Practice

how to practice

It is much easier to play a thing quickly than to play it slowly.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Letter, 1778

practice

5 tips:
practice slowly ~ use metronome ~ practice areas that require improvement ~ have clear goals ~ have a structure

Goal oriented practice
1) Identify and diagnose a problem
2)Repeat problem slowly
3)Try in context
4)If it sounds good, problem solved!
5)If problem persists, repeat step 2

Practice structure
have a practice journal - write in date, what you do and for how long
1) warm up 10 minutes
2)work on a piece that needs improvement
3)review pieces that you have already played, for enjoyment or to check they are still under the fingers

practice - regular time set aside to develop musical skills. A practice session should consist of:

a warm up exercise
slow practice of the piece to identify the passages which require extra practice
loop practice of those phrases

warm up

Warm Up - an activity to prepare the mind and hands for playing guitar or singing.

Reasons and method for the instrumental warm up:

To establish good coordination between the left and right hands, i.e. the synchronisation of the pressing of the string and the plucking of the note.
To warm up muscles and loosen up fingers.
To focus on relaxation of whole body and establish good playing posture.
To focus on the techniques used in the pieces one is working on…i.e. scales, arpeggios, chords, slurs etc.

slow practice

Practice very slowly and accurately trying to make the music flow in time with the beat. Very gradually increase the tempo.

Right Hand
4 -3 -2 - 1 method across strings imi or mim

Left Hand
Spider crawl - 12. 11 10 9, then 11, 10, 9, 8 etc on each string
Finger tips close to strings
Play on right side of fret

Chromatic Scale
0 1 2 3 4 up and down

looped practice

The repeated slow playing of a short phrase in order to perfect it

suggestion:
Use a metronome, start very slowly and gradually increase the tempo