Am I doing this to myself?

I have to admit it. For the greater good of the blog, the loyal Fretheads that come and read my rants on being focused and having the right attitude, blah blah blah, and for my own sanity I have to be up front and honest. As much as I’ve been trying, I’m just not feeling my studying right now. Neither my guitar practicing/learning or my language studies have been doing well recently.

The hardest part is that I’m not sure what it is. I’m motivated, I concentrate when I’m doing the work, and I feel like I’m working on the right material. But I just can’t seem to get over the hump.

I just can’t make the connection fire. Some synapse in my brain is playing the hand-slap game with me and I’m losing every time.

So what do you do when you’re moving backward?

Normally at this point in the post – after the commercial break of clicking on the “Read More” link I have some answer already laid out where I can give you some advice on staying motivated and pushing through. But today, I just don’t have it. The problem is not trying to come up with ways to break out of the routine; I don’t think my routine is inherently bad. I have plenty to work on, and as I mentioned earlier I think I’m going about it the right way. The problem is that I just can’t seem to retain any of what I’m working on.

Though it’s not guitar-related, I’ll give you an example. Every Sunday morning I go to the local Thai temple for a language class taught by one of the monks. The class is expository, which means it doesn’t generally follow a week-to-week progression. If someone comes in with a question we head down that path. If not, the monk will pick a topic and roll with it. This teaching method is very Buddhist in nature and works well. (My martial arts classes are generally taught in the same manner.) In the class I can read Thai the best. I know all of the rules for creating the sounds, I typically help everyone else out with the answers when people are confused, and sometimes I have to clarify what the monk is teaching because of a language communication issue.

But my vocabulary sucks. I can’t memorize words to save my life. One guy in particular is blowing right past me in the vocabulary/speaking aspect and it’s pissing me off. Not pissing me off that he’s doing well… it’s pissing me off that I’m not progressing as I think I should be. I know I study a lot more than he does, but it makes me wonder if I’m studying the right way. I can’t understand why – being so good at reading and knowing the rules, etc – I am struggling so much to memorize the words.

Guitar has been the same way recently. Memorizing jazz standards has been kicking my ass up and down the street and I can’t seem to get past it. I practice and practice and practice and yet I still can’t get some songs under my fingers.

I also wonder if I’m in my own head too much. Am I worrying too much about the rules and the technical details? (That goes for both Thai and guitar.) Am I doing something, studying/practicing some way, that is putting too much of a restriction up and thereby making it impossible for me to break through to the other side?

This one will hit you on the way out

Now, I absolutely know about how it takes time, how everyone learns different and goes at their own pace, yadda yadda yadda. I get it; heck, I write about it here on Fretterverse all the time. I’m always the one telling other people not to give up and stay motivated. But there comes a point for almost all of us when we just want to throw the stuff out the window and give up. I’m just about at this point right now.

Now it’s a question of “where do I go from here?” I feel like I’m doing the right stuff but it doesn’t seem to be sticking, so am I really doing the right stuff after all?

And so today I’m flipping the switch. I’m turning the tables and looking to you guys for information, suggestions, and advice. I’ve exposed my own dilemma and am circling the wagons to see what our small yet totally awesome Fretterverse community can come up with.

Any and all advice is welcome. The entire community will certainly benefit from the discussion, which is why I’m talking about it in the first place. If you have an idea or a thought, please share it.

Thanks!

What To Do When You’re Moving Backward is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Just some light reading for the weekend

I’ve been trying to come up with a simple yet hard exercise to challenge myself. I didn’t want some overly-complex arpeggio or crazy gymnastic lick, but rather something that would normally seem so archaically easy that I could just pick up the guitar for a few minutes and work on it. The idea was to do this many times throughout a weekend instead of sitting down and working on it for an hour straight.

As I was working through some lesson material it dawned on me that one of the biggest “problems” I hear among guitar players – well, musicians in general, really – is that their timing sucks. Always behind or ahead of the beat, and 99.9% of the time not because they are playing with the pocket. I’m a victim of this sometimes as well, though I tend to play directly on top of the beat; almost too metronomically (is that a word?) for my own taste.

