The 21 day method

[Finsta]

I've decided to try the 21 day method, but I'm incertain about how it works exactly. I know that for 21 days, you play or practice a technique painstakingly slow with a metronome. Is there anything else aside from that or is that just about it?

[ColoradoBulldog]

That's the jist of it.

Make sure there's zero tension, you're totally focused, every note is flawless, and that's about all you have to do. You're concentrating on perfect practice, which will yield perfect speed when done properly.

As long as what you choose to practice is absolutely perfect in every way, you'll have amazing results.

Good luck!

[Ehvam]

This sounds very inetersting, can someone expand a bit? Do you do your whole session that way, do you only do it with one technique and do the rest normally? Why 21 days?

[Padawan]

hm...but if you practise alternate picking only for example, the sweep picking and legato technique will get worse I guess...not sure about this method

[Finsta]

Well, from what I hear - It works well to build the technique, but review is required to maintain the techniques of like sweep picking?

[Ehvam]

Maybe your supposed to do everything really slow and accurately?

[UKRuss]

...the 21 day method to what?

:confused:

[DracWell]

shredding? lol

[UKRuss]

Master of all things?:p

[DracWell]

of the universe?! :D:D

(damn I've missed this forum)

[oRg]

lol, I imagine probably alternate picking. You'll want to make sure that you play with a metronome and in time as well, otherwise what's the point of picking fast if you have no rhythm. Might as well be tremolo picking...lol.

[DracWell]

I never understood that, tremolo picking? Do you pick with your tremolo arm? ;););)

[EricV]

Well, tremolo picking also often is referred to as "fly picking"... which I am sure will have some of you guys think of even wackier things :)
Eric

[Valgeir]

This 21 day method sounds interesting. Where'd the idea come from, and can anybody expound on it (how slow exactly should I be going? Half speed? Slower?)?

[Skyport]

What you're aiming for is accuracy and endurance over speed. For 21 days you play a passage at a speed where you don't make any mistakes, and play it many times over. This cements the passage in your brain. You're then ready to start upping the tempo.

I used this method for for a few solos, the thing is I don't really have the patience to do it too often. But it helped me a lot.

[ColoradoBulldog]

This sounds very inetersting, can someone expand a bit? Do you do your whole session that way, do you only do it with one technique and do the rest normally? Why 21 days?

Psychologically speaking, 21 days is the (usual) time period for the establishment of a new habit. Diets, exercise routines, nearly every lifestyle change generally takes 21 days to replace the old style as "the" habit.

In terms of our muscles, they have a fascinating ability to take something that's being repeated over and over, and memorizing it (aptly named "muscle memory"), so it's easier to do. What do you do when you work with weights? You're training your muscles to learn the motion of flexing and releasing, thus making it easier to do, and building muscle as you do it.

Applied to guitar, 21 days of habitual perfect practice should leave us with perfect speed. You've trained your muscles to accept perfection as the new norm, so it becomes almost difficult to play anything less than flawlessly (with the chosen exercise, not just in general. However, this newfound perfection will overlap into your other exercises, and eventually, your overall technique).

Likewise, practicing anything with less than perfect practice will result in speed, but a sloppy, forced, uncoordinated speed. You get out what you put in; perfect practice = perfect speed.

Don't think it's just for shredders though, any song, lick, exercise, passage, whatever, it all works for everything and for every style. Of course things like music theory knowledge, improvisation, composing, these things won't be effected tremendously from the 21 day method, but for anyone looking to improve their technique -- no matter how small the improvement necessary -- can use the 21 day method to great results.

I first read about it a while back on various websites, and eventually found a book recommendation that expands on the principle of the 21 day method (the book doesn't use any timeframe, however). Jazz pianist Kenny Werner's book "Effortless Mastery: Unlocking The Master Musician Within" is where the backbone of the 21 day method is defined.

Werner stresses effortless practice to yield effortless playing. This is the basic philosophy behind the 21 day method, and practicing in this manner has improved my playing beyond what I thought it would or could.

Try it sometime. When done correctly, the results are incredible.

This 21 day method sounds interesting. Where'd the idea come from, and can anybody expound on it (how slow exactly should I be going? Half speed? Slower?)?

However slow you need to play the desired passage perfectly, and effortlessly. Any hint of tension or discomfort means the tempo is too fast. For some players, this is 16th notes at 40bpm, for others it's 16th notes at 140bpm. Go as slow as is necessary to play the passage without any hint of a problem; this speed will be different for every guitarist.

