This book has come up time and time again, and @Nate Savage's recent mention of it led me to this Post. I have it on my kindle, and started by reading it like a novel. But since it had a lot of great information, I started it over and began to read it like a textbook. I'll pass on the notes I took as I read it here for the Fam to kick around. I admit here I haven't read it in awhile, but hoping if we get a discussion going it will provide an incentive for us all.
Chapter 1- Active Listening- "If you can't sing it, you can't play it". Have to admit, I get it, but this didn't really resonate with me. There are songs I can sing and can't play, that's for sure!
Chapters 2-3. All about going slow. Go slow enough so errors are avoided. Proper strategy is to fix mistakes immediately. Technique for fixing errors is based on your ability to perceive the error.
Chapter 4- Practice slowly enough to avoid mistakes-if you're making any mistakes at all you're going too fast. A guitar teacher has a way of knowing if someone is practicing too fast-they recognize the song! Objective is to practice slowly enough so mistakes are impossible.
This part hits home. As I re watch some of Nate's videos, he stressed going slow in every one. As a raw beginner watching them, I'm sure I heard Nate say that, but I certainly didn't listen. Those early mistakes still haunt me today 2+ years later. Although I sometimes wonder if you need a certain amount guitar experience, or seasoning to even realize the error of your ways. Now I realize I've improved, though I'm far from accomplished. But I certainly think I understand Guitar at a level far beyond my clueless early days. I recognize the importance of practicing slowly now. I had no idea how important it was then. FYI, @J.Rod has spoken of this eloquently and often, in regards to his own history.
Hope this all made sense. I'll leave it here, to be continued I hope.
@Irwin1957
Thanks for the mention and yes I still stand by all I said in a previous post. Also so glad to hear you realize the importance of it it all. As I've mentioned in the past, I always internalize any song before even beginning to learn it. Meaning, before I even begin learning and playing a song I really spend lots of time just listening to it. I guess that's part of the "being able to sing it before you can play it "concept." I study the rhythm, timing and feel of it all along with all else my ears can pick up on. More importantly what I can learn from it all that I can later apply elsewhere. Many times I even go deep into the rabbit hole searching for any live performances, interviews and or documenters on the artist or band which really motivate and inspire me even more as well. lol
With regards to learning challenging parts, yes I always slow it way down and drill it over and over again till the muscle memory finally kicks in. Just this week I was doing that with a lead line that was giving me trouble. It's helped tremendously and I'm now at about 90% to were it should be, when last week playing that one part seemed hopeless.
Whats funny with me is that theirs always that one little challenging part of a song that drives me crazy testing my patience. lol The good side of pushing ourselves to overcome those challenging areas is, it definitely takes us to that next level. I always try remind myself of that ha! lol
Anyway that book sounds great and glad to hear your learning lots from it. Thanks for re-sharing it. No doubt it'll help even more with your already great progress.
Slow is Smooth. Smooth is Fast.
Coincidence that we are talking about slowing things down to get them correct and clean while on another website they are pushing beginners to play fast and not worry about being sloppy or mistakes; just push thru it.
Loving this discussion!! I haven't read the book yet, but because of @Nate's recommendation I plan to dive into it very soon. After reading @Irwin1957's synopsis, I'm excited to see that I'm already putting the main points to work! Today I spent a good chunk of my guitar practice listening to a part I was having trouble with (because of the syncopated rhythm) and was singing the line over and over to get into into my head. I still don't have the part down yet, but singing the line was definitely helpful.
@J.Rod- Interesting to hear you say the lead line you were working on felt hopeless. Guess it proves even advanced level players still encounter stumbling blocks that need to be worked through slowly and methodically. My big hurdle continues to be the transition from the Open D major to the C#m Bar. I broke it down, and can get the Bar down in time, but not the Am using middle, ring and pinky. And when I try the entire bar, I am always one beat behind, no matter how slow the metronome. This will take awhile to get down, not putting a timetable on it.
@Chelsea Amber while something I tried isn't what you did, it's sort of in the same neighborhood. I thought of a song I really loved, and found it had a super easy chord progression, D,Em,G that repeated for the entire 3 minutes. Listened to, and then sang the song. I ultimately played the song and sang along to it. Here's the key part. I tried very hard to not let the singing interfere with the bigger priority of playing the song in time at 100 bpm. I'm not a professional singer so I'll ask you Chelsea: When you're singing along while you play, do you consciously separate those two elements?
