Guitar Lessons: Industry Reviews of "The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar "

"The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" by Jamie Andreas is an invaluable resource for any student of the guitar. After reading a sentence like that, I know all of you are proceeding in a calm and orderly fashion to GuitarPrinciples.com to order your copy of this revolutionary book. For those who were not convinced by my opening statement, read on.

There are literally hundreds of books currently available on how to play guitar. And as a student of the guitar and a professional guitar teacher for the last 20+ years, I have certainly read a good number of them. Some are valuable additions to your home library, and others only have value as kindling for your next campfire. "The Principles" is a book unlike any other I have read, and holds a unique status in my library.

"The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" is not a method book in the traditional sense. You will not find scales, chord charts or licks of any kind. But you will find a book filled with insight and exercises to help you overcome common pitfall of hand position and muscle tension. Issues that lead to incorrect practice, and are detrimental to your progress as a guitarist.

The material in the book is broken down into 3 categories: Understandings, Tools, and Exercises. Understanding helps identify a problem area, often one you might not have thought about. Tools are the solutions to these problems, and the Exercises give practical ways to incorporate the Tools into your practice routine.

Jamie Andreas is a gifted writer and music educator, and has the unique ability to analyze the problems that plague guitar players and break them down into their core components. This book will help you prepare your body and mind for the journey of learning to play the guitar, and is required reading for any serious student of the instrument.

Shawn Bradshaw has a degree in Jazz Composition from Boston's Berklee College of Music, and has taught guitar privately for over 20 years. Shawn has written multiple books and writes for and runs Cyberfret.com, a large site of free online guitar lessons and articles.

EVERY NOW AND again we at GT come across a tutorial product that is a bit different to others in the shops. This was the case with Jamie Andreas’s book, The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar as it doesn’t contain a single exercise in tab but is full of useful advice and tips.

Clocking in at over 100 pages, there are discussions on how to sit, pick, pluck, fret, and achieve the most out of a practice session. There is a slight bias towards the classical guitar but Jamie writes in a way that encompasses all guitarists regardless of genres. In particular, if you’ve an interest in the processes behind practicing there’s a wealth of information to mull over such as your attention to detail, developing the right type of muscle memory and the right way to build speed.

If all this doesn’t convince you, the book also received the Silver Award for best instructional material at Acoustic Guitar magazine in 2004/2005.

In the preface of her book, Jamie Andreas states, “This book is not like most books available in that it does not stress content, but approach. This book will give students what they need in order to benefit from all those books.”

We found that the true jewel in this book is Jamie’s insight on how we learn and how to make the most of practice time. Jamie covers the subjects of attention and awareness, muscle memory, the discovery of sensations, body awareness, as well as reducing and eliminating sympathetic tension in our hands and the total body as we play.

“Your fingers can be your best friend or your worst enemy, you decide which one they will be by how much you pay attention to them and how much you get to know them in the act of practicing and playing.”

“I have learned over the years that we deserve every mistake we make. In fact, we have created and guaranteed them by the way we practice.”

“Extra tension in the muscles, which every advanced player knows is the number one cause of playing difficulty, becomes a blind spot.”

We highly recommend not only guitarists but all musicians read and consider Jamie’s thoughts on the principles of correct practice.

I had purchased the first edition of this book about a year ago, and I found it to be a fine compendium of useful advice. I have recommended it highly in my Guitar Pedagogy class.

This is not a guitar method per se, but rather a treatise on correct technique and productive practice. It is advertised as “the Perfect Start for Beginners and the Answers to the Problems of Players.” Most beginners would not have the patience to read and apply all the instructions here, but it would be an excellent supplement to any other method book, and it is enormously useful for teachers.

Much of the information is similar to what many of the best teachers tell their students, and having it all in print in a clear and usable format is most advantageous. Even if a teacher says the same basic things, he or she is likely to find them described here in different words that may be just right for many students. (We’re always trying to find new ways of describing correct free strokes, for instance, with images that a student can remember and visualize at home. One of my students found that what worked for him was trying to “tuck the note up his sleeve.”)

