Practise - What is it?
- Mike Goodwin
- Apr 11, 2016
- 2 min read
In the early days, I often asked students if they practiced through the week. The answer always varied. Often there was a direct correlation between the amount of practice and the level of ability the student had achieved in the week, but other times the results became perplexing. Sometimes they would say yes, I practiced a lot but I'm still having trouble. Other times a student would tell me they had practiced a bit (code for twice) and then go on to play reasonably well. I knew from my own experience that the only way to improve was to practise. My definition of practice was that through repetition we learnt.
I used an exercise I called the changing exercise that saw the student change back and forth between two chords. It was supposed to be done in time with a 4/4 beat. It is in three stages.
So this actually worked quite well and often the students would develop their ability to change chord smoothly and in time and be able to play the exercise they were given. I think in hindsight it worked (most of the time) because repetition does in fact have a great deal of benefit. It isn't the be all and end all though when it comes to practice. Even my younger students are well aware that repeating a mistake is going to re-enforce the error.
Watching a TED-Ed talk I came across a new definition of practice as it applies to learning a new skill set.
"Practice is repetition with the goal of improvement"
This was an Ah - Ha moment to say the least. When we are repeating an action, we are essentially printing that action in our minds. Without going into a bunch of neuro-jargen, I can best describe what we are doing in our minds is creating pathways. Pathways the electrical signals in our brains can traverse to, for example, change from an A chord to a D chord. The more we traverse these pathways the stronger they become. As we practice a repetitive exercise like the changing exercise and we consciously refine our movements, consider our technique and perhaps tips and advice given during our lesson, we are using repetition with the goal of improvement. Obviously you would not want to start trying to play fast. Your brain won't cope or remember the steps you have taken. So start slow and allow your brain to process the movements, analyse the technique and remember the pathways.
Hang on, I haven't emphasised this enough...START SLOW ! Phew, that's more like it.
Developing good practice habits in the early stages is essential to succeeding on guitar. You will use these techniques all the way through your journey. I do love teaching guitar. Watching people's faces light up when they start making cool sounds they never thought they would be able to. So I want you to stick around and get through all my courses and the above advice well help you do just that.