And so it dawned on me how I could test myself on how good my timing is, and it’s deceptively difficult. So what better way to make myself feel better than to try and torture all of my fellow Fretheads!

Ready, Set, Doh!

So here it is. First, you’ll need a metronome. If you don’t have one you can use the one on the Online Guitar Tools page.

What you’re going to do is pick something that you already have down pat. This can be a scale, an arpeggio, or a gymnastic exercise. It doesn’t matter what the specific tool is, but you have to make sure that you have it down pat so you don’t have to think about technique or fingerings. The point is to not be distracted by outside parameters.

Once you have that figured out, put the metronome on a ridiculously slow pulse – 53 beats per minute or lower. Listen to the pulse for about 30 seconds to try and get it into your ear (into your soul, really) and then start playing along with it in quarter notes; in other words, one note of your chosen exercise per beat of the metronome.

Pay particular attention to not only striking the note at the exact same time as the metronome’s pulse, but also holding the note for the entire beat. Quite often we shorten the note’s value in order to try and get to the next note on time. But, that is not the right way to play. Each note deserves its correct value.

If you think you have that down, decrease the tempo even lower. If that still doesn’t present much of a challenge for you, then play 8th note triplets for each pulse. Meaning, three evenly-spaced notes in between each beat of the metronome.

If you can do that with no problem, I applaud you greatly! You have definitely put in the dirt time and should be very proud of yourself.

As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t something to work on for an hour straight. Just pick up the guitar for 5 minutes several times a day throughout the weekend and give it a shot. I think many of us (yes, us) will be surprised at how bad we really are at it. But, it’s absolutely something worth working on.

If you give it a try – and I sincerely hope you will – please do us a favor and comment on your results. It will be very interesting to see how everyone made out.

Good luck!

The Weekend Challenge is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Goooooooooooooooooooooal!

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on my new practice routine. As I mentioned when deciding to embrace the suck, I’ve felt that my practice sessions have been floundering. Although my sessions have been very good for technical practice, I think they were falling short of my actual needs. I was substituting activity for productivity. My practice routine did not include any goals; it was an amorphous, “to infinity and beyond” ideal that had no true metric for progress or, even worse, a way to identify what was working and what wasn’t so I could make adjustments.

So after some soul-searching and heavy doses of gingko biloba, I have come up with a six-month practice challenge for myself.

This challenge kills several birds at once. First, it gives me a definitive timeline to work with. Now I have a deadline that needs to be met, with its associated pressures. I also have a specific set of things to work on. Lastly, I am working directly on the things I want to; rather than working around my goals I am working on my goals!

So what are my goals?

1. Learn 20 jazz standards (melody, chords, and improvisation) – the idea here is to get away from the fakebooks. As much as I love fakebooks, I’ll never be able to internalize the music if I have to rely on sight reading while playing. It’s too distracting and drives my attention away from listening to the rest of the band.

2. Pat Martino’s “Linear Expressions” – Martino wrote this book many years ago as an introduction to his minor reduction method of playing. Every chord gets reduced to a minor equivalent, which he then uses to improvise. I want to learn this method and incorporate his ideas and lines into my playing.

3. Jerry Bergonzi’s “Pentatonics” – Saxophonist Bergonzi wrote a series of books on jazz improvisation. Volume 2 deals exclusively with pentatonics. I have seen many examples of the pentatonics being applied over jazz progressions and love the sound, so I figured now was as good a time as any to dig into it and learn.

4. Shore up the songs I already know – As much as my memory sucks there are a few songs that I can play. But just to be safe I’m going to continue to work through them to make sure I have them nailed, with no doubt.

5. Improve Improv – All of the above goals will help me improve my ability to improvise. But, ultimately, I want to get better at this and so I’ll also be analyzing/transcribing solos and copping licks, learning some ii-V-I ideas, and generally trying to absorb whatever improvisation concepts I can get by listening to others. I figured the best way to do this would be to cop the solos from the songs in my list of twenty.

