Updated September 11/2024.
In my previous post on practicing guitar, I went through my personal story as to how my musical path went for me. In this post series on practicing guitar, I will go through it using a familiar method of inquiry. Who, What, Where, When, Why, How. First, let’s talk about the who.
Build Your Practice Team: Not Always A Lone Wolf.
Most people think of practicing guitar as a solo endeavor. No question, much of it is. Still, there is tremendous value in connecting with others in the endeavor for:
- Enthusiasm (more on this later)
- Accountability
- Real Time Music Situations to work out ideas and practice songs
- Exchanging ideas and feedback
- Structure
Think about each of those elements. Your moods change like the wind. When you don’t feel like doing something, accountability can go right out the window. When you’re practicing your guitar with someone, there’s real interaction both musical and verbal which can energizing. Who can you connect with? Playing music in real time with other musicians is one of the best instruction tools there is. Let’s look at some possibilities.
1. A Teacher:
Despite endless printed and online resources and even AI, there’s not always a clear sequence to follow. More than that, they are static. There’s no live exchange happening. They can’t listen to you play or answer your questions about specifics in real time. They can’t notice or hear things about your guitar playing that you haven’t thought of. There’s nobody there to encourage you in the moment. There’s nobody there to demonstrate in person.
Having a teacher can exponentially speed things up because the advice is directed at you in the moment. A team member is tremendously motivating. Even professionals also get caught in a playing rut. Having someone give you outside perspective can really open up the horizons. Also, someone to hold you accountable.
Indirectly, do you want to show up for your guitar lesson unprepared all the time? Directly, if the teacher gives you some things to work on, there’s an expectation that you’ll do them.
The teacher is ideally the workout coach. Most of my lessons are having the student play. Exercises, sheet music reading, prepared songs, improvising, etc. Most gym classes or personal workout trainers are the same. Much of the learning is baked into doing the circuits, so you get a workout and you’re better equipped to do the workouts on your own.
When you’re practicing on your own all the time, there’s no accountability. What motivation do you have to follow through on one thing before jumping to the next thing?
Ideally, lessons shouldn’t be a burden, but the student does have to do the work. If they don’t do the work, they don’t get better. If they don’t get better, they’ll get bored. If they get bored, they’ll quit.
Your Interest level is a result of the practice you put in. Not the other way around!
This will be a central theme throughout this practice guide suite.
What Makes A Good Teacher?
My best teachers were highly proficient, knowledgeable, honest, a good hang, dependable, and insightful to name a few things. I liked watching them demonstrate something, but I needed a clear breakdown after. I liked someone who could tell me what they thought about how I was doing. I liked someone who could give me some clear next steps to improve. I liked meeting once a week to allow ideas to incubate and inspire my own insight and lines of questioning. I liked teachers who could play in the styles I was interested in, but also, hip me to some other styles or ways to cross styles together.
Checklist For A Good Teacher:
- Technically Proficient: If they can’t play well themselves, they can’t show others how to
- Organized: They should be able to curate teaching material quickly and easily. They know how to build structure in the lessons so that there is consistency to allow a student to grasp the topics at hand.
- They can read: If they can’t, you won’t. Reading is one of the best take away supplements for the students to work on things independently. Things will need to be written down for long term study and retention.
- Personable: Ideally, you get a along, and you trust them if they’ve demonstrated they are competent.
- Experienced: This really goes a long way as they would have an idea of what works and what doesn’t
- Available: If they’re away a lot for whatever reason, this really breaks the momentum
- Answers Questions: Dialogue is key for the lessons to go smoothly. It puts the student at ease to feel that they have a team player on their side.
What Makes a good student?
This is often overlooked. There is mindset of every student that can make the experience a positive… and negative. Even young students should have a basic understanding of these things.
Checklist For A Good Student
- Punctual. Respect their time and yours. It shows them you are conscientious, and this is often reciprocated.
- Curious: Be willing to ask questions. Good things come from it…. enthusiasm, clarity, and direction to name a few.
