Too many techniques to practice: how to stay on top of it all

[Yepow]

Wow, I had to check that I wasn't the original poster here. Almost all of this rings true. I am a person who has made relatively rapid progress in the past on other endeavors by focusing on mechanics and drills and exercises. I also have burned out on other things

I've been at it 6 months next week. Done a lot of fragmented stuff, BUT I'm also settling in to letting some of the random drilling going and working some more on songs, and rhythm with a metronome.

I know there's no way I could learn 2 songs a week now, unless they were pretty trivial songs.

I do know that I've had an awful lot of fun learning how to play Blackbird over the last 6 weeks (from literally zero to can play it through, albeit of course with the sort of flubs you'd expect from a beginner, and it took a lot of time per day for the first 3-4 weeks) and now working on Dust in the Wind as well. The time melts away as I focus on these challenging-to-me songs.

There's not enough time to do it all, that's for sure. The good news is 6 months ago I had never held a guitar, and today I can play a few short flatpicked tunes and a couple of popular songs, and can strum some... I have hopes for the future.

[blue]

Personal opinion here. I think at some point, after you've done your drills for a while as a beginner, it's good to just step away from them.

I think drills and exercises are great to develop the skills to "play better", but every beginner hits a point where they should just play. Learn a bunch of songs. Take it as seriously as you did the drills. Use a metronome, no distractions. Learn a bunch of songs and practice playing them seriously.

As you do that pay attention to your technique. Make note of what holds you back in being smooth in your performance. Pick the number one thing, and make your warm up a drill that works on that.

There's a time to learn "How to Play the guitar" and a time to learn "to play the guitar" Take a few months to build up your repertoire, and your ability to play them. After 4 or so months, really critically analyze your playing tape yourself, with video if possible, and be harsh on yourself.

Then start the process over. Work on the drills to address your shortcomings and do your best to maintain your repertoire. Then Flip it. again, wash rinse repeat.

It's a nice way to keep things fresh, and work on what you really need to work on.

[Funkstarfish]

hey, we all learn at different rates, and some of us have very lofty goals... nothing wrong at all with that.

I would take what is being said seriously, even if you feel some of the tone was not so called for. Just PLAY!!!

As someone not quite as far along, but not far behind... I feel the last 2 weeks what has got me more passionate again is playing with people who are better than you, know it, and are willing to put ego aside and teach you something, or help encourage you on what you are doing. Last week i got together with a group i was intimidated by. We all shared what we were working on, and all played along after a while. We would all play the rhythm for a song, and take turns soloing over it, no judgement, who cares about mistakes, just let it fly. I was so nervous and sweaty as the circle came to me. I made some good and bad choices. I made some music!

i've never learned so much about "MUSIC" before in all the video lessons, technique drills, books, etc etc. and after that first solo attempt, i felt so much more comfortable around others, my playing was relaxed the rest of the night.

I eventually learned to make cleaner chord changes out of necessity to keep up or get lost in the group. I learned a couple new songs. I made my first ever attempt to solo amongst others on the fly (and mostly failed and loved it!) I drank good wine and made friends. I played some fantastic guitars. I learned a ton. too much to retain, but some of its fine by me.

I would recommend making an effort to try something like this.

[jeanray1113]

I think this is the big issue for all of us adults who don't earn our living as musicians. We have jobs, kids, relationships, and various other interests and commitments. And yet, we want to improve, and we realize were not kids anymore who have their whole lifetime to get good.

I start playing when I was 13 but there were many years that I made very little, if any progress. For a long time I was content to do simply strumming and picking accompaniments, so I got to a certain level and stayed there. And now I have seriously been working at fingerstyle for a few years, and I want to have a better understanding of how music works. (A few years ago an instructor asked me how I was on chord theory, and I was like, hmm, what's that.) I knew lots of chords and for a long time that was good enough.

Currently, I'm not working with an instructor. I try to balance time spent with theory, exercises, scales, etc. and learning new pieces. While it's true that there is a difference between practicing and playing, playing CAN be practice, if you're working on stuff that is challenging and you really focus on weaknesses.

As a newbie to guitar, I think you're going to burn out if you keep focusing so much on drills and exercises. You need to learn to play some songs, because this is tangible evidence that you're learning, it's kind of a reward. And in learning the songs, you will put into practice what you have learned. Good luck. Above all, enjoy your guitar and the music!

[rick-slo]

Lots of cement cast opinions flying around in this thread.

[FingYourStyle]

Originally Posted by funkapus

I'm (I think) an advanced beginner. I'm taking lessons. I've done a workshop or two. And from that, I have a ton of different things to work on:

• finger dexterity exercises;
• scales: diatonic major/minor, major and minor pentatonic;
• working on doing a better job of making, and cleaning changing into/out of, barre chords;
• improving my ability to change into/out of B7, Cadd9, four-fingered G, and other four-finger chords I'm weak with now;
• working on learning the locations of notes on the fretboard (I know where all the Es are!);
• flatpicked blues progressions;
• developing an unconscious facility with alternating-thumb bass for fingerstyle;
• learning some bass runs;
• playing some songs/tunes enough to learn to play them well (I tend to drop songs as soon as I've more-or-less figured them out, so I don't have much of a repertoire).

So, I've got lots to work on; and I've got two problems with doing so.

1. I've got more stuff to practice than I've got practice time. If I hit each of the things that I've got to work on for 5-10 minutes each, that's hours of practicing each night; and I desperately wish I had that kind of free time.

