Good practicers know that some things eat away practice time, and they avoid them. Here are three things nearly everyone wastes time on.

1. Stop Looking for Pencils, Your Metronome, and Everything Else

Taking notes is important. You can write fingerings and expression markings on your score or you can take some notes in your practice log. That’s why keeping a pencil in your practice area is essential.

Metronomes, pencils, tuners, water, and footstools are all tools of the trade. Keep them in your practice area, and stop wasting practice time looking for them.

2. Stop Playing Through Entire Pieces

Almost every guitar student in the world begins her practice session with this three step process:

1. Sit down, get the guitar out
2. Put the guitar way, looking for all the needed supplies (see point one)
3. Play through an entire piece to “see where it’s at”

The last step is incredibly unfortunate. Partly because the student is probably not warmed up.

The real reason to not play through an entire piece, however, is because you don’t need to. Whether or not you keep a practice log, chances are you probably have a good idea of what sections you really need to practice. A big part of being an efficient practicer is working to improve the weaknesses, not the strengths.

So stop wasting practice time playing through entire pieces and start zeroing in on the real issues.

3. Stop Making Mistakes

Practice is about playing something perfectly as many times as possible. Sometimes that means using certain practice techniques or even just slowing down a bit.

Don’t get caught up in the flow of the piece and keep going. Don’t try to work on multiple issues at once. Just focus on one or two things and do them perfectly as much as possible. It works like this: every time you play something your muscles and mind are building memory. You want to feed that memory the best possible material, which means finding ways to play correct repetitions as much as possible.

Sometimes mistakes do happen, but many times they aren’t mistakes at all: they are poor practice habits. Practice carefully and stop wasting practice time making mistakes.

What are some of the things that eat away at your practice time?

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Three Things to Stop Doing During Your Practice Time from Classical Guitar

Well, that’s probably not going to happen. Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes they’re actual flukes, and sometimes they are a direct result of bad practicing.

If you’re a beginner, you have it especially difficult. Your technique is not consistent enough to play perfectly every time, and you probably have a few bad habits.

Perfect Guitar Technique

There is no such thing as perfect guitar technique.

One of the dangers of the massive amount of information online, including the classical guitar blog, is that people are often caught up in analysis paralysis. That is, you might not want to practice something because you’re afraid that you’ll use the wrong technique or make a poor choice.

What you should know, however, is that there’s no such thing as perfect guitar technique. Your technique and musicianship is constantly being shaped, changing with every piece, and moving towards a better, more efficient usage of your hands and brain.

Beginner Guitarists Make Mistakes

The truth of the matter is that beginner guitarists will make mistakes. They’ll develop bad habits that their guitar teacher, if they have one, will correct.

Over time, those mistakes, awkward movement patterns, and weird sense of phrasing will be shaped into a solid, but probably not perfect, technique. It’s a journey.

Move Forward, Not Sideways

If there’s one thing to learn from college music programs, it’s that undergraduate and graduate guitarists burn through repertoire like there’s no tomorrow. They grab pieces work on them for a while, then move on. Recital after recital has to be all new music, so a new program gets learned every year.

Contrast this with the average self-taught beginner: they probably have a few new things and a lot of old warhorses that they’ve been working on for months if not years.

Pieces that you learn early on will always have that bad technique built in. It’s muscle memory. Unless you give those pieces a rest and let your hands “forget” them, you’ll probably be using those bad habits forever. You’re not moving forward as a guitarist and a musician, you’re moving sideways. Not really getting better at the old pieces, but sort of getting more familiar with them.

Two Tips for Better Guitar Playing

First, work with a good guitar teacher in your area, or consider taking webcam guitar lessons. Beginners should work with a teacher in person. I don’t take absolute beginner guitarists, but I’m happy to help them find a teacher.

Second, don’t be afraid to move on before a piece is perfect. Move forward, not sideways. Sometimes a break from a piece for a few months (or years) is what it needs. That said, know when to stick with it. Sometimes what a piece really needs to become perfect is better practicing. How do you tell the difference? Ask your teacher. Experiment. Take notes. Be analytical about it, and see what happens. That’s the best way to learn.

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When Comparison Becomes Unhealthy

Everyone compares themselves to others. It’s what drives that sense of competition. The danger is when you start competing with others solely to compete. “I want to play Asturias,” says a student. Why? Is it because others are playing it? Or is it because the piece is a “standard”?

The danger of this sort of thinking and goal is threefold. First, that imaginary student only want’s play the piece because others are doing it or because of some preconceived notion of what classical guitarists should play. Second, the goal of playing that piece (or playing scales at 120BPM or a given arpeggio at the same tempo, the list could go on) could be unrealistic and unachievable. Finally, the student…

Let Others Set Their Goals

By buying into what others are doing, we run the risk of letting them define what our goals are. This is dangerous, and it’s herd behavior.

