Hey Friend,

Thanks for all the well-wishes on my little jam session last Thursday. 

It was a lot of fun, and just getting out there and "exercising the muscle" was a bit like therapy.

We didn’t have much time, given it was a lunch hour, but we’ll see where it goes.

I’ll bet you’re a lot like me - you have an established routine that doesn’t change very much on a day-to-day basis.

Routines are good for a lot of reasons, but you don’t want to get so stuck in them that you pass on opportunities. That’s where I think most people get hung up (looking in the mirror).

For example, having the discipline to plan out your schedule for the day is a great routine to establish, but if the routine is to simply copy the day before without reviewing short and long-term goals, you’ve only established a rut.

We don’t need to create more ruts for ourselves - other people and organizations will do that for us, “No, thank you" very much.

We need to think about what we want out of our lives and days, and then work in time blocks to pursue those desires.

Unfortunately, time never stops and life happens. It’s way too easy to get distracted and derailed these days.

To lift out of the daily ruts and make progress, you must make your goals a priority in your life.

Is guitar a priority? Then setting aside time for practice will be easy. 

Scheduling an hour a day might be impossible, but if you can grab 15 minutes here and there, you can actually get a lot done.

The key to small time blocks is knowing what you want to practice beforehand, and then targeting those areas when you sit down with your guitar.

Working with an instructor can help you identify the best use of your practice time, but you can also do it on your own if you prefer that.

Here’s how...

Say you want to practice a technique. Maybe it’s hammer-ons or pull-offs, for example.

Play a few of them and see if you can identify where your execution could be better. 

Is your anchor finger solid on the fingerboard? 

Does the hammer finger hit the string solidly, or do you need to adjust how and where it connects with the fingerboard? 

Does the note ring out clearly, or do you get muted or buzzing notes?

Decide on one specific action that needs attention and focus exclusively on that for five minutes.

Don’t just play it once or twice and then start noodling around. Play it over and over for the entire five minutes, paying close attention to playing it as accurately as possible each time.

You’re establishing the muscle memory in your hand, so it needs to be played as well as possible.

And don’t worry if it doesn’t sound good at first. As your muscles become stronger and more familiar with the shapes and motions, the tone will improve.

This might sound a little too simplistic, but this is how professionals became pros. When they practice something, they're focused on specific areas that need developed.

Now if you’re thinking it’s going to take you forever to get any good, think again. There’s a phenomenon called exponential learning that comes into effect when you practice effectively. 

We’ll talk more about that next time.

Peace~

Dave

P.S. To establish new habits and break out of ruts, tools can accelerate your progress.

Song Surgeon is such a tool.

You can create targeted training exercises for yourself using Song Surgeon. Just isolate the riff or pattern you want to learn in a song and created a looped section to play repeatedly. Then set a timer and get to work. 

Slow it down… Speed it up… You decide what you need to work on.

It’s really easy to set up, and you build the practice session you need, rather than a canned exercise from a book.

Give Song Surgeon a try for free today.