Lead Guitar Tactics

Today, I want to talk about something that is important for any player at any level…practice. In fact, I ran into a friend who is a wonderful guitarist at the movies last Friday night (Iron Man, if you have not seen it, check it out! ). He said something that really hit home that he shares with his students.

You know the old saying, “practice makes perfect?” What he tells his students is…
“practice makes progress.” I would like to add to that. You see, not all practice makes progress.

It’s possible to practice and not be effecient. A well structured lesson plan and strategy can be the difference between really moving ahead or making no progress at all.

I have been studying the practice routines of a few of my friends that I think are great musicians and here are a few things that are consistent with all of them when it comes to effective practice.

1. None of them practice to get better. Huh? That’s right, the most important thing to all of them is learning and making discoveries. They all feel that this leads to the improvement they want, but improving is not the main focus.

2. They start their practice sessions with the end in mind. They know what they want to learn and have goals and strategies to help them get there.

Do you have short and long term goals? If yes, do you know how you are going to reach them?

3. They know how much time they have to practice and how they are going to break the material up into smaller pieces.

4. The more difficult the music, the smaller the pieces.

5. They practice at a speed that allows the development of muscle memory. This usually means at a slow speed, striving to play error free. They know that it’s much harder to correct a mistake than it is to learn it properly from the beginning.

6. Mistakes and struggle are part of learning and indicate that progress is indeed taking place.

7. They are consistent. They practice everyday.

Think about these things the next time you sit down to practice. In the meantime, here is a sample practice routine for someone just starting out learning the chords C, A, G, E and D.

First things first. Things should be memorized so that you can concentrate on what your hands are doing, not looking at a diagram or a book.

Assuming these chords are memorized and you have 30 minutes to practice, an effective practice routine would be as follows.

Practice switching between the following chords.

1. C to G
2. G to D
3. D to A
4. A to E

The goal… to be able to switch between the chords at a steady tempo with a focus on proper technique ( being able to move the fingers from chord to chord at the same time, not one at a time ).

Break up the session as follows:

5 minutes on each progression…total 20 minutes.

Identify the more difficult progressions and spend more time on them, for example
another 3 minutes on C to G and another 3 minutes on G to D.

Total 26 minutes.

Another 2 minutes each on the remaining progressions.

Total 30 minutes.

Repeat the next day adding or subtracting time to each progression depending on your progress.

If you are a beginner and you follow this, I guarantee you will make progress. If you have more time you can determine how to break up your practice time. You might add in new material or spend a few minutes applying what you have learned in song.

You have to use your brain to a certain extent. You know what you want to learn. Use this knowledge to put together and effective practice strategy for yourself and enjoy the ride. Before you know, you will be playing at a new level and enjoying the guitar more than ever.

In closing, I thought you might get a laugh out of the following video.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

Best Wishes,

Bob

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