In addition to classical technique, there are also sections on plectrum usage. The organization of the text is thoughtful, and the presentation clear and concise. All the advice has been tested in practical use. The new edition has been revised and somewhat expanded.

Most guitarists would benefit from reading this book and using it to examine their own techniques and practice habits, even if only to reinforce what they do well. It will be especially useful for teachers of students at all levels.

The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar
Reviewed by Jazzerati for Guitarnoise.com

To put it simply, this book is incredible. It is like the prerequisite for most other guitar books and almost so much so that is a prerequisite for playing guitar.

Have you ever been to a lesson and you've asked your teacher to help you play a certain riff or lick and they responded by showing you where to place your fingers. Most of us do know how to read tab and the most we gain from these sessions is an easier fingering for the piece. They never really answered the question of HOW to play it. They showed us what to do but they didn't truly show us how to do it.

The "how" is what this book is all about. It gets down to the microscopic details of how to do something. It doesn't just tell you to place your 1st finger on the 9th fret. It tells you what muscles you need to use to do it. Before reading and understanding the concepts presented in this book, I used my left hand fingers, but now I can control them and I tell you this is a whole lot better. It also deals with the right hand for both using a pick and fingerstyle.

The section on fingerstyle is quite in depth, so I know when I decide to start fingerpicking I'll be able to get off on the right foot with the right movements. It's not just about the hands though; it also details how your body tenses in reaction to various things and how this tenseness adversely affects your playing.

The book is a philosophy of learning guitar. It details the thinking processes needed to get what you want out of your practicing. It lets you know how your fingers learn and how you can take advantage of this. Whole sections of the book are dedicated to the art of practicing, which, all in all, is what this book is really on about. The basics for technique are covered but its aim is to provide you with the knowledge of your mind and body to analyze your technique and understand how to use your body most effectively....

This book was recommended to the beginner and the troubled experienced player. I wasn't really troubled after two years of playing but I sure do wish I had of had the knowledge presented in this book when I was just starting! I would have been so more aware of what I was doing. Now when practicing it is incredibly intense, before GP (guitar principles) I was lucky enough to be told to practice slow and keep your fingers low to the strings. I focused on that and it got me so far but through GP I have discovered there is so much more to be aware of. Now my practicing is a lot more powerful and beneficial.

So I would recommend this book to everyone except the person who does not want to play any better than how they can already play.

While going through this book, it will seem at times you are going back to being a beginner and this can be frustrating to the point of seeming pointless. But once you understand the things presented in the book you understand why you need to do it and practicing becomes less of a chore. Besides, the results you see after some time has gone by are quite pleasing.

Note though that this book alone will not teach you everything and even in the preface Jamie recommends that you go and find a teacher. But the book is not alone, there is also a message board on the Guitar Principles site where players and teachers alike are using the principles and asking questions. There also numerous essays by the author and a good quality newsletter. The author even gets around on the boards when she has time.

So, in conclusion, if you are willing to admit that you have a desire to improve your playing then I recommend this book as an excellent tool to help you.

The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar
Reviewed by Ney Mello
(International Recording Artist, Performer, Guitar Instructor)

I am using "The Principles" book as a text book (...the only mandatory one I currently require for my students). I am testing them by asking them to explain to me each "Tool" and "Understanding" section in their own words, because if they understand why this works, they are more likely to use it right away.

I also do small "experiments" by having them play a short passage or lick and then practice it in your "No Tempo" mode, for example, and they can immediately sense the difference.

One of my more advanced guitar students who just won first prize in his high school jazz band in Maryland- in a National competition (in Chicago's Northeastern University) was playing a rather sloppy pentatonic 4 note lick. I put him through "The Principles No Tempo practice" for about 2 minutes with varying pick pressures and attacks. Immediately, he was playing it with "Pat Martino" clarity and needs just to get up a little in tempo. The jump in articulation was dramatic and immediate. Because I "forced" him to slow down, his brain could actually scan the motions that were missing and fill in the missing data.