- Trusting: Be willing to try whatever is asked of you. Give things a chance before you raise concerns. The trick is to find the right teacher beforehand. There’s a difference between asking for clarification or examples, but at a certain point, if you’re resistant to everything that’s asked of you, you’re wasting your own time and money.
- Prepared: If you put no effort into playing between lessons, you’ll be bored, unmotivated, and eventually you will quit. The work you do directly corelates to your interest level. No work = no interest. Put the work in first, and the interest abounds. Neither of you like starting from square 1 every week.
- Organized: Keep track of your assignments
2. A Class.
Many of my fondest memories of studying music at school were the “labs” that I attended. A group of guitarists in one room with an instructor going over various topics. The comradery, the questions, comments and playing both during and after the class were amazing. Being around folks who are at your level with the same interests can be super inspiring. Not just that, but the whole practicing process becomes something to look forward to.
Ideally the class is no more than 8-10 students. More than 10 people in a room with guitars playing different things at different times…. all the time… can be distracting and lessen the experience. Ideally the students should be of equal ability. When there are intermediate or advanced players together with beginners, one group may feel it’s going to fast, and another not fast enough. Either way, the experience isn’t ideal.
Age is also a consideration. When it comes to young kids, there are huge gaps in development, attention spans, coordination, and learning abilities. I once had a small class I was asked to teach which consisted of 6 year olds to 13 year olds. That just doesn’t work for the reasons mentioned. It should be the job of the instructor to group students accordingly, but parents and students should also take these things into consideration so that it’s a good experience for all.
It’s ok if beginners want to hang with intermediates or advanced if they wish. As in they pick things up quickly and their motor skills & coordination are more developed.
Should You Go To Music College/University?
I made that decision for myself. Looking back on in, it was where I made a lot of progress and advancements in my playing and expanded my language vocabulary so that I could hang in different musical environments. I got to hang with, listen to, talk with, and play with a lot of great people… teachers and students of music. It was four years of high intensity training doing what I loved. It changed me physically, mentally, musically, and spiritually. That said, I put all I could into it. I was doing full classes all day, and practicing 6-8 hours at night. Going to concerts, clinics, late night hangs, jamming, reading…etc.
Does this mean I would recommend it to everyone? No. There are many factors to consider.
- 1. Logistics
- 2. Cost
- 3. Risk/Reward
- 4. Alternate methods of training
I went to school in the 90’s. The landscape has changed dramatically since then. I’d say, if you are on the fence about going, it’s a two way door. You can always go for a semester or a year to see how you like it. Self assess after and see whether it’s to your benefit to keep going. Do your due diligence. Attend a summer course/class which can be a light version of the full schedule.
Some questions to ask:
- What do people going there right now say about it?
- Do they specialize and are they leaders in what I want to learn?
- Will I get practical experience?
- What do recent graduates say about their experience?
- Can I see myself living there?
If you’re going to spend that much money on it, you better be sure that music isn’t something you like the idea of doing. Most people who do it for a living were, are, and always will be all in. There usually isn’t a plan B. It’s just something they have to do and will find a way to make it happen.
How To Find a Class or Start One Yourself
You might start with Facebook groups, web searches for group lessons, forums, and word of mouth. Check local music shops if they offer them.
A less obvious way is to create your own. If you have a space where you can host one, and are interested in curating one, that can be a great thing. You could then ask a teacher to be responsible for the teaching and then workout the monetary aspects. Sometimes teachers have students that would also be interested in a group setting. The social component of this is something of tremendous value to all. It’s something to look forward to and energizing to keep going.
3. A Practice Buddy.
Again, a pretty simple idea, but often overlooked. You can work on tunes, technique, jam, read, and just talk music and playing. It’s always desirable to have someone who is at your own level or slightly above who shares some of the same goals as you. Listening while you play is an underrated asset. Learning to make someone else sound good is a learned skill that only happens in collaboration.
How does one find a practice buddy? You might be surprised. People who play will want to talk to you if they also play. A colleague, friend, school mate, or somebody online (more on this later). Maybe go to an open jam or open mic night in your general area. Many are listed with a simple google search as well as on Facebook. If you have a teacher already, perhaps one of their students would be up for this.
There are certainly many practice aids online, IE videos, apps, pdfs, etc. They can be efficient, but they are static. There’s still no live interaction and mutual validation happening.
Like the class, the person you practice with should be considered. Having common playing interests helps. Having similar abilities overall helps too. Things you can work on together would be:
- Comping & Jamming. One person plays lead, one person improvises
- Reading Etudes
- Ear training. One person plays, the other listens
- Song Performance. Breaking up the parts of a song if there are layers, or one or both singing.
4. A Band.
Having a performance or group rehearsal can instantly hone your practice regime. When there’s a set list, your practice regimen presents itself right quick. Learning the tunes and making sure you have the skill set to even play them beginning to end for 45minutes +.
The desire to show up prepared and play well for your bandmates and an audience is highly effective in terms of staying with the guitar. Many professionals who play with many different bands/artists… part of the reason they’re so good is because they are always playing in new situations. So much of my progress is owed to playing in a group situation often.
Further, the goal of the band rehearsals is to PERFORM. Performing/Playing music for people with people is one of the ultimate highs in life. It’s like sex. Yeah, it’s that good when it’s good.
There’s no substitute for it. You know if you can or can’t. If you can’t you want to. When there’s a gig on the horizon, your practice agenda is evident. Whatever it takes to sound as good as you can when playing with and for others.
How To Put A Band Together?
Here are a few ways this can happen:
- Happenstance. You happen to know a few people that play so you can be the one to start something up
- Facebook groups/classifieds. Many people advertise what their skills are and that they are available to jam. Likewise, bands will often post the positions that they are looking to fill.
- Open Jam Nights. These are great because you can hear/meet the band and vice versa
- Music Schools. Many offer band signups with what times they’re available. These are usually paid, in that the school organizes, hosts, and someone is there to lead it.
- Teacher referral. Many teachers have students that would be willing to put something together. Check local music schools and perhaps ask to speak to some of the instructors if they themselves or one of their students would be interested.
- Paid/For Hire. Many semi and pro players will jam upon request for an agreed upon hourly rate. People doing this for hire will often be a cut above the average player. This is good for you as:
Playing with people better than you makes you play and want to play better
5. Practicing by yourself
There are plenty of benefits of practicing alone: To name a few:
- A place of solitude
- Low stress environment to work things out
- You can go as fast or slow as you need to
- Freedom to choose your own path of focus
- can be done almost anywhere anytime sporadically
- develops concentration
6. Online Jamming And Communities
During the covid lockdowns, I had to confront the question…. How to play in real time with others online. I was teaching a university ensemble, and suddenly, we weren’t able to rehearse in person anymore. The obvious problem with zoom, facetime, google meet, etc was the latency.
Most musicians are used to a bit of latency/delay. IE: A guitar amp a few feet away from the player in the same room can have up to 2 or 3 milliseconds of delay before you hear the sound. Move the amp further, and there’s even more. Most digital audio workstations also have inherent latency. That is the time it takes for the signal to get into the computer, be digitized, processed, and then sent out for analog monitoring.
My point is that there are tolerable limits of latency. If however, we get upwards of 50ms+ of latency, it becomes a challenge to stay in time. Most of the online platforms are over that limit, so it makes it quite difficult to play in time.
Enter jamkazam.com
This was a true lifesaver in that it allows players within a 500 mile or so radius to play in time online with tolerable amounts of latency. I managed to get a few pieces of gear to each bandmember and we managed to rehearse online for the rest of the semester. There we were at 9am each Friday online, in our jammies, playing music live!
If sitting in with a band, or jamming with a friend, teacher, or practice buddy isn’t practical, this is a viable option. Even just popping in for a jam with the community is cool. There are open jam rooms on the jamkazm site which you can join if they’re open, or you can start your own jam room there which you can open to the community, or by invite only.
In Closing.
Practicing is necessary to get better. It’s hard to get better on your own. Having people in your corner to jam with, guide, inspire, motivate, and hang with you. Whether, it’s a simple practice buddy, a teacher, or going to a real Music College/University, these are all stops along the path. They are not means to an end… but simply to keep you on the path.
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