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I want to address an issue that seems to keep coming
up for people who
are familiar with my work, and beginning to use my
methods. People are
reading my essays, and it seems a new awareness is
beginning to dawn for
them, which is good, that's the whole point. But for
many people, it is a very
disconcerting experience. I have gotten letters from
people who have read
some things I have written, and become afraid to
practice! They are so
aware of, and on their guard against, excess muscle
tension, and the
devastating effects for the developing player, they
are afraid to touch a
string!
They start to feel like that song by Al Yankovich,
"Everything You Know Is
Wrong". They realize that even though they may have
been playing for 25
years, there are certain really fundamental things
they have never known,
and if they did know them from the beginning,
everything would have gone
differently for them in their growth as guitarists.
Well, that IS the truth. That is the message I am
always trying to get across. I
am always trying to convey to people that if you have
tried to learn the guitar
and failed, it is not you, it is the approach to it
all that is at fault. If you are
stuck at a certain level of development, it is not
you, it is your approach that
is keeping you there. Change the approach, and you
will create different
results. I know this is a fact, because I do it every
day, for myself, and for
others.
Knowing the fact that the approach you use to learn
the guitar is THE
key-determining factor in your success or failure to
actually learn, these three
conclusions follow:
1.Playing the guitar well is NOT reserved for just
some special people. It
is available and possible for everyone
2.You are never too old to learn to play the guitar
well. 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,
you are still young in guitar playing years In
fact, as soon as you touch
the guitar in the right spirit, you will begin to
become younger.
3.You can undo bad habits you have learned along the
way. You can
begin the process of undoing bad habits right
away, when you begin to
acquire the correct understandings, and use the
approaches based on
them.
So, even though it is a shock to find out that you
have had a bad or
insufficient approach for years, you must get over
that shock right away. In
fact, get used to it, it's only the beginning! Get
used to feeling like an idiot,
get used to feeling like a beginner. Staying with that
feeling positions you in
the best possible way for being able to see what YOUR
obstacles to growth
really are. As soon as you think you are "complete" in
some way as a
guitarist, you will be unable to see your own weak
spots.
Now that we have the proper attitude in focus, let's
talk about how to go
about "managing" the process of changing bad playing
habits. How do we
actually conduct ourselves, and our practicing and
playing? As I have said,
some people become paralyzed, afraid to play, afraid
of undoing work done
in practice sessions by what they do when they play.
And for those who play
professionally, it is of course, absolutely necessary
that they continue to play,
even if they are doing "remedial" work on their
technique.
People ask, "should I stop playing everything I am
used to playing, until I get
rid of all my bad habits"? Well, if you have a lot
more discipline than I have,
go ahead and do that! If you can stand not making
music for months, go
ahead, but I don't recommend it.
An extreme example of this would be to entirely stop
playing any of our usual
music, where all the bad habits show themselves, and
buckle down to things
like the Foundation Exercises in my book, or the ones
I have written about in
my essays. You could work on those for months and
months until you felt you
had overcome your bad habits, and then go back to
playing music. I'd have
to love self-punishment a whole lot more than I do
(which is not at all!) to take
that route. I need fun and enjoyment in my life on a
daily basis, so I can't go
with that one!
I prefer to be wise like the Buddha, and take the
Middle Path. This is the one
I have chosen, and I will describe it for you.
First, if you are using my book, begin to do all the
Foundation Exercises,
because they will start to undo the foundation of ALL
your bad habits. Do
them every day for perhaps ten minutes. If you are not
using my book, get all
you can from my essays, and apply those approaches,
experiment with
them, and elaborate upon them, and adapt them to new
situations.
Second, after coming to an awareness of the existence
of a "bad habit",
develop an understanding of HOW it got there. What
WEREN'T you doing
that allowed that situation to develop. Of course, it
always reduces down to
something you weren't aware of that you should have
been paying attention
to, been more INTENSE about during your practice.
