Hey Friend,
What patterns are holding you back and keeping you from accomplishing your guitar goals?
- Noodling?
- Not practicing?
- Not using a metronome?
- Youtube surfing?
- Lack of a schedule?
See, we have good patterns - those that help us move towards the goals we set - and bad patterns. These are the ones that serve as distractions to all that is good and holy in our guitar education and mastery.
Sometimes, to break out of a pattern, you have to disrupt it. This is especially important when it comes to bad patterns.
It’s not enough to merely want to change - you need to take a more drastic course of action to effect that change.
This is tough, I get it. And I’m not just saying that. I have the same challenges you do when it comes to practice and improving.
Maybe your change is partnering up with someone to be accountable with. Or you need to remove any distractions that trip you up, like your phone (Facebook and Twitter will be there when you're done, I promise), or the computer.
A simple disruption to the normal pattern might be to set a timer for your practice time.
The act of turning a timer on with the sole intention of practicing ONE thing could be just what you need.
Give it a try.
In this instance, I grant you permission (don’t you feel special?) to use the timer app on your phone or computer. You can even use a good, old fashioned egg timer if you’re old school.
Pick something you want to practice.
- A scale pattern, or
- a chord progression
- maybe the intro to a song, or
- a section of the verse that’s been hanging you up.
Gather your materials in front of you so you’re not wasting good practice time getting your stuff together. Anything you might need:
- tabs
- sheet music
- MP3 player
Set up the timer for five minutes and practice just that one thing you chose to focus on a minute ago. ONLY that something!
For example, don’t run through the scale pattern once and think you’re done.
Do it again...
And again… Again… Again… Again… Again…
[Oops, sorry, a skip in the record (vinyl, for you kids that never knew the pleasure of spinning a 33RPM vinyl album).]
Repeat until that timer goes off.
How’d you do? Were you able to stay on course for the five minutes without spiraling off into noodle land?
Yes?
See, that wasn’t hard to do. The hard part is doing it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next week…
In order to break the tyranny of a bad pattern, you have to replace it with a new pattern and repeat it every day until it becomes the new habit.
This usually takes upwards of three to four weeks to get your stubborn self to accept that the old habit is dead and the new one is your reality now.
Are you up for the challenge?
Peace~
Dave
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