A question I get asked often is ‘How do I practice?’. Sure, it comes easy to some but for everyone else, here’s a few tips to help get you started.
- Make it accessible. If you’ve got a guitar stand, keep your guitar out of the case and on the stand. If it’s in the room of your house you frequent most you’re more likely to pick it up and play it even if it’s only for a few minutes.
- Keep your practice sessions short and consistent. There’s nothing I love more than spending an afternoon working on a new song or concept on the guitar but that doesn’t always suit everyone, especially not beginners. The idea of spending hours practicing may seem like a drag when you’re starting out. Aim to spend about 10 minutes every day practicing your instrument and the task won’t seem so overwhelming and you’ll make more progress in those early stages rather than trying to cram all your practice in the day before your lesson.
- Slow it down. It can be difficult to try and play a song or passage you're learning for the first time at the correct tempo. This can sometimes be disheartening if you're struggling to change from chord to chord. Generally, it’s a good idea to learn the song at a slower tempo than it’s actually played and when you’ve got that down gradually bring it up to speed.
- Have more than one thing to play. We’ve all felt the frustration of just trying to get that one chord, strumming pattern or song right but it just feels like it’s not working. When that happens, it’s a good idea to have something else you can go to and play for a couple of minutes just to take your mind off of it for a bit. When I’m struggling with something new myself I’ll always take some time to go back and play something much easier that I really know how to play almost just for the fun of it and for me that keeps things enjoyable.
- Memorise. It’s important to be able to memorise all of your chords. It makes learning new songs so much easier when you don’t have to look up any chords. This also applies to songs. Unless you’re playing jazz or with an orchestra, almost every song you learn will be from memory.
- Practice the stuff you’re struggling with. Sometimes we can get into a rut where we only want to practice the things we’re good at. As a result, we end up ignoring the stuff that we really need to work on. Whether that be a new chord, a technique or part of a solo, you’ve got to work on it to improve overall as a guitarist. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
- Visualise. When you’re away from your guitar you can still practice. This is one of my favourite practice techniques. I visualise the guitar neck and try to visualise where it is I need to put my fingers to play whatever it is I’m working on at the time. You can do it for chords, scales, solos… anything really. The best part is you don’t even need to have your guitar with you to do this. You can do it anywhere!
- Awareness. Try to be aware of your mistakes. Ask yourself ‘Does this sound right?’ If the answer is anything other than ‘yes’ then you’ve got to observe what it is you’re currently doing and work out how to fix it. For example, If you’ve got a chord that’s buzzing or there’s a few muted strings in there, you can try repositioning your fingers, make sure you’re using the tips of your fingers or try squeezing a little harder. If something isn’t working for me I’ll always ask myself ‘What if I do this…’ and try adjusting things to get a better result.
These are just some of the ideas and habits I’ve become used to using over the years and they’ve certainly been effective for myself. I hope all of them are useful for you too. Happy practicing!
