I have so many thoughts about this. Lately my practicing style has changed immensely and I have decided to start writing a bit of an online practicing and learning manual. But I can leave you guitarists with a few tips to start with before I have a more polished article.

1. Record yourself. This is one of the most powerful ways to practice music and is often overlooked. Getting outside your own playing and hearing yourself will improve you almost instantly.

2. Practice frequently. Practicing for shorter time periods on a very regular (daily) basis is far better than cramming 8 hours in, then skipping a day.

3. Know the difference between playing and practicing. Practicing has specific goals in mind besides the grand goal of just “getting good” or “getting better”. Set mini-goals in your daily practice and lay out a daily plan to take steps toward achieving them.

Thanks for checking in! I hope to post some longer articles next week which will apply to the classical and flamenco guitar as well as other instruments.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Practicing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.