Beginners guide to practicing technique
It is common for beginners to make a lot of mistakes, when it comes to practicing technique on guitar. Before you say, “Tell me something I’m not aware of”, let me clarify that I’m not talking about the technical mistakes in your guitar playing.
Guitar being a physically demanding instrument, there are several aspects guitar technique, that is required to get the sound right. This is what troubles most beginner guitar players, and makes them quit after trying for a while.
What you need to understand is that there are some proven methods you can use to improve your guitar technique, while avoiding the common mistakes that stop beginners from progressing faster.
I’m going to list down 5 easy to implement, but highly important technique practice guidelines for you here.
If you are making any of the mistakes listed below, then try to incorporate the changes I suggest here and see your guitar technique improving much faster
1. Stop Practicing Technique For Longer Durations
This is the first and most basic mistake that every guitar player is guilty of making. I myself have been prey to this one many times as a beginner. It’s only after you advance you realize how big a mistake this really was. You need to realize that as a beginner, your fingers are like a baby who has just started to walk. At most, a baby at this stage can handle short small walks, but what would happen if the baby is made to run a marathon?
Did you get my point. You need to reduce the time you spend on doing specific technique exercises. There are some technique exercises that can be done for longer durations, but most of the technique drills are best done in short intervals. A good guitar teacher can help you easily differentiate between the different types of exercises.
2. Start Practicing Technique More Frequently
Instead of scheduling technique practice for an hour straight on one day of the week. Split that into 10 min sessions every day. You can even distribute the time you spend on technique practice several times a day. E.g. Five 2 min sessions everyday at different times. Remember that technique is the foundation of larger things you are going to accomplish on guitar, so reminding yourself of the basis more frequently is what will help build your guitar technique to higher levels quickly
3. Use Your Technique Practice As Warm Up Sessions
Just like how a professional sportsman performs extremely basic drills before an actual practice session, as a guitar player you also need to get into the right physical and mental frame of mind before your actual practice. There are several reasons why you would want to work on technique exercises during the warm-up sessions, but the most important reason is that you are the freshest when are just about to begin your practice. Technique exercises should be done with complete focus and precision, and doing them slow at the start of a practice session is the best way to ensure that you don’t lose focus too soon. This also helps if you do not have a lot of time to practice guitar.
4. Focus & Precision
I want to reiterate the point mentioned earlier about focus and precision. Keeping the duration short, and slowing down the speed and momentum, helps you focus more on getting the form right. It’s crucial for you to get the form right when you practice technique, so do not compromise it for speed or stamina.
5. Log Your Technique Practice
Ignoring to frequently log and track your technique practice is a huge mistake, and would cost you a lot of time and effort in improving it. Tracking your technique exercises for speed, stamina, precision, sound is crucial for rapid progress. All you need is a metronome, a timer and an optional recording device for getting this done.
So next time you sit for technique practice, check for how long you can play the exercise cleanly without burning out, check how fast you can perform the exercise using a metronome, try and record the exercise and check how clearly you are doing it.
Over a period of time, you’ll see measurable progress in terms of speed, stamina and precision and that’s when you know that you are ready to take on more challenging exercises.
So there you have it. 5 simple and easy to apply steps that’s guaranteed to make you progress faster on guitar. Apply these, and you’ll realize that improving your guitar technique becomes way easier than you thought it would be.
You’ll also find that a really good guitar teacher would always help you accomplish great technical improvements through various other methods at a beginner level.
So if you find it difficult to implement any of the above steps, then find the right guitar teacher who can help you easily achieve these and many more correct technique practice habits.
About The Author:
Dhanesh Sarangadharan is a certified guitar teacher in Pune, Maharashtra India, who helps solving guitar learning problems quickly and helps students progress faster towards their guitar playing ambitions.