Jamey Andreas 'The Principles of Correct Practice For Guitar' - Worth getting?

[Shaman_Santana]

Hey all. I've been playing for about a year now, and am mainly self taught. I've become more and more aware of certain flaws in my playing that have come from not having been taught properly, although i would consider myself to be a fair player for the amount of time i have been playing. This book claims to teach you how to 'practice correctly' and thus improove faster and more effeciently. I've applied some of the free examples on the site to my playing, i.e exercises to help you relax and how to do pull offs 'correctly' and i think they have helped my playing.

It'll probly cost me a fair bit of money to order the book cos id have to have it shipped over to where i live, so i just wondered if any of you guys have it and if so is it really worth the money?

Cheers :)

[Greg]

Hi (welcome to Ibreathe)!

Well, I've bought the book, and all I can say is that I'm glad I did! I was heading down the wrong road, being full of tension in my shoulders and hands (not really noticing it). Now I can play quite relaxed, and if I find a troublespot, I can practice correctly to decrease tension in my body to a minimum (thus being able to play faster and more accurate). The book basically teaches you to become aware of tension in you body, and HOW to PRACTICE. The thing is, there are millions of books showing you scales, arpeggios etc., but they pay almost no attention on how to practice. This book shows you HOW to practice all the things in the other books. It also teaches you to look for a good teacher, and how to find bad ones. You can save planty of cash there... To me it was worth the money.

My recommendation is: buy it, read it, work with it, find a good teacher and lend him/her the book before taking lessons. :)

[Grasshopper]

i have bought and read the book as well. in a nutshell, he teaches you to approach learning new techniques & solving problems in your playing by removing excess muscle tension. he makes several insights about practicing that are very enlightening and useful!

i think this book is very important because it teaches how to have stronger control over one's muscles and play with more ease - and thereby have better technique! i mean if you are feeling tense in your hand / wrist / shoulder all the time, playing guitar is a lot harder and you may never be able to pull off certain techniques like fast picking / sweeping properly.

it is important to note tho that he wrote it for classical guitar players, although many people including myself have been able to apply the concepts and exercises to electric.

[B A Stone]

I highly recommend the book. It's not filled with a bunch of cool licks, in fact there isn't any.

The book helps you learn how to be aware of unnecessary tension while you play. If you strictly follow the teachings, you will discover "the incredible lightness".

To become a great player requires great discipline. Jamey descibes a process toward this goal.

Like anything else, you get out what you put in.

[Darran]

Originally posted by Grasshopper
it is important to note tho that he wrote it for classical guitar players, although many people including myself have been able to apply the concepts and exercises to electric.

I always play standing up, and have suffered for quite sometime with tension problems in my shoulders and arms.

I stumbled across this book myself during the course of my own troubles, and was wondering if this book addresses players like myself, who stand up whilst practising.

Stupid question I know, but as mentioned earlier, the book proves quite expensive when shipping is taken into consideration.

[Grasshopper]

the book does not explicitly adress electric guitar players who play standing up. however, his concepts, approaches, insights, philosophy and some of his exercises/methods can be applied to any guitarist. this is because they are very fundamental and at the heart of any guitar style. eg. how to approach learning difficult techniques that give you muscle pain, learning to be relaxed and very aware of muscle movements when you play the guitar.. there are many testimonials from different guitar players saying that they could appy his teachings.

the important thing is that his teachings must be incorporated into your everday practice routine, and like learning techniques, it takes awhile to master them. but over time you will have better control of your hands and body and this will promote better technique and ease of playing.

i suggest checking out the essays and sample lessons he provides on his site first. if like me, you are convinced that the guy is on to something :) i think it would be a worthwhile purchase.