The bottom line is that musicians are only in competition with one person: themselves. The goal is to continue improving. That means setting goals that are realistic (but push you), and doing things that will be beneficial for your own playing. Don’t let others define what you do. And never fall into the trap of having to play some piece or achieving some arbitrary beats per minute number on the metronome.

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Don’t Let Others Set Your Goals from Classical Guitar

But there’s also self-herding. We, as people, tend to do the things exactly how we’ve done them before. In a given situation, our brain searches the catalog of past experiences and comes up with similar situations, after which decisions emerge that resemble those made previously.

Ever notice that you always fall into a certain roll when with a given set of people? That’s self herding. Your new interactions are shaped by the previous ones.

It’s Not All Bad

Self-herding is probably not all bad. There are times when you need to make quick decisions in life, and self-herding gives the tools necessary to do that. In fact, most of us don’t weigh options. Instead we satisfice. We take the first option that seems to work. Often our previous experiences can lead us to good options on the first try.

But Don’t Fall Into the Complacency Trap

Practicing is not a time where we have to make quick decisions. It’s a time for deliberate reflection and evaluation. It’s a time for problem solving.

That’s why it’s important not to fall into a self-herding trap while practicing.

I suspect many people out there practice the same every day. They sit down and play some pieces straight through because that’s all they’ve ever done. They practice a given, hard passage a few times then move on to something else because they’ve done that for the past month. There’s never critical thinking or evaluation about whether or not that method has worked.

Don’t fall into the self-herding trap. Always seek to improve your practice, and never become complacent in a routine because it’s what you’ve been doing.

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Is Self-Herding Making You a Poor Practicer? from Classical Guitar

It’s time to break that chord change down, and really address the issues. Here’s how.

1. Look ahead of your hands. This is the most underrated tool for guitar playing. Don’t follow your hands with your eyes, look at your target fret. See your hand there, in the new chord shape, and you’ll be better prepared to nail the shift.
2. Check to see whether and angle or straight position is easier. Sometimes your left hand doesn’t need to be straight on. In fact, sometimes it’s easier to use and angled position. If it is, use it! Try to find the perfect wrist position that makes the chord as easy as possible.
3. Sequence the left hand fingers. Chances are not every left hand finger has to get to the chord at once. See where you can cheat, and add fingers later. It’s much easier to get 2 fingers into place then add one or two more than to place all four at once.
4. Use Stop/Go Practice. Play one chord. Stop, prepare the next chord, and play it only when everything is prepped and ready to go. Drill the chord change/shift only, don’t go on. The trick is, of course, to incorporate the three above aspects into your stop/go practice. Look at where your hand is going before you move/prepare. If the chord change requires a wrist rotation, do that en route to the new position. Places the fingers that have to be there first, then add the others as you go on after beginning to play again.

This advice is good for guitarists of all genres. Bottom line: break things down and practice every hard shift/chord change individually. Resist the urge to keep going with the song!

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How to Nail a Hard Chord Change from Classical Guitar

When a person desires to loose weight, it’s good advice not to get caught up in the day to day fluctuations in body weight. Instead, look at longer term (weekly or monthly) trends. It’s also said that a good way to gauge your progress is by what your barber or hair stylist says: they only see you every month or two.

This is a lot like practicing and improvement. It’s counter productive to get caught up in the day to day fluctuation of your playing abilities. Some days are worse that others. These things happen. What’s more important is that you’re fostering a longer term trend towards improvement.

Off Days

Common advice is to gradually increase the tempo using a metronome. This could takes weeks or months. So many people sit down with a metronome and start playing technique, gradually bumping up the tempo. Then the next day they do it again.**

But how many times is there an off day where nothing seems to be working? A day when you’re tense and uncoordinated? Probably happens fairly often — as you get better off days happen less frequently, however.

What’s interesting about these off days is how much they affect us. Human beings demonstrate a profound loss aversion. In fact, the loss of something we believe we owned (such as coordination or a certain tempo) psychologically affects us more than a similar amount of gain.

When an off day happens, we tend to reevaluate everything and change strategies based on that one occurance. I’m all for dropping things if they aren’t working, but you have to stick with something for a while to see if it works. Look for long term trends of improvement rather than day to day fluctuations.

So don’t drop things too soon. And don’t get caught up in those off days–remember that much of your distress is probably due to loss aversion and some illogical thinking. Try to observe and evaluate based on bigger trends in your playing.