Why all of the jazz? Because to me it’s a means to an end. I am a firm believer that if I can “master” jazz (take that loosely, please) I will be able to play anything else I want. I’m also a huge jazz lover and want to be able to play it as the end itself. Licks don’t impress me, I already know how to play a barre chord, and learning country music will come later. For now I want to concentrate on learning the language of jazz.

And so what does all of this mean to you? Probably nothing. But, hopefully at least a few of you will read this and take a look at your own practice routine to see if it’s really helping you achieve your goals, or if you, like me, were substituting activity for productivity.

I’ll be sure to update the blog with my progress, and I will absolutely share any revelations I discover with you all. I encourage you all to take a step back and see if perhaps it’s time to create your own six-month challenge.

Have a great weekend!

The Six-Month Challenge is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Where's my guitar when I need it most?

So there you are, stuck at work, or perhaps on a blind date that is just going horribly wrong. Dinner with the in-laws, waiting in line at the DMV, stuck on the can after a particularly grueling (and losing) battle with the hot wings you had for dinner… there are lots of things that can keep you away from your guitar. Though we often have obligations and real life that gets in the way of doing the things we really want to do, there is no reason why these moments have to be a death sentence to our creativity.

Here are five ways that you can practice guitar while you don’t have one readily available to get your hands on.

1.Visualize

Close your eyes and picture yourself playing the guitar. I don’t mean pretend that you’re on stage playing with Jimmy Page in front of 100,000 people, I mean visualize yourself playing through the things you are working on. Whether it’s a solo you’re trying to learn, scales you’re trying to memorize, or a particular chord voicing with a tricky fingering, letting your mind work through any issues that are hanging you up. Most importantly, visualize slowly! If you picture yourself playing the solo you are learning at full speed, your brain isn’t internalizing the pieces you need to work on as when you slow it down.

2. Sing It!

I’m a big advocate of singing lines as a part of guitar practice. My personal practice sessions has a sight singing component to them, which helps to connect my ear and my brain. So, sing (out loud, in case you were wondering) what you’re working on and concentrate on your pitch and the rhythms. Don’t worry so much about your singing tone; I’m not trying to turn you into David Coverdale, after all.

You should also combine this step with step #1 and visualize on the fingerboard what you are singing.

3. Notate It/Write It Down

I always have a notebook with me wherever I go. I’m a big fan of Moleskine notebooks in case you care, though having some staff paper handy is obviously better. Anyway, if you’re looking for a challenge, try writing out a solo, line, or even some chords that you know and see how accurate you are when you get in front of your guitar. This is an especially interesting exercise when you are memorizing jazz heads or improvised solos by players you like. If you found mistakes when you check your work, figure out why. If there were interval problems (you have trouble hearing fourths, for example) or rhythmic trouble (those 5:4 runs get you every time) work them out. Do more sight singing, or try practicing 5-over-4 with a metronome until it’s internalized.

4. Watch the Masters at Work

I have an iPod Touch and, luckily, a train commute to and from work every day. I put a bunch of videos on my iPod (instructional and performance) and watch them every day. Although it’s certainly no substitute for physically picking up the guitar and shedding, having my mind actively engaged in music and trying to make visual and auditory connections even away from the guitar definitely helps. Inspiration notwithstanding, if I see or hear a particular lick or phrase that I like, I make a note of it (in my Moleskine, thank you) and go back to it later and learn it on the guitar.

5. Test Yourself

Can you name all of the flatted notes in the key of Ab Major? Can you recite the fingering for playing a C melodic minor scale in the 7th position? Do you know the note names of a F#Maj7#11 chord? At any point of the day you can take a few minutes to give yourself a little quiz and try to identify your weak spots. The goal is not to prove how much you know and pat yourself on the back, but rather to identify what you don’t know and set up a plan to eliminate the blind spots.

Get Practicing!

So, the next time you have a few spare minutes, try a few of the steps mentioned and see if they help you. I know they have helped me!

5 Ways to Practice Without Your Guitar is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.