Sunshine of Your Love", I knew I had to pull it together
and make something happen with my vibrato.
Before I describe anything father, let me say this: I have seen
a number of great players say that good vibrato takes YEARS to develop,
so I'd suggest starting now no matter where you are on the guitar.
Five to ten minutes of focused practice a day will pay off big time
over the months and years.
The first element of good electric vibrato is proper hand position
- vibrato comes from the "thumb-over" hand position shown
clearly in the pictures on this website - go to the "Technique"
section and check 'em out if you don't know what I mean. The MOTION
comes from the elbow and the wrist - the fingers are more or less
held firm and in a static position (they may need to move a bit
when applying vibrato to the top two bass strings). Use non-active
fingers behind the fretting finger to help the motion (ie. vibrato
from the third finger gets assistance from the 1st and 2nd and so
on). When you have the hand position and motion correct, you will
feel plenty of strength to do vibrato. Now note that I said STRENGTH
- the coordination and actually getting the muscles to make the
motion is what takes the practice. Another item to appreciate: there
is the application of vibrato on a regular note, and that applied
to a bent note. Applying vibrato to bends is considerably more difficult,
but an essential part of the arsenal, so be sure to divide your
vibrato practice equally, or perhaps bias it toward bent vibrato
(if you can apply vibrato to a bend, a regular note will be easy!
However, we also want to enjoy success in the meantime...).
Doubting Thomas Sees the Light, Joins the Fold!
In the kind of work I do, I have been brought face to face, in
intimate contact, with thousands of people and personality types
over the 30 years I have been teaching. I have become quite familiar
with "the games people play". For instance, I can often
tell, just by talking to someone for the first time on the phone
wanting lessons with me, that it is simply not going to work. I
can sense an attitude the person has that is going to make it very
difficult for them to relate to me. For instance, I may pick up
a degree of defensiveness and close-mindedness, or just a certain
"tightness" about thier personality. I know this person
is not going to like me, or like taking lessons with me, because
I am probably going to offend them in some way, as I go about doing
what is necessary to turn them into a guitar player.
And so, I will recommend that they don't take lessons with me. I
really try to "see it coming" when it comes to relating
to people, so that I don't waste my time or theirs. It is in this
spirit that I responded to a recent book order. The order had a
message attached that gave me cause for concern about having this
person buy my book. It turned into what I thought was a pretty funny
exchange between the two of us. Here it is (the names have been
changed to protect the incredulous):
Hi Jamie,
Being a skeptic, is there any kind of money back deal or return
policy if this book is not what it was made out to be?
Alan
My reply:
Hi Alan,
The ability of my book to change you as a player depends on two
things. My book, and your attitude. Since, as you say, you are a
skeptic, I will assume that means you have a skeptical attitude.
If, after reading the voluminous amount of testimony and explanations
of my book that are on my site, you can still have a skeptical attitude
as to whether my book is what people say it is, then, I, myself,
have serious doubts as to whether you will benefit from my book.
So, since we're both feeling skeptical I think we ought to play
it safe for both of us. Personally, I don't think that you should
take the chance on buying my book.
Perhaps you should take more time to think about it. We will keep
your order on file, until such time that you may feel more confident
about this purchase.
I have one suggestion - keep reading my site, and see if any of
the information there helps you. If none of it does, than the book
will not help you, if some of it helps than my book is for you. Best Regards,
Jamie
This brought the following response from Alan:
Jamie,
Hi, I didn't mean to sound like I didn't think your book was what
you say it is. I have read just about everything on your site multiple
times, and am really looking forward to reading the book. What you've
said on your site really has helped.
I really would like to continue with the order, I really didn't
mean to say your book was just there to make money or anything,
but I really don't know what I need to do yet. I'm -very- new to
this and don't want to get myself in too deep with things I won't
understand.
Alan
And so, the order was put through, and Alan got his book. The other
day, I got the following letter:
Hi Jamie,
This is Alan, the one who had such a hard time deciding whether
to get your book or not. Anyway, the book got in earlier, and I
read through most of chapter 2, and I just had to say wow to you.
Just reading that one chapter, and not reading any of your how-tos,
I noticed so many thing's I've been doing wrong and neglecting when
I sat down and tried to figure out what I was doing.