Third, absolutely spend a good amount of time in
practicing REVERSING
that habit. Practice in a new way, where you make sure
you DO what you
weren't doing before. Analyze the essence of that bad
habit, extract it from
it's musical context, and perhaps make up "auxillary
exercises" based on
the essence of it. Use all the practice techniques
that I teach to effectively
begin this process of reversal.
Fourth, make sure the reversal of the habit is
actually beginning to take
place. This means we make sure that our practice is
effective. If it's not, go
back to steps One and Two and Three!
Fifth, take up one of your usual pieces of music where
that habit has been
showing itself by producing UNWANTED RESULTS, and we
begin to
practice IT in the same careful way that you did the
exercises you were using
to change the essence of the bad habit.
As weeks and months go by, your old "bad habit" will
begin to weaken, it will
change. It will be replaced by the new finger action
you are training into the
fingers. The important point to realize is that the
new habit WILL take over, if
you are doing the proper proportion of CORRECT
PRACTICE on the bad
habit. Merely playing the music where the bad habit
displays itself will not
disturb the changes you are building into the fingers
by your powerful,
correct practice. As time goes by, the new habit will
begin to show itself IN
your playing, and become stronger and stronger.
For instance, the process may go like this:
I notice I have trouble with a fast scale passage in a
piece I am playing.
I notice a particular note starts disappearing when I
reach a certain speed.
The note is being missed.
I notice the finger responsible for playing that note
is the third finger. It is not
getting to the note because it is going up in the air
in reaction to the second
finger being used right before it in that particular
scale passage. In other
words, it is tensing in reaction to the movement of
it's neighboring finger,
and I have not been paying attention to it. I realize
this is a bad habit that
pervades my playing, a third finger that tenses up in
reaction to the use of
the second finger.
Now I know I have to work on something very
fundamental. I have to work on
the behavior of my third finger, and change the way it
reacts to it's neighbor
being used, the second finger. If I can get down to
the matter with that
degree of specificity, that degree of clarity and
focus, I am in a position to
cause major Vertical Growth. If I can change the way
that finger is behaving
in that situation, I will see many playing problems I
am having in other pieces
of music begin to "melt", and eventually disappear.
I must find a way of practicing that movement that
DOES NOT ALLOW the
bad action to occur. Principled Players know that
means using Posing, No
Tempo Practice, and the Basic Practice Approach, all
done with the proper
intense focus.
Here is a simpler scenario for beginning players.
Perhaps you suffer from
the common complaint of not being able to change
chords smoothly so you
can sing that old favorite of yours without feeling
like a new driver learning to
drive a stick shift (go, stall, go, stall, etc.)
Well, that is very simple. You are simply suffering
from shoulder tension
while making the moves (also, tension in the muscles
of the upper back and
chest, they all move the arm). Because of this, you
must address the
fundamental aspects mentioned before. You cannot
control your fingers, or
even train them, because control is being choked off
higher up, in the larger
muscles.
Now, the challenge will be to be able to use the
practice approaches that
CAN actually change something like that. Users of "The
Principles" know
that this means Posing, and No Tempo practice, and the
use of The Basic
Practice Approach. Again, unfortunately, too often I
meet readers of my
book who are NOT really using these practice
approaches. They bought the
tool, but they don't use it! Those that do, see the
results.
Copyright © 2000 Jamie Andreas
Click here for more of Jamie's articles
Copyright 2002 Jamie Andreas.
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Jamie’s provocative writings examine all aspects of becoming a true musician…the technical/physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Guitar virtuoso, recording artist, composer, and teacher of 30 years, Jamie is recognized by music experts around the globe for her major contribution to the advancement of guitar education.
Her method book, “The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar” (1999) continues to bring the highest acclaim, world renowned as “The International Bible For Guitarists”, and the “Holy Grail Of Guitar Books.” With a straight forward writing style, her tried and true, result-oriented guitar book powerfully reveals the correct practice methods that no other book has revealed…taking the student from the beginning stages all the way to the highest levels of virtuosity.
Jamie is already familiar to aspiring guitar players, as her wisdom is present throughout the Web on all major guitar sites, including her own. Visit: 