Yes, I'll usually spend some time on singing and guitar separately and try to get at least one of them to the point where I can do it on autopilot. If a song is particularly difficult to sing then I'll generally go for open chords since I can do that on autopilot while I singing. If a song is really difficult to play then I may opt to not sing at all in a particular section of the song. Either way, I practice the two elements separately before putting them together. :)
@Irwin1957
Yes at all levels we deal with challenges. lol Its those challenges we continually take on that keep us improving and growing.
As far as that transition from the open D to the C#m in the beginning that can be challenging so just keep working through it. I would suggested putting on a timer on for a minute and just practice the C#m by just sightly lifting it off the fretboard then placing it back down repeating that over and over again for the minute to develop the muscle memory. Then for another minute switching back and forth from the open D to the C#m without even strumming on either one. It's good exercise. When the transition begins to feel good then add the strumming starting at a slow place. That should definitely help with that. Let me know how it goes.
I'm sure @Nate and @Chelsea will advise on that as well. :-)
Great discussion. I think that is indeed important to slow things down VERY slowly to where you are not making mistakes, but at the same time I can see where new beginners just want to have fun and play something so they don't get bored. Having said that, I think it's great to divide up your practice time into multiple areas. The first area where you buckle down, stay disciplined, stay SLOW, and do the work that many aren't willing to do. At the same time, we need to have time designated where we just have fun and don't worry about things not being perfect.
Another aspect to consider is this. Yes, it's essential to slow things down and program them in so we are not making any mistakes. One problem that can pop up with this is that some players may stay at a slow speed forever and not progress to the point where they speed it up to the original tempo. At some point you've got to try and speed it up even if it's not perfect. I don't mean that you throw your SLOW methodical practice out the window, I just mean that at some point you've got to try pushing yourself.
The best example I have of this is a piece I was working on in college called Etude #2 by Villa Lobos. It's a technical nightmare and you have to practice it super-slow to program it in and even have a chance of playing it correctly. After about 2 months of working on this, my teach told me, "at some point you've just got to say screw it and just go for it full tilt, otherwise you will never know what it should feel like to play it at full speed". Here is a link to the song if you are curious about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEHjD4CyAU8
It takes so much discipline go recognize when you are playing to fast and need to slow something WAY down. This makes me think of learning Windy & Warm this past year. It took me a good 6 months to learn that song when I know it should have only taken me a 3 months or so. It's a lesson I keep re-learning. :)
I’ve have a technique that I use to get a song upto speed and fairly clean. I learn and practice it slow. Then when I speed up 10bpm and and play it thru a time or 2. Then another 10bpm and then again until i reach the target speed. Then I go 10 bpm faster. I play about twice at each speed. After the fastest return to the target speed.
Finally the next day I do the same thing except my starting point is 10bpm faster than yesterday.
I take a similar approach. :)
I don't like slowing songs down to learn them. What I do is I'll listen to a section that I want to learn like a verse. Then I look up the verse chords or tab. Then play it at full speed, yeah there might be mistakes and most of the time it's me forgetting the next chord or tab. If I hit a wrong note then I stop and confirm the right one then play it again and repeat until I make no mistakes.
If I can't make a chord change fast enough, I just isolate the chord change and just keep changing as fast as I can, sometimes faster than the song requires.
Solos tend to be what I need to slow down just because my brain can't process the information going so fast, so I will play them at a comfortable speed to memorize where my fingers need to go (no metronome and timing may not even be even) and then once my fingers are falling into the right place I go back to playing that section full speed.
It would drive me crazy if I slowed a song down and practiced it until perfection before moving on.
@Nate did add something very important that I left out when I do slow things down to work out any challenging areas and that is ... At some point you've got to try and speed it up even if it's not perfect. I don't mean that you throw your SLOW methodical practice out the window, I just mean that at some point you've got to try pushing yourself. I couldn't agree more.
In end for me personally, I'll use what ever methods I find that work me. If it doesn't work I simply discard it and try something else. Not everyone will go about things the same way and that's okay as well. :-)
And 1 technique doesn’t always work every time.