Do Not Disturb
(17 May 03)
What to practice
Alrighty, young guns, lemme tell ya what it was like back in da old dayz…
Seriously, we live in a time where it's rather easy to get exercises and instructional methods for pretty much every technique you wanna work on. 10, 15, 20 years ago it wasn't quite that easy. There were some TAB books and methods, videos and mags. But surely not as many as today, and for sure there was no internet.
I mean, say, you wanna work on picking...
So you run down to the store to buy both the Petrucci- and the first Paul Gilbert-video. Then, you get the newest issue of GUITAR ONE and GUITAR WORLD with some workshops by guys like Satch, Petrucci and Dimebag Darrell. Next, you go online, download a few video-clips or songs by Petrucci, and while you're at it, you go to some websites and print out some instructional articles. Then you download some jamtracks to work with, and in the end, you have a huge pile of exercises you can use.
And here lies the problem for many of us: How do you pick the material you wanna work on? Or... do you actually work on methods, exercises and transcriptions thoroughly, or... do you do it the way many of my students used to do: I borrowed them some books and TABs, and they brought back that stuff the NEXT DAY, saying "OK, I am through with that"...
I was like "WHAT?!?!" And when I asked them to show me, I realized that they i.e. picked up the first book, played through each exercise slowly, got bored then (or wanted to check out the next one), and thereby went through like 40 lessons in one afternoon.
That is not THOROUGHLY working on stuff.
The best thing is: Get ONE video, ONE book, or maybe only ONE article (like i.e. "Art Of Picking, Pt.III"), lock yourself in your room and work on the whole thing, taking your time. That means, check out each exercise, start playing it slowly, get familiar with picking directions and fingerings. Then get your metronome and start working on speed, while maintaining accuracy.
What I am trying to say is that today, we have an overload of instructional material. It's tough to pick single exercises, and to work on them for a while (until you can really nail that exercise or etude). Instead, many of us tend to get bored too quickly, thinking "Man, I downloaded another 30 articles, let me check out those"... so you browse through dozens of articles and TABs, but you never really focus on anything.
Yes, I am generalizing here. I know many players who have the discipline to focus on one exercise and work on it, without losing their attention or getting bored too easily. They buy a book, and work through it slowly. Sometimes, that takes weeks, but they keep going and really learn the stuff thoroughly.
And that is something we should try too. Because it really makes no sense to rush through all that material. You wanna focus on certain licks and techniques and work on them.
Let's say a teacher asks you to memorize and recite a poem. Let's say it's a poem which was written like a 100 or 200 years ago. You know, when the poets used weird words which are not really that common anymore these days.
Now, unless you have a photographic memory, you'll need to take your time when learning that poem. Not only should you try to memorize each stanza, each line, you should also try to understand it. That's when you start to actually UNDERSTAND the poem (which is most likely the reason why your teacher told you to memorize it), and understanding it can make it easier to recite and memorize it, cuz you know the context.
If you rush through it, you might be able to memorize certain lines, certain words, or maybe one whole stanza, but you'll most likely not be able to recite the whole thing, you will not understand the poem itself, and most likely, your recitation will be rather monotone.
Guys with a photographic memory will be able to memorize the thing quicker, but… that does not mean they understand it! If they don't, their recitation will be pretty much like turning on a tape-recording of someone reciting it.
Anyway, take your time with stuff. Take my "Picking, Part III" article (the compendium). If you're not too familiar with picking, if you're still working on it, that article (or rather, the TABs in that article) can keep ya busy for weeks. Especially if you work with a metronome and care about accuracy.
Same goes, of course , for other articles, methods and transcriptions.
So instead of downloading, xeroxing and buying thousands of lessons, TABs and stuff, pick one or two and actually work your way through them. Work on smaller segments, work on single aspects of your playing. Make sure you're in time, make sure each note sounds good. Try to move the exercises around, to use them in different keys / areas of the neck.
|