I'm really sorry I was so skeptical, I really think if just this
one chapter inspired me so much, I can't wait to get through all
of techniques to correct my habits. I already feel this so far is
the best book I've ever seen that teaches anything, and I've read
a lot of them.
Thank you so much for sharing what you know,
Alan
And so, we have a happy ending!! You're welcome Alan, (you know
who you are). No problem with your skepticism, I forgive you. There
is nothing wrong with a healthy skepticism, but it becomes an unhealthy
skepticism when the skepticism itself is an obstacle to assessing
a situation, rather than the means of assessing a situation.
Wow, I feel like Jerry Springer at the end of the show!
Teacher Deepens the Bottom of a Student's Practice!
Last week, I shared with you some comments from a teacher who wrote
to tell me that using The Principles with her students has revolutionized
her teaching. I want to further share some comments she made that
describe an actual teaching situation where she does what I call "deepening
the bottom of the student's practice". Basically, it means making
the student practice in front of the teacher, with the PROPER degree
of INTENSE FOCUS that is really necessary to create improvement in
the music being worked on. This MUST be done by the teacher, or the
student will go home, perhaps with the best of intentions, but will
still do the same mediocre and ineffective practice they are used
to doing, come back to the next lesson with whatever mess they have
been making of the music all week, and then the teacher will turn
the page, and give them some new music to mutilate!
This is what you DON'T want to have happen! So, I was very happy to
read Corrie's account of working with a student in this manner. Again,
like Eric, it is an example of taking the ball and running with it.
Here is her account, after which, I will make a few comments:
"After an intense no-tempo session with one of
my students -taking about 20 minutes to play the 1-2-1-3-1-4-2-2-2-4-3-4
exercise a couple of times - my student exclaimed, "But doing
it like this will take us forever to get anywhere! And if I just
learn a song without doing it like this, then I'll undo everything
I gain from this exercise, won't I?" My response was, "Not
so! WE'RE not going to do every lesson this way. I just want you
to PRACTICE this way! Do this super-intense exercise for a few minutes
every day, and your muscles will gradually learn the correct way
to put your fingers where you want them. Then when you learn something
new, the easy parts will be really easy, because your fingers will
be doing things the right way automatically. Then you use this intense
focus to learn the hard parts."
Regards,
Corrie
Yes Corrie, you are exactly right. I have also gotten the same response
from students, after spending perhaps a half hour on one measure of
music. What the student needs to understand is that when we practice,
when we are attempting to build new skills into the fingers, we are
not dealing with music. We are dealing with MOVEMENTS that will produce
that music. One measure of music, or the exercise which you describe,
may contain many, many separate movements. Any one of those movements
that is not performed with the proper degree of relaxed control, will
be the starting point of a "stress chain", that is, all
subsequent movements will be affected, in a negative way, by the,
by the movement that is not done with the required amount of "finesse".
By making the student practice in the way that you are, you are developing
their MICROSCOPIC AWARENESS of their physical playing mechanism. That
awareness will carry over into ALL of their playing, since all of
their playing will be done with those same fingers!
Every student needs to understand that practicing one thing is practicing
everything, and that is the attitude you must have when you practice.
If you do shallow practice, that shallowness will show itself in everything
you play, if you do deep, comprehensive practice, you are not just
practicing that sequence of notes and required movements, you are
practicing everything, especially everything that uses the exact of
similar sequence of notes and movements. And the quality of your deep
comprehensive practice will also show itself in everything that you
play.
Once the movements that are presently under the microscope are fully "learned" into the fingers, yes, you will not have to go
through that process with those particular movements. You will repeat
the process with the next challenge you decide to take on. That is
what vertical growth is all about.
Sometimes when a student gives me the kind of resistance you describe,
I explain that I practice that way all the time, sometimes for many
minutes at a time, and always punctuating my practice with repeated
repetitions of movements done no tempo and slow tempo. And I have
been playing 33 years, and am generally considered pretty good! So
if I have to practice that way, maybe they should consider the possibility
that it is a good idea for them too, and not some kind of punishment
like they think it is!
Keep up the good work Corrie, you are making me feel like my work
is making a difference!
All
material copyright © 2003 by Jamie Andreas, GuitarPrinciples.com |
