Subject: More Important Than Practice
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, When it comes to learning to play your guitar, is there anything more important than consistent, daily practice? While there might be some argument from the musical establishment, I'm going to say "Yes, there is something more important than practice!" We'll talk about that in today's message.Before I get to that, I wanted to first give a shout out to Rick, who pointed out that the Def Leppard lyric I quoted last week (It's better to burn out, than fade away...) was originally a lyric in the song "Hey, Hey, My, My" by Neil Young. Rock hands to you, Rick! m/ m/ Practice, Practice... Any good instructor will establish very early on in a student's musical career the need for daily, consistent practice. There are many things to both learn and master on the journey to becoming a decent musician, and the only way to truly master your instrument, you must practice. If you're serious about guitar, you listen to your instructor and establish a daily routine of practicing at least thirty minutes, more if you can. You learn the scales, work on memorizing chord shapes and names, and develop a good sense of rhythm and timing. Patterns start becoming second nature and you feel like you're gaining better control over your playing. Some areas are exciting and really capture your imagination, while others are fairly mundane and seem more like a chore than actual playing. But you push through those exercises and remain diligent. This is how it goes for anyone that reaches that critical point in the beginning stage of guitar and manages to accept that they aren't going to be Kirk Hammett or Jimi Hendrix within 6 weeks of picking up a guitar for the first time. I confess I've been beating the practice drum pretty hard, too. With the Daily 5 Guitar Habit and regular articles about the virtues of practice, I think I've made the point pretty clear that diligent practice is one of the keys to your success. But guess what? It ain't just about practice! Why do you play guitar? Because you want to have fun! You didn't decide to pick up guitar to add another chore-like routine to your life. No one ever got excited about the prep-work aspect of making music. We enjoy the end result and the performance. How do you start having fun with music? The first step is clearly to begin learning how to play songs. Start with very simple songs and melodies - things like "Happy Birthday" or "Ode to Joy." Even though these fairly easy melodies may not be your idea of cool music, they serve a very important role in your music education. By playing these types of songs, you're actually applying some important skills you've picked up during all that lovely practice. Things like timing, rhythm, fingerboard knowledge, aural training (training your ears to recognize pitch and intervals), memorization skills, reading skills, hand coordination and the list goes on. All this from simple songs. As you add chords to your bag of tricks and begin learning how chord progressions are written, you can start playing along with song arrangements that include both melody and harmony. Slap a CD or load an MP3 in the player and listen to how your favorite song is played. Then figure out what chords work with the arrangement and start deciphering the strum patterns being used. Backing tracks are also a nice option we have available to us. Depending on where you are in your skill development, you can use backing tracks for learning scales, how to solo or just working on your chord changes. I would say once you have the basics down for major and minor chords, you're ready to take the next step in your guitar playing. To really get to the next level of playing ability, you need to add collaboration to your experience. Get together with another guitar player, or a drummer or bass player, and just jam. It might seem a little intimidating at first, but my experience has been that most musicians are happy to have someone to jam with. There's a real feeling of accomplishment when there's a groove and the music is flowing, regardless of whether it's just a random blues progression or an actual song. As a kid I didn't think twice about going over to my new friend's house to jam after school. We found a common interest and just decided to get together. After a couple session like that, we put together my first band. As an adult, it was a lot harder to accept the invitation to jam with a group of guys, but once I overcame my own self-imposed limitations, I rediscovered how much fun it can be to jut get together and play music. Of course, that just fueled my resolve to do more with music than I had been. What if you can't find anyone local to you that wants to get together? The Internet comes to the rescue! With video services like Skype and Google Hangouts, you can get together with anyone in the world. There are many collaboration sites popping up that allow you to post a profile and connect with people who like the same types of music. All it takes is a poke to see if someone wants to work together. The point is, music is meant to be enjoyable and fun. Practice can be fun, but you need to balance that with playing music you enjoy. You grow your ability through practice so you can then play your favorite music. Like anything else, put in some work so you can enjoy the payoff. Rock it out! Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
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