Have you ever run into the problem of slow progress on something you’ve been practicing?  That’s probably a ridiculous question, right?

If you know the correct approach, diversifying your practice can be very effective for a number of reasons.  However, if your approach to practice is more based on what you feel like doing instead of a clear strategy, practicing many things at once will lead to lousy results. 

The key thing to remember about practice is that it’s simply a means to train your brain.  As long as the relevant sections of your brain are functioning normally at the time, repetition of anything will lead to memorization and greater associated skill.  The more you are aware of this, the more you can use it to your advantage.  

My favorite metric for determining the effectiveness of my own practice is based on my noticeable progress on the day after I practice something.  The key phrase there is “on the day after,” not “on the day of.”  

If you’re practicing something effectively and focused in on something specific enough for your current skill level, your brain will actually continue to practice after you to go to sleep.  Now, this might sound like pseudo-scientific nonsense, but it is a well documented phenomenon.  There have been serious controlled studies done on the subject that make the fact of the matter pretty clear.  More importantly than that is that you can easily replicate the results yourself.  There is no more powerful way to expedite your progress and you can literally double your results from the same practice time.

On the other hand, if your practice is unorganized and somewhat random, you will not benefit from this very much at all.  It’s critical to clearly direct your mind to a specific task and repeat it enough times to make it appear important enough for your brain to continue working it out in the background.  

The keys are focus and repetition.

Now, using the metronome method I constantly tell you about is the most effective way to achieve this that I’m aware of – but there are other ways.  Pretty much any method of repetitively practicing a specific technique or part of a song enough times will kick your brain into gear. 

Here, it’s important to reiterate the motto of “perfect practice makes perfect.”  You can train your brain to practice something sloppy just as easily as you can train it to practice it with precision and fluidity.  This is the reason why I say that the gradual metronome method is the optimal method to achieve this with.

When I first was learning sweep picking back in my high school days, one experimental practice method I played with was to learn a pattern well enough to play it without paying attention to it and then repeat with the volume down while watching a movie.   While I can’t say this is an optimal method, it at least covers the bases of massive repetition and it certainly builds “muscle memory.” 

The truth is, however, if you want the very best results, absolute focus is a must.   

Playing the same thing over and over again for an hour might seem painfully boring to you.  At first, you might even have to fight against a feeling of boredom.  I can promise, however, after you’ve been doing it for awhile, it becomes quite an enjoyable, almost meditative experience.  It also becomes immensely rewarding when you start seeing those results you’ve been after for so long.  

Anyone can do it but only few will actually do it.  Most people will complain about how “hard” it is and never put the time in.  That’s the common approach and it’s no wonder that they don’t get the results they’re after.  It’s not that it’s hard, it’s that it requires real focus and some discipline.  The only real difficulty is getting yourself started.  After that, your own momentum will keep you going.     

Dan Mumm

Looking for something new to practice?  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

Seriously, how important is it?  People say you can do fine without it, is that true?  Let’s take a look.

Now, as I’m writing this, there is no way for me to know if you are someone with a vast knowledge of theory, someone who has a powerful aversion to learning theory or if you’re somewhere in between.  Regardless of where you stand, something that has been taken for granted like music theory is worth reexamining from time to time. 

There are a ridiculous amount of myths and misconceptions regarding music theory among the guitar community.  To really understand how theory should or shouldn’t be playing a role in your pursuit of the guitar, it’s important to dispel a few of these misconceptions.  

For the Rock or Metal guitarist, hearing about music theory can conjure up a variety of images.  Those images could be of something like sitting in a classroom, bored to death and waiting for class to end.  They might also be reminiscent of a miserable young violin student being forced to practice something they have learned to hate for many hours a day. 

Music theory might also remind you of some know-it-all musician you once knew who would spout off terms that they knew you’d never heard before just to let you know how “smart” they were – to set the record straight, that person probably had a tenuous grasp on the meanings of those terms at best.

At the very least, among guitarists with this aversion, music theory seems to represent the antithesis to all that is good about music.  It’s the thing that tries to put rigid restrictions on something that should be boundless.  It tries to make a science out of an art form. 

I’m not here to say you’re wrong if you can relate to any of those things.  I can personally relate to all of them.  But the misconception that’s most important to clear up is that these things only reflect how music theory is sometimes taught or used and have nothing to do with what music theory actually is.