I explained to him that if you slow down enough and practice in sections, you don't make mistakes, and you relax because you know you can handle it; therefore you don't get tense. Most of all, the point is that it is an absurdity to command your brain to play something it does not yet know. It needs to analyze and memorize very complex sensory and motor/ spatial data before it can execute it.

As "the Principles" clearly states, your fingers don't have the ability to know or guess your real intentions, they don't read your mind. They operate as a computer does, based on what your input is during you practice sessions.

"When I first came across The Principles, I knew my life would be easier. I recommend the book as soon as people inquire about instruction, so they show up for their first lesson better off than most students are after a few years of lessons.

The combination of this material and good instruction is sure to elevate the level of guitar playing everywhere.

Once the students are familiar with "The Principles", when they have trouble with a passage, I can easily suggest what kind of practice to use, what tool to focus on, and where to look for tension. Because we have a common vocabulary, that process is a lot easier...and, by practicing with the students during the lesson, using the proper tools, they see good results every session, and stick with it.

Robert Capocchi is on the faculty of the College of Santa Fe, in Santa Fe NM, Highlands University, in Las Vegas NM, United World College in Montezuma NM, and at Adams State College in Alamosa CO.

The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar
Reviewed by RuggedReviews.com
(Reviewer, Larry Richardson 2009)

This book is a must-have for beginning guitarists or experienced players who are experiencing a technical problem playing single notes or chords.

The book helped me enormously. When I first started playing, keeping the guitar still when I was changing chords was next to impossible. And if you don't keep it still, you have to chase the neck around. I was building up so much tension, my neck and shoulders ached and I couldn't move smoothly from one note or chord to the next. Andreas' playing tips and exercises helped me bring the situation under control.

Another time, I was dying to fingerpick, but I didn't know the first thing about how to place my hand and fingers and how to strike each individual string with correct timing. She walked me through everything necessary to master these skills and more. She even goes as far as to recommend that we practice placing our fingers on or over the correct string without plucking it, so our fingers will build up the "muscle memory" necessary to gain consistency. This slow and deliberate approach has worked over-and-over again for me.

This book doesn't promise quick and easy results like all the sham instructional material out there. What it does teach is that if we're mindful about the way we interact physically and mentally with the guitar and take the time to develop excellent technical skills, we will succeed as guitarists.

Whenever I hit a snag in my ability to play guitar, I pull out The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar and methodically confront the challenge so it won't hobble me further down the road. Thank you, Jamie Andreas for giving me the ability to recognize and address problems on this complicated instrument.

The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar
Reviewed by EER-MUSIC.com
(Editor, John W. Patterson 2005)

Being a guitarist myself since 1967, I found myself
smiling over and over reading this guide. I kept
saying to myself, "Yeah, that's so true." My having
fallen into many of the pitfalls Jamie warns against
and so deftly explains how to avoid and fix was a real
eye-opener. I have to say, without hesitation, that I
wished I could've read this book decades ago. Jamie
has put together a fine book that EVERY teacher and
student needs to read before teaching or learning
guitar any further. It is that good!

Jamie has dissected out a core of truths about the
human body, psyche, and soul when it comes to learning
an instrument. It is a revealing and foundational type
of read. It could be easily re-named or sub-titled the
”21st Century Zen of Guitar”.

In this tome you will come to understand the importance
of attitude, desire, awareness, attention, intention,
and so on in approaching the guitar. Jamie completely
illuminates the dark truth about how your own body
can cripple your ability to learn how to play correctly.
Come to understand tension, muscle memory, sympathetic
tensions, how to avoid endless hours of useless practice,
correct posture, left and right hand approach, fingerstyle,
picking and the interaction of each with one another.
Correct breathing, mental focus, abdominal flex and so
much more all can effect your playing!

Jamie's book will help you unlearn "poor" practicing
you have struggled with and you will begin to understand
how the pros seem to do such complex runs yet with
apparent ease. And just what is that "Play 2-3-Touch" secret?

Wanna' know why I think this is one essential book for
the serious guitarist? Besides my learning a great deal
reading it and you're being intrigued now by this review
I urge you to just buy yourself a copy.

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