What you're aiming for is accuracy and endurance over speed. For 21 days you play a passage at a speed where you don't make any mistakes, and play it many times over. This cements the passage in your brain. You're then ready to start upping the tempo.

Personally, I don't recommend upping the tempo at all. 21 days of practice at a constant, effortless speed is what's given me the best, and fastest results. It's all up to the player of course, and upping the tempo does work well, but in my experience, keeping a constant speed has worked better.

-----

I hope that's cleared some things up on this method; good luck to anyone who's interested!

[Skyport]

Personally, I don't recommend upping the tempo at all. 21 days of practice at a constant, effortless speed is what's given me the best, and fastest results. It's all up to the player of course, and upping the tempo does work well, but in my experience, keeping a constant speed has worked better.

Yes, I agree, I was saying that one might want to up the tempo a bit AFTER the 21 days of practice at a constant, comfortable tempo has been completed.

[ColoradoBulldog]

Ahh, I misunderstood then.

Sorry :)

[Finsta]

I am going to try the 21 day method with some alternate picking stuff, I presume I could examples from the Art of Picking? Since my main issue is picking speed 'cause I'm trying to learn Erotomania as some of you know.

[forgottenking2]

The only refference to this (that I know of) is a workout routine where you do only ONE excercise per muscle, it works in 5 sets and you divide each set into 3 subsets of 7 reps each one of them working different range of motions (it's a lot easier to show than to explain). The most common one is the "21" biceps curl you do 3 sets of 7 without stopping inbetween (as explained above) the first 7 you lift the bar up until your elbows are bent at about 60 degrees, the next 7 you lift the bar all the way but release it only until your elbows are bent at about 90 degrees and the last 7 you simply work out a normal curl set. I did this a while back (when I was working out hardcore) and it did wonders for my definition... anyways lol this has nothing to do with guitar but since most of you work out. I figure I'd let you guys know.

-Jorge

[smallbusrider]

ok,21 days...but how long each day?????

[Finsta]

ok,21 days...but how long each day?????
The actual time doesn't matter, most people do 1 hour a day. What matters is how you do it, you gotta take it slow and perfect.

[UKRuss]

The only refference to this (that I know of) is a workout routine where you do only ONE excercise per muscle, it works in 5 sets and you divide each set into 3 subsets of 7 reps each one of them working different range of motions (it's a lot easier to show than to explain). The most common one is the "21" biceps curl you do 3 sets of 7 without stopping inbetween (as explained above) the first 7 you lift the bar up until your elbows are bent at about 60 degrees, the next 7 you lift the bar all the way but release it only until your elbows are bent at about 90 degrees and the last 7 you simply work out a normal curl set. I did this a while back (when I was working out hardcore) and it did wonders for my definition... anyways lol this has nothing to do with guitar but since most of you work out. I figure I'd let you guys know.

-Jorge

I apply a similar technique to my beer can lifting. I have found I can really get good economy of motion and empty many more beers per hour than previously.

However I found it had the opposite effect on my definition...Can you explain the anomoly?

:confused: ;)

[Valgeir]

Pretty cool. I can definitely see how this would work (used to lift weights myself, so I "get" the analogy), but should I expect practicing something at say, 130 or 140 to help my picking at 190 or 200 that much?

[ColoradoBulldog]

^I suppose that'd depend on how long you practice, how strict you are with yourself, etc etc. The results won't be the same for everyone, but there will be noticeable results for anyone.

[ashc]

One thought... playing something very slow, much much slower than your top speed, requires great concentration (at least for me) to stop your mind wandering and so you are more or less forced, by definition to concentrate on all the little details and things you are not doing quite perfectly.

So although it might seem deeply tedious there is a lot of benefit to be had.

[debaser]

LoL @ Russ.

One question/observation about this method- I'm not sure how most people approach their practice time, but when I start my daily regimen, I generally begin with 16th notes at a very easy tempo - for me that's 92 bpm. I spend about 15-20 minutes there, until things are feeling loose, and then move the speed up in increments until I'm ready to move from 16th notes to sextuplets and so on. To me, that seems to be the same principle(albeit over a longer period of time), but I don't sense that my technique at very high speeds is significantly improved from slow practice alone- it certainly helps, but I never know if I'm overcoming tension until I've attempted a pattern at my target speed - sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Does anyone else have a similar experience?

[mattyvegas43]

So how much has your technique improved from following this method? Also, does it work for any technique?