2. I feel like I desperately need to "retire" some of the things I'm working on -- I need to get good enough at them that I won't need to practice them anymore. Intermediate and advanced players don't practice pentatonic scales each night, do they? There's stuff I want to work on but I feel like I can't because I've already got too many things to work on given my practice time; but that sucks.

How do/did you deal with this?

Look's like You're doing things that You hate to do, really

Still, just leave:
1.[*] scales: diatonic major/minor, major and minor pentatonic; - Yes, but for warm up only AND for fun
2.[*] developing an unconscious facility with alternating-thumb bass for fingerstyle; - Yes, it has to be done to play FS, but do it along #3
3.[*] playing some songs/tunes enough to learn to play them well - Yes, but not just play them well, but enjoy them well!

All the other many[*]'s will catch themselves up.

Originally Posted by funkapus

I'm (I think) an advanced beginner.

I wouldn't be amazed if Jimi thought of himself the same way. But if the Goal is to kiss the sky...

So, believe me, You're already great guitarist, just ENJOY this wonderful life!

Ah, almost forget to point the main part:
00. Fire Your "teacher"
0. For the money saved buy roses for Your sweetheart

It's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock'n'roll
Yeah, It's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock'n'roooooouuuuuull......

[Earwitness]

I really benefitted from finding and reading this old thread, so I thought I would post a reply for others' benefit.

I, like the OP in this thread, am investing quite a lot of time into getting better at playing the guitar, but not translating that into many songs. My progress in the technical things is in itself very satisfying and I actually like playing scales and practicing new things. Still, there isn't a lot yet to show for it in terms of songs to play for others (except for my own personal chord progressions and songs). It's almost like I want to wait until I get better, and then learn songs that will be better than I can play now.

The many helpful opinions in this thread were useful to me in steering my thinking toward playing music rather than playing guitar.

[RodB]

Just seen it was an old thread! - deleted as it addressed the original OP....

[softballbryan]

Originally Posted by blue

Personal opinion here. I think at some point, after you've done your drills for a while as a beginner, it's good to just step away from them.

I think drills and exercises are great to develop the skills to "play better", but every beginner hits a point where they should just play. Learn a bunch of songs. Take it as seriously as you did the drills. Use a metronome, no distractions. Learn a bunch of songs and practice playing them seriously.

As you do that pay attention to your technique. Make note of what holds you back in being smooth in your performance. Pick the number one thing, and make your warm up a drill that works on that.

There's a time to learn "How to Play the guitar" and a time to learn "to play the guitar" Take a few months to build up your repertoire, and your ability to play them. After 4 or so months, really critically analyze your playing tape yourself, with video if possible, and be harsh on yourself.

Then start the process over. Work on the drills to address your shortcomings and do your best to maintain your repertoire. Then Flip it. again, wash rinse repeat.

It's a nice way to keep things fresh, and work on what you really need to work on.

Blue... This is how my wife and I are taught. A little of both with focused practice on songs when we are learning one. The teacher guides and challenges us each week to make the song more musical. Many times it means working on technique. We enjoy this approach greatly. Well let me rephrase that... We love the results...

Bryan

[Blueser100]

To the OP: my suggestion would be to find others to play with. Search for a local jam group and/or sign up for a jam class or workshop with Pete Wernick. Doing so will advance your skills exponentially and will invigorate your playing. And it's just fun. Playing guitar is about more than books, teachers, scales, runs, etc. you likely have developed enough of these skills to play with others.

I was in a similar situation as you a while back. I went to jams and kept up ok but secretly wanted to lead a song, sing, take a break, etc but stayed in safe zone and got bored. I am now in a Pete Wernick jam class and within the first hour I lead and sang a song I didn't really know well, faked a break and made it sound like I knew what I was doing, and I did this over and over and built confidence and had fun. I am learning melodies and practicing better breaks for next week. All my books and exercises have been set aside for now. Go out and play and have fun.

[kirkham13]

Listen to a lot of music. A lot of learning does not involve having a guitar in your hands. A guitar is primarily a rhythm instrument, so like a drummer, you need to be feeling the music! And have fun. collecting guitars amps and pedals is great fun btw...

[kirkham13]

This just occurred to me but I actually think a GAS phase is natural for a budding musician full of ideas who is searching for their sound.... perfectly normal and healthy. Hopefully it's done alongside a lot of playing and listening to music...

[bbrown]

[QUOTE=funkapus;3019124]I'm (I think) an advanced beginner. I'm taking lessons. I've done a workshop or two. And from that, I have a ton of different things to work on:[list]

You can reduce your list to two things;

1. Work slowly through Carcassi's book - it's not only fun but you'll learn everything you need to know by playing beautiful melodies.

2. Practice playing songs. If you have very little time, then practice maybe two or three at a time, for variety. If you have more time, practice more songs.

You will make leaps and bounds, interspersed with periods of stagnation, but you WILL improve, and sometimes the leaps will be suprising.

[u38cg]

Originally Posted by Bruze

I bet the percentage of those kids that turned out to be successful musicians is very small.

Actually, you'd be surprised. Most people who become full time professional musicians, who learned to play as children, only had a fire lit under them after several years of playing. Something happens - a recital goes well, they learn a piece that really speaks to them, whatever - and a light goes off and that's them. Had their parents not spent several years quietly pushing them along they would never have got to that stage.