Practice is a subject that has just about a million different angles to discuss.  Arguably the most important of all of them is in regards to the phrase “practice makes perfect” – or what I would change to “perfect practice makes perfect”

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you’ve no doubt heard me talk about this on several occasions.  Chances are, you will hear it on several more.  That’s no accident.  This is the sort of information that is easy to understand, easy to apply and just as easy to forget. 

Taking this advice on a few occasions isn’t enough to make any lasting impact on your practice and overall results.  It’s necessary to hammer this philosophy into your mind through repetition and make it a standard part of your approach to practice.  Any lapse on it and you can fall right back to the same problems that impeded your progress for so long.  

It’s simple to understand and there’s nothing about it that requires special knowledge to believe it’s true. When you hear it, it seems like common sense.  

It goes something like this: 

Whatever you practice through repetition is how your muscle memory learns to play it.  If you practice sloppy, your playing will always be sloppy.  If you practice with perfect technique and articulation, your playing will always have perfect technique and articulation.  

It’s as simple as that. 

So how do you practice something new with perfect technique and articulation?  It sounds impossible, right?  I mean, you’re still learning it.  There has to be some room for error..
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It’s true that you have to know the basic elements of something before you can play it perfectly.  If you’ve never learned how to alternate pick, then trying to learn an alternate picked shred run is a bad idea.  You have to take things in the right order.  But if all the fundamental pieces are in the right place, you can practice anything new with absolute perfection.

It’s all about memorizing a section of what you’re learning, as small as it needs to be, and then practicing it as slow as you need to in order to always play it perfectly.  

Imagine that you are learning a shred pattern that ascends through all 6 strings on the guitar.  

What are the things you need to be able to do in order to play it perfectly?  

Well first of all, you need to have enough strength and dexterity in your fingers to be able to fret the notes properly.  That’s pretty basic.  The same thing is true for being able to alternate pick with string changes.  You need to know or figure out the proper fingering and you might need to shift positions during the pattern.  You definitely need to have the pattern memorized before you start seriously practicing it.  

Each of those pieces can be practiced on their own, then combined together and so on and so forth.
 
You could start by practicing alternate picking by itself with the metronome at an extremely slow speed, so your timing is exact.  Incrementally increase the tempo, and continue up until the basic alternate picking is comfortable.  

Then practice repeating just the notes on the 6th string with the metronome, the same way you did with the alternate picking.  

Add the next string and then combine it all together.
 
Then start on the 4th string and repeat the process.  Combine those two sections together, and so on.
 
By the time you get to the end, you will have the pattern down with absolute precision.  It will be perfect.  Then you can practice the whole pattern with the metronome in order to slowly and steadily increase the speed to where it needs to be.

You should be doing this for everything that you learn.  It might seem tedious or time consuming, but the process will get exponentially faster over time.  If you do this absolutely consistently, then before you know it, you will be able to play most things on the guitar without having to practice very much at all.
 
I diligently worked with this method, and still do when it’s required.  Now, when I write or take on a new song, I typically have the entire song perfected within two days.  Sometimes, this includes new techniques and challenging sections.  And that’s without having to spend much time on either of those days.  Just enough to memorize the song and enough repetition so my subconscious practices it while I sleep.  The next day, it’s pretty much ready to go. 

You will eventually achieve the same results if you follow this method exactly.  The trick is to never take shortcuts… ever. 

Just remember this: it’s not “practice makes perfect” but “perfect practice makes perfect.”

Dan Mumm

Ready for that next challenge?  Check out my massive catalog of guitar related products, covering everything from Metal versions of Classical pieces, Neo-Classical Shred technique, Sweep Picking, and more!  See what’s on sale today at the link below:

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One of the main reasons people are drawn to the guitar is the idea of self-actualization.  Because the guitar is a means to express oneself, to see measurable personal growth and to find success in an incredibly competitive space, it’s a beacon to the ambitious.  Of course, this can lead to a bit of a catch 22 that many serious guitarists have to deal with at some point.  This has to do with a little thing we call ego.

When you hear the term “ego” as it relates to guitarists, you probably call up a very specific stereotype in your mind.  The arrogant rock star, lacking self-awareness to the point of absurdity, who constantly reminds everyone of their importance.  But that isn’t what I’m referring to today.

Part of the way in which we are able to accomplish new goals in life is our ability to imagine ourselves doing something that we can’t do yet.  That alone requires a good deal of self-confidence.

On the other hand, you probably know at least a few people who are always down on themselves. When you make a suggestion to them, they will invariably say things like “what’s the point?” and “I’d just mess it up.”  I’d be willing to bet that those people are not skilled guitarists.

In order to maintain an effective degree of self-confidence there’s a certain amount of ego required.  It’s the sort of thing that leads to visions in your mind that tell you that you’re working towards something that will be important some day.  In order to do this, it becomes necessary to take control of your focus and sometimes control the information that comes into your mind.

For example, if you surround yourself with child prodigies who are a fraction of your age and twice as good at the guitar as you, that might not lend itself to building confidence in your own potential.  Seeing a child prodigy “show you up” from time to time can be a good motivating force, but seeing it every day might just feed that sinister (and dishonest) voice that tells you that you’ll never be good enough.

On the other hand, if you simply avoid watching or listening to any player that is better than you as a means to protect your ego, you are committing yourself to absolute failure.

For one thing, without seeing what is new and what is possible, you won’t have any idea of what is necessary to be competitive with your playing. And, while music is obviously not about competition, on an instrument like the guitar, some degree of competition is important to drive the art forward and to ensure that you are at least keeping up with the basic standards of playing that are expected.  Of course, this only applies if your goal is to be a professional guitarist.

If you constantly avoid “subjecting yourself” to guitarists who are far better than yourself, you also lose out on one of the greatest motivating forces there is.  A little pang of envy from time to time can be seen as the rocket fuel of ambition.  You just have to train yourself to turn discouragement into determination.

All in all, I would say one of the most important things to do when working towards greatness on the guitar is to find balance between the feelings of confidence and discomfort. Keep yourself “hungry” and challenged, be willing to admit that you have a long way to go to compete and be unwilling to let it stand.

Dan Mumm

Ready for that next challenge?  Check out my massive catalog of guitar related products, covering everything from Metal versions of Classical pieces, Neo-Classical Shred technique, Sweep Picking, and more!  See what’s on sale today at the link below:

www.Sellfy.com/DanMumm