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Shortcut to mastering the guitar
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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 Shortcut to mastering the guitar
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I got Jamey Adreas' self-published book "The Principles of Correct Practice" the other day, a prompt 2 days after putting the order in on his website. A lot of you guys have heard of this guy, probably, he has long hair, lives on the East Coast, and is a ferocious self-promoter. He's also very, very prolific, and his website has a ton of free materials, columns, promotion. The other week I posted a video from his website --How Not to play a G scale.
Well, I bit--and bought the book. I think it was $30 with shipping. I have to say, I'm very glad I got it. Now, the shortcut?
Jamey's teaching attitude is inspirational, in the sense that he believes any result is available to you, if you cultivate the proper approach. He presents his material in Understandings, Tools, and Exercises. An Understanding is just that--maybe the knowledge of how your fingers really learn, or what is really important to think about while practicing. A Tool is a method for sensing something about your playing. One Tool is called Following, where you pretend your eyes are like laser beams, carefully observing one aspect of your playing with complete concentration. The Exercises are, of course, just that.
There are many among us who believe that the good players were, for the most part, born that way. Sure, they might practice hard, and practicing hard is important, but the guy who plays scales real fast is just a "speed demon." I could never get from my slowness to fly like that! The guys who can play piece after piece are just born with great memories. I could never have a 3 hour repertoire. The guys who can play on stage are just born performers. I would just go to pieces.
Well, there are other ways of thinking about these things. For example, the East, that is, Asia, has a completely different take on things. They don't believe in Talent as we do, they believe in Hard Work. When Asians see a successful person, they attribute his success to working harder than everyone else, not to some innate quality. Recent studies on virtuosos have failed to detect ANY "natural talent" in the mix at all--those who are virtuosos have merely put in 10,000 hours of practice. At a certain prestigious musical university, the players were studied, and the top echelon players had put in twice as much practice, over their lifetimes, as those on the lower rung.
Now, of course there is talent. I will save the discussion on what is talent for another day. The point is, there is a viewpoint, a very real viewpoint, that talent as we understand it has very little to do with success, in music or in anything.
Back to Jamey Andreas. He is of this ilk, that says don't worry if you don't think you have talent. If you are taught the right material, and if you practice correctly, you will have results many times greater than you ever thought possible. If you put in the time and effort, you will become as good as you want.
Ridiculous, right? Guys. Guys, I believe him! One reason I suggest you check this book out.
The content of his book contains his observations about how the body operates, how the fingers learn and how they work. Also, the correct way to obtain certain results. The biggest emphasis is on focus and on tension.
Focus, absolute concentration, is necessary in practice to have consistent, high level results. When you play a scale, you must learn to become aware of every aspect of your movement, you must control your fingers so that they do exactly what you want them to do. This is done by practicing Very Very Slow. I'm losing some of you guys here, I know it. Well, keep in mind this: What do you want from the guitar? What are you willing to do? If you thought you could get as good as Tomatito, then would you work for it? Man, I will!
So, Focus. Don't noodle on the guitar for two hours, don't let your attention wander. You have to be a pit bull, get on one problem and don't let it go until you've mangled it and torn it to shreds! Then on the next problem. When you're done with practice, it should be your mind, not your body, that's tired.
I know, I know, guys. You play guitar for relaxtion, not for a job. That's fine. But I say the option is there. The option is there, if you put in the focus, the tremendous concentration, the results will come and they will come fast. As Jamey writes, a lot of people come to a practice session with uncertainty, with fear. will I be able to learn anything, will I have gotten worse? He says that he approaches it like a craftsman approaches a job. With the simple confidence that he will observe the problem, analyze it, utilize his tools to patiently solve the problem, ending with a job well done, every day. I think that's very empowering.
After focus, there is tension. Jamey believes most technical errors are the result of tension, so a good deal of the book talks about learning to detect and eliminate the tension.
