Practicing to Improve Quickly
A great article on how to improve!
by Matthew Brown
All right, you don't have any gigs coming up, your rehearsals with your group have grown stale, and you feel like a Ford Explorer, Firestones in a swamp, stuck in a rut. We’ve all felt like this at some time, and it’s dangerous! What began as swampland may turn into quicksand, and the next thing you know you're not picking up your instrument as often because playing it has become unrewarding, or worse, a chore.
It's at times like these that you need to break your old routine. That means creating a new one. But what should the new one be? What can you do?
Any good teacher knows that students will only achieve measurable progress by assessing their abilities, setting appropriate objectives, designing activities to help students meet those objectives, and then assessing again to measure their progress. If you're teaching yourself (and all of us are, at one time or another) then you should do the same!
Self-Assessment
This may be the hardest part. It means being honest about what you hear yourself play, and asking for critical feedback from people who know your playing. Here are some possibilities to consider:
- Style. You need to learn a new style of playing to increase the range of your playing. Your guitarist wants to add some new songs, and you don’t know their style well enough to play them.
- Technique. Your band mates keep telling you that on the fast tune you're missing some notes. Maybe it's time to clean that open-string slapped arpeggio pattern up! Or maybe you've noticed that your hands are getting tired by the end of rehearsal, and it's time to look at how you're playing those riffs over and over so you can play without getting tired.
- Time. "You're always dragging whenever we play a fast shuffle" your drummer says. Or: "Why can't we stay together on the ballad?" Bass players make the groove, and good time makes good grooves.
- Theory. You're playing tunes you simply don't understand! Maybe it's time you included a little reading in your "practice" routine.
A good practice routine addresses your current needs. When you assess yourself, focus your routine on what's weakest now- that's what will improve most quickly with concentrated work.
Setting Objectives
The best objectives are based on your needs, clearly stated, and easily measured. Say that after your self assessment you've decided to work on walking lines, shifting positions, playing slow tunes evenly, and understanding minor-seventh chords with flat fifths. Here are some possible objectives:
- I will play a walking line on two new standard tunes at 150 beats per minute, for 4 choruses.
- I will play evenly two new major scales on the G and D strings at 90 beats per minute, without excessive string noise.
- I will play all 12 minor-seventh flatted-fifth arpeggios as half notes at 50 beats per minute, singing each note.
Notice how the last two things you want to work on are included in your third objective. You want to understand the new chords by fixing them in your ear, and you want to play more steadily at slower tempos. These can be achieved at one time!
Obviously, you can't address every part of each objective at each practice session, so you structure your practice activities in a journal - which might just be a piece of scrap paper:
- Warm-up slowly with familiar scales or riffs. 10-15 minutes
- Cmn7-5, C#mn7-5, Dmn7-5 arpeggios, singing. 10-15 minutes.
- Walking lines on minor blues. 10 minutes.
- G major and D major single-sting scales and A-flat and E-flat single-string scales. 20 minutes.
- Free play until dinner!
You probably shouldn't change your routine for at least two weeks if you are setting more than 2 goals at a time. Which brings me to two psychological truths: Always reward yourself for your discipline (notice number 5!) and by practicing the same things consistently over time you will hear faster results.
Assessing Progress
These may be the easiest part! If your objectives were clear enough to begin with, you'll know when you've met one. If you think you might be fooling yourself, tape yourself playing, or have a friend listen to you play for a few minutes, just to say whether you're meeting your own standard or not.
Moving On
Let's say you've met your objective number one. You can now play a minor blues and Autumn Leaves. What now? Maybe your goal of improving walking lines was really meant to improve your understanding of jazz music so you can play it. So you go to a jam session and listen to a few more tunes being played, write down the titles, and start working on them. Maybe your real goal is to play at that jam session. When have you met that goal? When you're up there playing standards! It's up to you to decide if you want to continue to broaden your repertoire, and now one else.
Writing out routines to follow, with clear goals in mind, you’ll find that you accomplish more in less time. By introducing new goals and assessing your progress regularly, you avoid the trap of playing only what you know. You'll find yourself learning a lot more quickly - and getting a lot more fun out of your playing.
