Why practice doesn’t guarantee you will get better
Okay! So you’ve got a guitar, great, check that off the list. You’ve got a pick and a method book, yes! Now, let’s practice! For a long time…. Oh…. this is harder than I thought… this doesn’t sound right… agh, I really need help with…
EVERY honest guitarist knows exactly what I am talking about. At least in one point in their life while they practiced, they began to realize something, that they needed help.
Let’s start with defining “practice”. Practice is the art of applying repetition to a specific activity, motion, and/or event in order to gain the ability to perform things correctly. Practice also comes from a place of discipline: meaning we commit to the action in order to achieve a result. So is it true that if we repeat the same things over and over, we should be eventually be able to do them? Right?
Well, if we were robots, all would be well. With robots, you can input a code, a program and “teach” it how to do things based on that code or program. However, humans are not robots in the sense where we can just plug something in and POOF, it happens. Humans have a much more, deeply seated reason for WANTING to do things in the first place. More on that in a moment.
Is all practice good practice? Is there a road-map for practice that will be good enough to help you or your child play guitar? Unfortunately, there is not much of a step-by-step, as seen on TV, scientifically, proven road-map.
There are method books, but these tend to be disconnected from real songs and specific genres, and with that comes high potential of losing motivation to continue, because real music makes most of us feel alive. In contrast however, if we simply learn real songs all day, how can we ever advance our actual music skills, guitar techniques, and get beyond playing four chords over and over?
The single largest concern I have from guitarists who began self-taught, and are now face to face in front of me, is this common question: “I’ve probably picked up a lot of bad habits, haven’t I?” . What they are really asking me is: “So, I’ve probably been practicing the wrong way for a long time, have memorized these mistakes, poor technique, and now am realizing I have to undergo the more difficult path of having to stop my old habits, and change these now, in order to get to where I wanted to go in the first place, right?”
Do you know what I’m talking about it? It hurts, I know, and trust me, I can relate exactly what you are going through.
I had around a solid year where after every performance I was having a tingling sensation in my left arm, along the inside of my forearm. I knew something was going on, but I figured rest would help, some ice, and that was all that was really need.
The problem was that over time, I could barely practice outside of performances, because I had to save all my arms exertion for playing live. I had to minimize how much I could create and write music on guitar, which was one of my most beloved things to do. This little problem a.k.a. “bad habit” was becoming bigger and meaner, and it made me quite frustrated, kind of like this guy…
I contacted a pro session guitarist I had met that past Summer, and asked him for help. Then and there, I committed to studying with him to make whatever change was necessary in order to stop and prevent Carpal Tunnel from potentially destroying my future and career.
If at the first sign of the problem I would have come to the conclusion I was doing something wrong in my guitar technique, and that help was needed, things would never have become so serious.
See, practice does not guarantee results at all, but good practice, with the right instruction, can definitely raise the odds and prevent future hang-ups that we acquire through unknown sources. As a guitarist, these are the 3 most common paths I see guitarists take:
PATH #1 – Practice w/o guidance “Do-It-Myself” Method
- This is an example where someone buys a guitar, has great motivation to learn and honest intention to get good, and starts their practice journey with a book, DVD or a random collection of YouTube videos. These mixtures of advice, knowledge, and self-education usually creates some bad habits that become memorized. The amount of results achieved is about what you can expect for years to come. They usually continue at a plateau.
PATH #2 – Practice w/ some guidance “Get A Couple Lessons” Method
- This is an example of someone who buys a guitar, and gets a couple guitar lessons, then usually finds themselves either uninterested after a while (due to results, etc) and quits, and/or resolves to go down the path of #1.
PATH #3 – Practice w/ consistent guidance “Get A Professional Coach” Method
- This is an example of someone, whether intending to be Jimi Hendrix or simply play a couple tunes around a campfire, has a CLEAR goal to play guitar the right way, maintain accountability, and allows a professional instructor to continually monitor their good habits AND correct their bad habits. Over time and with doing the suggested practice, study, and changes, usually always improves.
If you currently struggle to practice, and/or feel things don’t sound as good as they should, I understand how you feel. My encouragement to you, is to take some time to think about the above, make a decision, and act.
About the Author
Jonathan Olson is a Fingerstyle and Blues Rock guitarist from Everett, Washington. There he lives with his family and is the Lead Instructor for The Guitar Circle, a music school located in the heart of Downtown Everett. Visit www.TheGuitarCircle.org for more information.