Well, this is not reveletory, but the fact is, it's True! Personally, I have struggled with the specter of picado for about a year and a half now... every bit of progress I have made has been because of the elimination of tension. Whenever I miss a note, whenever I can't play as fast or as loud as I want, whenever I mess up, I can usually go back and realize it's because I was holding tension in my left hand, my thumb, or my middle finger. I urge you all to be aware of this tension. It's the most important technical consideration there is.
After reading the book, I watched Tomatito play. Man, that is one smooth dude. He has no tension in his body!
I realized that my conception of what it is to play guitar was fundamentally flawed. When I heard Paco pull off a run or do a powerful rasgeuo, my hand would sympathetically tense. I equated the power and speed with force, with a clenched fist. Well it's not like that at all. One must be relaxed... the power has nothing to do with tension.
Well guys, I must sound like one of Jamey's disciples... well there's a lot in the book I don't agree with, and thre's a lot that I will not be bringing into my playing, but I tell you this: I like the book and it is now a part of my daily practice. I urge anyone who feel his progress is not as fast or sure as he wants, who is willing to put in some Work, some focused, concentrated practice (even ten minutes a day!), to get this book and to Do it. I feel very upbeat, very empowered by Jamey's attitude, his knowledge, and teaching, and I would like everyone who has struggled with their playing to do the same.
OLE!
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 4 2003 16:14:50
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Patrick
Posts: 1189
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Portland, Oregon
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 RE: Shortcut to mastering the guitar (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Michael,
What time is the revival meeting?
Yes, as I mentioned a week or so a ago, he is a great self-promoter. But, if you put all that aside, the guy really knows his stuff. I think one of the keys to his method is, as you say, “very slow” deliberate practice. He calls it ‘No Tempo’ practice. When I first read his book, I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. I thought he was practicing very slowly, with no regard for timing of the piece. but that is not the case. He suggests playing very, very slowly to develop muscle memory, but staying in timing, and increase the tempo gradually.
He now has a CD available that looks very interesting.
Pat
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 4 2003 18:01:49
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gerundino63
Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands
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RE: Shortcut to mastering the guitar (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Hi Michael
Very nice post! Once, I studied Tai- Chi, it looks like it have the same principles.
Your tension in your body while you play is much bigger than you would think!
About 15 years ago I had lessons from Ricardo Mendeville, from the Paco Pena
conservatory in Rotterdam. As you know ( I red it in one of your former post,),
They practice your thumb endlesly, together with very simple appregio's, but the use of that is, to get all the tension out of your hand. In the beginning, you think you have no tension, but, you still have. It takes long training to play with no tension ( once I had blasters on my right thumb!).
Well, Michael, keep your nice post comming.
greetings, Peter
P.S. I still play with some tension, still working on it!
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 4 2003 18:18:33
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Billyboy
Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003
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RE: Shortcut to mastering the guitar (in reply to Bob Arbuckle)
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I doubt it. I once asked Nick from the other board, what the criteria would be to get on the coarse,still not sure, you have to go for an audition, but I would think the main atributes you had to show would be your finacial ability to spend a few years in Hollond with little income, the likley hood of you being able to survive a few years paying the coarse fees, and accomodation, food etc. Your playing ability, I would think would play second fidle to all this, forgive me if this sounds pesamistic, but I choose to live in the real world.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Sep. 4 2003 20:10:49
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Merle
Posts: 218
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
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RE: Shortcut to mastering the guitar (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Michael, I had a feeling you would get this book when we discussed it a few weeks ago.
Right now, my playing is horrible, however, during the time we were all at the FT forum, my playing was much worse!
It was a couple of months or so, before the FT shut down, that I got Jamey's book and started to incorporate all the things he was teaching. From that point on was when I started to really see a difference in my playing (going from really bad to horrible)! ;>)
And the shoulder pain I talked about, totally disapeared! I was stressing the hell out of my shoulder, and did not even know it!
But, all in all, it's a good book for any guitar player, to at least read and incorporate the concepts that he teaches.
Glad you like it!
Merle
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Date Sep. 6 2003 18:03:27
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