How To Practice

Practice so that you can attain freedom

Scott August[^1]

If your like me, practicing is one of those things that you know you are supposed to do it, but your not quite sure how to practice well. Look through the sites listed in the reference section and find a tablature for a piece of music you know and ideally like. I haven’t previously been very good at practicing but I have now fallen into a routine which works for me.

• Learn the notes While reading the tablature, play the tune over and over note for note. You’ll probably find that you sound like a robot for the moment but that doesn’t matter. Here we are just trying to remember the notes. Continue until you can play the notes without needing to read from the tablature or until you can play them while glancing every now and then at the tablature.
• Play the tune You should find you are now playing automatically. At this point you can move onto adding a little expression and feeling to the music and finally moving onto improvising the tune.
• Improvise Once you’re comfortable playing the tune automatically you can start playing around with the notes and the timings. See the improvisation section for several simple approaches to help you.

Oh and remember. Keep relaxed and keep smiling. It will definately help your playing flow more naturally. You may also find that after playing for an extended period you start making mistakes. In that case take a break. Either stop playing for the day or just noodle around for fun. Not all learning has to be carried out in a strict manner. Noodling helps too.