**This is not a very effective way to use a metronome

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Weight Loss Advice for Practicing from Classical Guitar

1. A Pencil (or three) because it’s the most important tool you’ll use. Don’t be afraid to take notes on your music or writing extra dynamics or put in phrasing slurs. And never write in pen because, lets face it, you’ll probably change your mind.
2. A notebook because you keep a practice log. Use the notebook to track things that are better left off the sheet music. This includes ideas about practicing and interpretation that aren’t easily conveyed in expression markings.
3. A metronome is handy to have around as well. Using a metronome doesn’t have to mean working up a tempo one or two notches at a time. Instead try playing at a slow tempo followed by a tempo about 10% below concert tempo and finally concert tempo. There’s a lot of ways to use a metronome, but don’t become reliant on it in every aspect of practicing.
4. A Tuner can be used if you’re not comfortable tuning to your metronome’s A440.
5. Your music. I only add this one because our memories are faulty. Many of you probably have pieces memorized –pieces that you play every day. That’s great! It’s good to have concert-ready pieces like that. But don’t forget the score all together. Keep looking at the sheet music, and refresh your memory about all the little details.

Do you have a practice space at home? What do you keep nearby? Maybe we all need drink holders on our stands?

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The Five Most Important Things to Keep on Your Music Stand from Classical Guitar

Real discipline is knowing when to stop. It’s knowing when working on a bigger chunk of music is not helpful–real discipline is having the mental fortitude and focus to break a hard passage down into even smaller sections. Real discipline is only working on one of those sections until it’s perfect, resisting the urge go on and keep up the rhythmic flow. It’s listening to your body and knowing when your hands and head need a break.

Real discipline is also knowing what level of repertoire is appropriate for you and, for the most part, sticking to it. Sure, play some challenging pieces, but try to balance those with pieces well within your skill level.

Real discipline is hard.

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Real Discipline from Classical Guitar

What we do when practicing and performing is intense. It’s easy to get burnt out. So here’s three things you can do on your days off to keep them musical.

1. Listen

Part of being a good musician is listening. We have to be aware of all genres and periods of art music, so it makes sense that we should listen to as much as we can.

But let me make a more specific suggestion: don’t listen to guitar music.

Check out some opera or art song. Listen to a symphony or a string quartet. Maybe even tune into a sonata for trumpet and piano. Step outside the box. Listen critically and read the liner notes.

Want more music for listening, but don’t have the budget? Check out the local library.

2. Read

Read about a music subject that interests you. If you’re into music theory, read about it! Or cruise Wikipedia for some articles about guitar composers. I personally read a lot about business and, right now, choice. I find it relates very well to music. More importantly, it makes me think. And the thinking often leads to posts on here.

If you want an overview of music history, check out a book about Great Composers.

3. Play

Just because you’re taking a day off from practicing doesn’t mean you can’t play guitar.

You can just play on your day off. Read through new works, or play old favorites. Improvise or compose something of your own. Play for the pure enjoyment of playing guitar; forget all those little trouble spots and let loose.

Just don’t fall into practicing on accident!

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The Art of the Day Off from Classical Guitar

Satisfice for a While

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz spends a lot of time talking about maximizing and satisficing. Maximizing is finding the best choice or option. Satisficing is finding one thing that works and doing it.

We need to spend more time satisficing and less time looking for the ideal solution or the ideal technical routine or the perfect way to practice scales. Chose first option that meets your minimum requirements (ex. “I need a 30 minute technical routine), then practice. There are no bad choices in practicing. If something doesn’t work for you, you’ve gained valuable knowledge for later on (see below). If something does, then keep using it until it stops working.

Analogues

When things are analogous they relate in some respects, but may be different in others. This is different from a metaphor, which relates dissimilar things. Both analogues and metaphors can be used as problem solving strategies. In our case, analogues are more useful.

Everything we do is similar something else. Every practice event probably relates to something we’ve done before. There are only so many things we can do on the guitar, and once you have some experience with most of them you’ll have a huge knowledge base on which to draw.

Think critically about how you solved similar problems before tackling a new one. Look at your practice log if you have to. If you don’t have anything in your memory that relates, ask your teacher about it. Ask him/her to tell a story about how they would solve the problem.

Here’s an example:
I know that when I learn a complex arpeggio pattern–or something unfamiliar to my right hand–that I tend to accent the first beat after a left hand shift. My right hand gets a little too excited and the tension from the left hand carries to the right in the form of an accent. Not good. Because I know this, I (1) look out for it in situations where it might happen in hope of avoiding it and (2) notice it when it does happen so I can fix it. Because my previous experience has taught me this technical quirk, I can work to correct it before it becomes a habit in a piece.

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What Choice Research Can Tell You About Practicing from Classical Guitar