We don’t learn music theory to lord it over people as if it’s some kind of special achievement.  We don’t learn music theory to get good grades.   We don’t learn music theory because someone tells us we have to.  We don’t learn music theory because it’s the end-all-be-all of musical knowledge. 

We learn music theory because it serves us in our purposes.

As I’ve said before, in one sense, music theory is a low resolution map of something that already existed.  In the same way that Astronomy maps out and measures the movements of celestial bodies, music theory maps out and measures the patterns found in music and labels them based on how they relate to each other and how they impact us.  

As mysterious as music really is, it can be (imperfectly) defined as the relationship between artistically organized sound and the human brain.  Theory doesn’t attempt to explain this relationship and it doesn’t attempt to explain the mystery, it simply maps and labels patterns.  Your subjective experience is required for the music to have any meaning at all.

The key to the importance of music theory is in the “maps and labels.”  By finding recurring patterns and giving them names, this allows us to think and talk about more and more complex ideas in more and more simple ways.  

Music theory gives you the ability to group ideas together and build on what has been done in the past.  It’s the product of all the music that came before and gives you more tools to express yourself with than you could possibly imagine. 

However, it should never be seen as a rule book. 

The greatest composers who ever lived proved this by pushing music forward through finding the beauty that exists in between the “rules.”  Each time they did, more music theory was born to explain what they did. 

In a way you could look at music theory as the study of what we like about music, what we consider good.  Mediocre and poor composers are quickly forgotten while great composers are remembered for generations.  Very little, if any, time is spent studying poor compositions while great compositions are sometimes studied for centuries. 

As long as people are creating music and using music theory as a foundation, that process will continue.  There is no limit to it because the potential variations of sound are infinite.  This constantly pushes music forward, making it more and more expressive and relatable as time goes by. 

For those that avoid music theory as a means of following their own path, it’s important to point out that originality does not come from ignoring music theory.  It’s quite the opposite actually.  If you’ve never learned any music theory and you pick up an instrument and start writing something, there is a 99% chance that you are coming up with something that countless other people have already come up with.  Under those conditions, the music you’ve heard throughout your life and the layout of the instrument basically guarantee it.  

In the case of something as refined as music theory: you need to know the “rules” to break the rules.

If you weren’t a great student and the idea of learning something like music theory is intimidating to you, put that right out of your mind. 

I was a terrible student in school.  Just the worst.  I didn’t learn music theory because a teacher told me to and I didn’t learn it because I thought I had to.  I learned music theory simply as a byproduct of pursuing what I was naturally passionate about.  

Every time I heard something in a song that I really liked, I wanted to know how it was done so I could replicate it myself.  I’ve read a lot about music theory in my life but pretty much every time it was simply to answer a specific question about a musical concept I wanted to absorb.  

If you follow a similar path, instead of learning a great deal about theory that you will never need to know or use, you can learn the precise things that you want and need to know.  This stacks over time and, after awhile, it all starts to come together in a way that you couldn’t imagine beforehand.  

If you’re learning a new scale, wouldn’t you like to know what a scale is?  Take a little bit of time to research it.  It doesn’t take much.  Once you’ve accumulated enough information over a little bit of time, you will be able to find or build whatever scale you need.  It takes a lot less energy than having to memorize so many similar and redundant patterns.  

You don’t need to go out and buy a textbook and you don’t need to read a treatise on it.  Simply find the answers to the little questions you have, whenever you have them.  Nothing could be easier with the internet at your fingertips.  Not only is this an easier way to learn theory, you will also retain that information and fully understand it because you will be applying it all in real time and continuously.

If you have an aversion to learning theory, chances are it’s because a variety of other people instilled it in you over time.  You may have played with other musicians who told you their own excuses of why they never learned theory and made the idea of learning theory seem “nerdy” or “uncool.”  You may have had a know-it-all friend like we talked about earlier.  Your school system may have lied to you and made you feel less intelligent than those students who were really good at memorizing things.  You may have had an overly strict and clinical music teacher who inadvertently taught you to hate or even fear music theory.  

The source of the aversion doesn’t matter too much.  In the end, simply don’t let other people’s insecurities influence how you approach something that you’re passionate about.  They don’t get to have a say in it.  It’s your passion.  Music theory belongs just as much to you as anyone else who has ever lived. 

Dan Mumm

Ready for the 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