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Email List/Newsletters>
Guitar College Newsletter Spring ‘08
April 21, 2008
Revitalizing Your Playing
Winter is over and spring is here. Plants are blooming and
the weather is getting nice. Spring is a time when things
become revitalized. Spring is also a time that reminds me
to add some new life to my music. Every once in a while
our playing is something that needs to be checked to see if
it needs a little boost. For this article I want to
discuss giving a little revitalization to your playing.
In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to play
with some of the better musicians in my geographic area.
It is always a treat to play with people who are better
than I am because I always learn new things and it helps
me see some areas where I can improve. While this can be
discouraging to some people, it can also motivate us to
push our playing to another level.
So how do we do that—moving beyond seeing our problem areas
and start to add some new life to our playing? One of the
things that Rich Severson really instilled in me was a
regular, consistent practice routine (we’ve talked about
some of this before). Working through the Guitar College
material was like having Rich sitting in my practice room,
walking me through each lesson. Now that I have worked
through the material, though I have to motivate myself and
find my own direction for material to practice. Since
we’ve talked a bit about practicing before in previous
newsletters, I won’t review all of that information.
One thing that I have been doing though is seeing music as
being made up of several different parts and taking some
time to focus on different parts one or two at a time and
hopefully improving in those areas. For me personally, the
areas of study that I work on are:
• Technique
• Sight Reading (which includes rhythm and timing)
• Song Repertoire
• Improvisation
• Harmony (chords)
For others you might include theory application, working
with your effects, classical technique, finger picking
technique, etc. We may each have some different areas to
work on. For me I try to work on a technical area or
exercise daily (using my metronome) and I try to push my
picking technique. In that technique area I also work on
some classical guitar studies to help my finger style
playing. I do this for about 20 minutes a day. I don’t do
a specific sight-reading study everyday but I do try to
study some reading within a week’s time. Usually this means
working through the Rhythms at First Sight (book from
Guitar College) or working in a Berkelee book (Technique of
the Saxophone or Bill Leavitt’s Sight Reading Rhythms for
Guitar). I might do this once or twice a week for a half
hour. Otherwise I try to work on my last three areas every
day. For me I categorize Song Repertoire, Improvisation
and Harmony together.
What I have started doing is studying particular songs that
I want to learn. This means that I will learn the melody
(and memorize it) in two different positions on the guitar
(this covers my Repertoire area). Next I create several
chord -studies and a chord melody arrangement of the same
song (this covers Harmony). Then I try to improvise over
it (sometimes this means using a transcription, or writing
out my own solo or trying new licks that I like over the
chords). So simply by studying one song, I am able to
incorporate several areas of study into my practice
routine. I also like Rich’s “Practice sheets” that are
included in each of the courses. These have been really
helpful for me to keep track of both my time and material
studied.
So here is a breakdown of what my practice routine might
look like over the course of a few days:
Day 1: Warm up/technique 20 min (using a metronome, doing
picking studies).
Harmony 30 min writing out a chord melody or the
chords of a particular tune in several positions.
Improvisation 10 minutes of trying to solo or
learning a transcription of a particular tune.
Total time 1 hour
Day 2: Warm up/technique 20 min (using a metronome, doing
right hand finger picking studies).
Harmony 30 minutes playing through my chord melody or
Written chords from day 1.
Melody 10 minutes of learning the melody in various
Positions on the guitar.
Total time 1 hour
Day 3 Warm up/technique 20 min (using a metronome, doing
picking studies).
Sight reading 10 min Reading through sight reading
exercies
Improvisation 30 minutes of trying to solo or
learning a transcription of a particular tune.
Etc… then next week I might learn a new tune and start all
over with a different melody.
Now like most of us though, life is busy, so what happens
is I get into this routine for a time and then I get
distracted by other books and songs or a gig to prepare
for. Then I let this routine fall apart for a little
while. That’s why I need to be reminded to evaluate my
playing every so often. Springtime seems to be a good time
to do that. Is it time to revitalize your playing too?
You may find that you have all the right material to study,
but just need to begin. Hope this is helpful.
--Eric Elias
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