The other day I was looking through the earlier posts. It really is good to be able to read what I’ve been working on and see different notes about what I’ve been planning to work on and compare all that to now. One thing I noticed is in one post I drafted some goals to myself. What I realized is kinda funny; things I outlined as my short term goals, which I thought would be faster to reach, are coming slower than things I outlined as my mid term goals which I thought would take longer, hence the mid term goals. As my short term goals I wanted to be able to play just a few notes while soloing but, and that’s the real goal, to be able to stay with the tune, following the chords while soloing. As the midterm goals I wanted to able to, what else other than what every guitar player wants; cram more notes into it (every time I say that I remember my teacher Tony Do Rosario yelling out during the class “less notes, less notes”). What happens is being able to always stay with the tune, knowing your place while soloing, following the chords of the song is a harder task than pure mechanics of being able to play something fast. It should’ve been obvious but…However it’s clear that the improvements are being made. On both sides. That’s good. Because there’s periods where several months can go by and you’re thinking to yourself “is this practice getting me anywhere? Maybe I’ve hit my limits already and there’s nowhere to go from here?” and all other self doubts a person can come up with when the results aren’t so obvious as in my early years of playing a guitar when learning something like a new song or a new chord, immediately was a leap forward and obvious improvement over just days or even hours ago. Training to be a jazzman or just generally getting better at this point for me, is a whole another set of standards. It taught me to set goals but not deadlines. To look forward to getting better but to not expect it. It’s not that I’m trying to say be modest and humble and all that. Not that, but that’s not bad either, we should all do more of that. What I realized is if you give yourself deadlines and expect improvements, you’re setting yourself up for a disappointment and to start doubting your own self. All of the things that can only steer you away from where you wanna get. It’s probably how many people quit an instrument when you think about it. In fact what you need to do is, you need to turn yourself into a mule of sorts, just put your head down and plow away and don’t think too much. When improvements come and they do, then you can pop open a beer and toast to yourself.
Now what I really wanted to write here is that I discovered a joy and benefits of slow practice. This is something every master musician talks about, every good book on music practice (talking about a good book on music practice here’s one that’s just awesome as both an inspiration and a very practical tool: http://thepracticeofpractice.com/ ) talks about it but guys like me and many out there don’t take it seriously enough or not at all. I was one of the guys who for the most part didn’t take it seriously enough. I would practice slow occasionally but not nearly often enough. What I discovered is practicing slow should be how majority of my practice time is spent. For one it helps drilling what I’m working on much more solidly into by head. But the best thing I discovered or “discovered”, again should’ve been obvious, is if I’m playing it slow enough I can play anything. I mean anything. Well, I’m not a concert solo guitar player so for me my career is not on the line. I’m doing it because I get a kick out of playing music. So for me the song that’s played, say at 230bpm is just as enjoyable if I play it at 115bpm, it could be slower of faster, whatever. But the biggest benefit is that slow practice took so much frustration out of my practice sessions. All of it really. Now I’m actually looking forward to practice. The things I had the most trouble with, I can do now. Like staying on top of chord changes while soloing. But! I notice improvements when I go back to band practice too, where we play at regular or faster tempos. Now I usually don’t or rarely try to play something at the regular tempo at home. But when I get to band practice or a jam I feel better about my playing there too. I’m thinking nothing has improved my getting better faster like slowing down. Now interestingly enough, practicing slow is not easy at all. In my case anyway. What happens is, with all the extra time between the beats and the notes and the chords, your mind has much more space to wander off. And then you screw up. Or, my mind just eeks to go faster, I guess it’s just ingrained, so even if I play with a metronome or a back up track I constantly have to be conscious of staying at slow tempo. Now, after a few months of doing so it’s easier as well but I didn’t expect playing slow would actually take effort. Who would’ve thought? As a matter a fact one thing that told me I should just do this myself is in the book I mentioned earlier, The Practice of Practice. It mentions this music camp somewhere in NY state where some of the best musicians of all time; Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and such, come to teach. Well one of the instructors there in this class wants the students to play so slow, that if you’re able to recognize the melody, you’re playing it too fast. So I thought to myself “sh!t if these guys are doing it what am I waiting for?!”. And I did.
So practice slow and you’ll get there faster.
Buco's guitar blog 