I run a little program with my students where I keep track of their practicing. One student walked in today, head hanging low, and announced she had practiced but 15 minutes. I decided it was time for action. We reviewed her amount of practice over the past 6 months or so and determined that she was in need of some inspiration. First I picked out a few YouTubes, then I launched into a discussion of why art was important to man and it was needed as part of a healthy life. To often it is crowded out in our hectic lifestyles. And so I thought I would share the same on the blog. Take a minute to practice, to create something beautiful and the rest of your life will be the better for it. Oh and make sure to watch this YouTube.

I’ve been falling in love with the flamenco guitar again. When it comes to music “fit” for the guitar, nothing works better than flamenco. Any one interested in learning flamenco guitar check out this flamenco guitar site.

Gerhard Graf-Martinez has put together some of the best resources available for flamenco guitar. They are the most clearly laid out and authentic books on flamenco I’ve seen. They rank up there as some of the best materials on guitar of any subject. I can not recommend them highly enough. Also worth checking out are his Flamenco Metronome and Gypsy Guitar books. Awesome, awesome, awesome, and fun too!

When it comes to learning guitar there is nothing like a little competition to get things going. And there is no one better to compete with than yourself. Why? Well you are always there to compete with. Try this. Write down the max speed for a song you are working on (Metronome speed that is.) The next day you play the song try to beat your speed. It works great.

Everyone knows how to study, right? Wrong. The truth is most people have never been taught how to study and therefore never learn. People who underachieve often do so not because they are not intelligent, but because they don’t know how to apply their intelligence. Recently I came across a “Study System” that I think applies to music. It’s called sQ3r. Sounds high tech. Actually it has been around since 1946. It works like this:

Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review.

It can be applied to learning music in a number of ways. Here are two examples.

Say you need to learn theory and you just purchased Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory. (Good Choice) First survey the chapter. Look at all the headings, graphs, etc. Then ask yourself questions concerning what you just saw. For instance what are intervals, why are scales called major, etc. Then read the entire chapter. Afterwards recite the key points and the answers to your earlier questions out loud. The next day come back to it and review.

This can also be applied to learning a piece of music with some slight modifications. First, survey the piece. What is the key? the time signature? Are there any repeated sections (the form)? What looks tough? What is the chord progression? Then question the piece. Why did the composer write it the way they did? Is it a sad piece, does the writing reflect this? Next read through the piece beginning to end. Afterwards play the difficult sections over and over until you have them (the musical equivalent of the recite phase). And when you have the whole thing learned review it from time to time to keep it up. Have fun.

Disorganized about your practice? Try out our GuitarGames.net’s Online Practice Schedule. If you haven’t been making progress in your guitar playing lately the reason is most-likely lack of focus. Get focused and watch your playing soar. I know it doesn’t sound cool, but it works.

One problem with sitting down and “practicing” is that we guitar plays tend to noodle. Now we may start with the best intentions but soon find ourselves off on a tangent. Here’s an ideas that will fix that but still allow you to have fun while practicing. Write down five things you want to accomplish. Not things that you want to accomplish over the next year, but over the next hour. Then when you sit down to practice start working on getting them done. When you have those five checked off, you’re done, play whatever you want. Do this for a week or two and you will make more progress than if you had practiced aimlessly for three hours a day. It’s all about quality not quantity.

Nothing annoys audiences more than an out of tune guitar (except maybe spandex). Let’s face it, most guitar players aren’t great at tuning. Part of the problem is that they still use the old play the fifth fret, tune the neck string, repeat. The problem with this is if you make a little mistake at the beginning it will show up on every string after that, and if you make several little mistakes it adds up to a big mistake in the end. Solution? Try this:

1) Tune Fifth String to a tuning fork (or piano, or tuner).
2) Play the 12th fret harmonic on the 5th string and tune the 4th string to it by playing the 7th fret on the 4th string.
3) Play the 12th fret harmonic on the 5th string (again) and tune the 3rd string to it by playing the 2nd fret on the 3rd string.
4) Play the 12th fret harmonic on the 4th string and tune the 2nd string to it by playing the 3rd fret on the 2nd string.
5)Play the 12th fret harmonic on the 3rd string and tune the 1st string to it by playing the 3rd fret on the 1st string.
6)Play the 7th fret harmonic on the 5th string and tune the 6th string to it by playing the 6th string 5th fret harmonic.

This will help for a number of reasons. It reduces the problem of compounded errors. For example the fifth string is used to tune the third which is used to tune the first, which means there are two steps involved. Compare this to tuning the fourth to the fifth, third to the fourth, second to the third, and finally first to the second. There is a lot greater chance for error there. Also, it involves tuning strings to unisons which always helps. Try it out!

This site is so great I just had to share it with you. It has tons of resources on how to play Gypsy Jazz for the guitar. The main author Michael Horowitz just released a book called Gypsy Rhythm, not only is one of the best books on Gypsy Jazz I’ve seen, it is one of the best books on guitar I have seen period. Check it out at www.djangobooks.com.

Practice Backwards. No, I don’t mean to play the song in reverse to reveal secret subliminal messages. Instead try learning the end of the song first. This has two advantages.

1. When you perform the song you will be get more and more comfortable with the material as you go along. This should help the escalating feelings of nervousness that can cause a major catastrophe!

2. You are more likely to focus you efforts. Picture this: You are trying to learn the first part of the song by playing measure 1 and 2 over and over. Problem is that you usually don’t stop at measure 2 since your curiosity gets the best of you. Well, if you were playing the last two measures that wouldn’t be a problem since there is nowhere else to go! And when you back up a couple measures you will always be playing into material you already know, which is not nearly as interesting as uncharted territory. Give it a try, or should I say try a it give.

The great jazz guitarist Barney Kessel also recommended that guitar players practice when ever they can even if it was only for a few minutes. John Coltrane used to practice at the dinner table even when he had guests. Another way to increase the likelihood of practicing is to use a guitar stand. Keeping your guitar on a stand when not in use means that it is in plain sight not tucked away in its case. Want to practice it for a few minutes just grab hold and go. Remember out of sight out of mind.

Here is one I like, click on it for more info: