Experimentation And Observation¶
Practicing can be broken into two big phases: exploration, where you’re trying to sort out what works, and refining, where you’re perfecting what works.
It’s easy and fun to sit down with the guitar and just play, letting things work themselves out. They do, sometimes.
However, to make more reliable progress with technical issues – speed, tricky passages, new techniques – it’s necessary to focus and experiment 1. This takes full concentration, paying full attention to two main things:
the tone you’re producing
any physical and mental sensations (tension, fatigue, etc.)
The practice techniques listed in Part III - Practice Techniques are fuel for your experiments, along with other variations you can think of (hand position, pick grip, force, wrist action, etc.).
Regardless of what practice technique (if any!) you choose to use, be sure to give it a good honest shot. Keep trying and experimenting. Experiment and observe.
And be honest in your observations! If you crank up your distortion/reverb/effects etc., it might sound more interesting, but it may be hiding some problems. So continue to check your accuracy, timing, and tone, and use that as feedback for the next round of experimentation. You might find a practice journal helps you keep track of what’s working.
For me, a good exploratory practice session for a particular passage will usually consist of several trial-and-error attempts, each of which is followed by a assessment of the above, and then further adjustments and tests. Seeing what works, letting go of what doesn’t. Sometimes things take several reps to roughly fall into place, and the results show up the next day 2.
- 1
I’m intentionally avoiding the idea of “work hard.” To me, the idea of hard work immediately conjures up tense muscles and physical effort. If you’ve read Part I - On Technique, you’ll know that technique is about ease.
- 2