Clark Stokes recently posed a compelling question. He wanted to know the most effective way to divide his daily four to five hours of guitar practice to maximize results. Now, this is a question that guitarists, both beginners and seasoned, often grapple with. It’s easy to get caught up in a single technique or exercise, but does this approach lead to a comprehensive mastery of the instrument?
An advice that Sam shared suggested focusing on one skill until total mastery. While that makes sense on the surface, it may not necessarily be the best approach. You see, playing the guitar is like juggling multiple skills simultaneously. Isolating and perfecting only one skill at a time could lead to a lopsided expertise, making you great at performing that single exercise but less proficient in actually playing the guitar.
To truly master the guitar, it is crucial to maintain a balance across different skill areas. Think of it like navigating a multilevel parking deck. Each level has several sections (A, B, C, and so on) and you need to traverse all sections before moving up to the next level. In guitar playing, these ‘sections’ represent various aspects of the craft such as chords, scales, dexterity, and theory knowledge.
So, if your guitar practice is limited to one ‘section’ or skill, it would be akin to taking the stairs to the top of the parking deck without touching any of the other sections, resulting in an unbalanced and less comprehensive skill set.
The key to maximizing your practice time lies in setting specific goals and identifying what you want to achieve with your guitar playing. Let’s say you aspire to play Blues like BB King. In this scenario, you would need to delineate the specific areas or ‘sections’ that you need to practice – dexterity, technique (slides, bends), scales, chords, and a bit of theory.
Once you have this roadmap, it’s time to determine how you will distribute your practice time. This doesn’t mean sitting down for four straight hours of practice. Instead, break it up into manageable segments – maybe one hour in the morning, another around lunchtime, an hour in the afternoon, and one more in the evening. It’s important to take breaks in between to refresh your mind and rest your fingers.
Further, you need to be clear about what you want to improve in each ‘section’. Are you trying to improve your slides? If so, you’ll need specific exercises to help you get better. Having a teacher or mentor can guide you through these steps, ensuring you stay on the right track and progress in your guitar skills.
To sum up, effective guitar practice requires a structured approach. Define your specific goal, identify the areas you need to work on, decide how you want to distribute your time, and then have specific objectives for each area of practice. With a clear plan and diligent practice, you’ll find your guitar skills improving, and you’ll be well on your way to playing like BB King!
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