One of the first things I ask struggling guitar students is whether or not they practice without their guitar.
In most cases the students stare back bewildered.
The idea that a player can work on their instrument mentally simply hasn't occurred to them.
When I propose that for some students this is exactly the type of practice they need most, some hesitatingly agree, but almost none follow through.
What happens when a student is not mentally prepared to play a piece of music? The following scenario will illustrate it best.
Little Pepe has been playing his guitar all his life.
He has prepared a piece of Spanish guitar music to play for a small gathering of friends.
Hours have been spent playing the piece, and practicing it by himself he can play it perfectly.
The time comes for the performance.
He's half way through and feeling very good about his playing.
He looks across the room and notices Anna from work seems to be enjoying it too.
Suddenly he looks down at his guitar and realizes he has absolutely no idea what comes next! He stumbles through a few wrong notes and stops, puzzled why he can't remember the piece he has played a thousand times.
The mistake was made because he lacked mental preparation.
His brain did not know the piece as well as his fingers.
Playing in public is a lot like flying a plane.
All the physical repetition of a piece allows our fingers to run on auto-pilot.
The trouble is a player needs to know how to fly when the auto-pilot runs into trouble.
A piece should be learned in many different ways: by muscle-memory, aurally, visually, spatially and analytically.
Muscle memory is the physical repetition of playing a piece and although not enough by itself, it is the primary type of memory used to play the guitar.
Aural refers to the sound of a piece.
Be able to sing the melody all the way through.
You might sing or hum along as you play a piece, thus tying your muscle memory to your aural.
Then when you can't remember the next note try humming it.
Since its tied in with your muscle memory that is usually enough to prompt the next note.
The visual can take many forms.
The look of the notes on the page, the physical appearance of your hands while you play, or the relationship between what you are playing and the basic chord types.
For instance a player might remember a chord by relating its appearance to a "C" chord with one extra note, or something similar.
Here's a challenge for you.
Be able to sing / hum through an entire piece while visualizing your left hand the whole way through.
If you get to a spot you can't visualize stop and figure it out.
That spot was a primary candidate for a mistake in performance.
To learn a piece spatially is to digest its timing, rhythm, and tempo.
For jazz / rock this includes the "groove" of a piece.
For difficult pieces I always suggest clapping the rythms before playing it.
Also, when you practice, use a metronome! The last way to learn a piece is analytically.
Know the form of a piece (e.
g.
AABA).
Know the key, chord progression, main motifs, etc.
Rely on this material to help you maintain your place on a macro level (i.
e.
the big-picture).
Pieces learned in this manner have a much greater success rate.
Mistakes will still be made, but not as many and when they do they are usually not as severe.
At first glance this process seems much more time consuming.
However there reaches a point in learning a song where more and more physical repetition yields diminishing returns.
Mental practice is often the missing step to reach the final goal of mastering a piece.
For more on the different ways of learning a piece and other great suggestions on memorization visit Daniel A.
Hazard's fine article Learning, Memorization, & Retention.
He was one of the first to codify this process of learning a piece.
In most cases the students stare back bewildered.
The idea that a player can work on their instrument mentally simply hasn't occurred to them.
When I propose that for some students this is exactly the type of practice they need most, some hesitatingly agree, but almost none follow through.
What happens when a student is not mentally prepared to play a piece of music? The following scenario will illustrate it best.
Little Pepe has been playing his guitar all his life.
He has prepared a piece of Spanish guitar music to play for a small gathering of friends.
Hours have been spent playing the piece, and practicing it by himself he can play it perfectly.
The time comes for the performance.
He's half way through and feeling very good about his playing.
He looks across the room and notices Anna from work seems to be enjoying it too.
Suddenly he looks down at his guitar and realizes he has absolutely no idea what comes next! He stumbles through a few wrong notes and stops, puzzled why he can't remember the piece he has played a thousand times.
The mistake was made because he lacked mental preparation.
His brain did not know the piece as well as his fingers.
Playing in public is a lot like flying a plane.
All the physical repetition of a piece allows our fingers to run on auto-pilot.
The trouble is a player needs to know how to fly when the auto-pilot runs into trouble.
A piece should be learned in many different ways: by muscle-memory, aurally, visually, spatially and analytically.
Muscle memory is the physical repetition of playing a piece and although not enough by itself, it is the primary type of memory used to play the guitar.
Aural refers to the sound of a piece.
Be able to sing the melody all the way through.
You might sing or hum along as you play a piece, thus tying your muscle memory to your aural.
Then when you can't remember the next note try humming it.
Since its tied in with your muscle memory that is usually enough to prompt the next note.
The visual can take many forms.
The look of the notes on the page, the physical appearance of your hands while you play, or the relationship between what you are playing and the basic chord types.
For instance a player might remember a chord by relating its appearance to a "C" chord with one extra note, or something similar.
Here's a challenge for you.
Be able to sing / hum through an entire piece while visualizing your left hand the whole way through.
If you get to a spot you can't visualize stop and figure it out.
That spot was a primary candidate for a mistake in performance.
To learn a piece spatially is to digest its timing, rhythm, and tempo.
For jazz / rock this includes the "groove" of a piece.
For difficult pieces I always suggest clapping the rythms before playing it.
Also, when you practice, use a metronome! The last way to learn a piece is analytically.
Know the form of a piece (e.
g.
AABA).
Know the key, chord progression, main motifs, etc.
Rely on this material to help you maintain your place on a macro level (i.
e.
the big-picture).
Pieces learned in this manner have a much greater success rate.
Mistakes will still be made, but not as many and when they do they are usually not as severe.
At first glance this process seems much more time consuming.
However there reaches a point in learning a song where more and more physical repetition yields diminishing returns.
Mental practice is often the missing step to reach the final goal of mastering a piece.
For more on the different ways of learning a piece and other great suggestions on memorization visit Daniel A.
Hazard's fine article Learning, Memorization, & Retention.
He was one of the first to codify this process of learning a piece.
Source...