The Tao of guitar part 1 : Speed is display of control.
by Chris Martins
www.chrismartins.com
Quite often the guitar student has to deal with very difficult licks, techniques, chord shapes even, and watching masters of the instrument leaves him with a bitter feeling as their movements look so effortless, while he can barely play a scale fast without making a mistake. Where does the difference lie between them? Actually, there is not as much difference to the required practice for both of them as most people would think. The principles the master applies to hone his craft are the same the aspiring virtuoso should apply to his own practice. Yet, it’s very difficult to explain the difference in mastery by the sheer volume of practice… Practice makes perfect as they say… but that’s only half the story, because actually “wrong practice makes worse”. So what is “correct practice”?
Let’s take an analogy here and use martial arts as an example… (You’ll notice along the articles that I love martial arts stories). Young guns in martial arts have in general some desire to display physicality, strength, and speed. The old master on the other hand, usually is very calm, centered and deals with his opponents in what seems a totally effortless manner… The main difference is that the old master has repeated the moves in a very accurate and precise way and has a control over his body that makes his techniques much more effective while needing very little energy. Well the same goes for guitar, it’s not how much you practice, it’s how well… (Well to be completely honest, how much matters a little as well). So let’s get a little bit into the details here, because I can already hear you saying “so go ahead dude, explain your stuff”…
So here we go….
The main move you want to make to take your playing to the next level is to slow down… Big time… Take a very simple phrase or lick or shift between two chords that you can’t do very well yet, and play it at half the speed you would already consider slow. Can you notice any uncontrolled movement in there? If the answer is yes, then that speed just became your new goal tempo. That’s right. If any uncontrolled motion can creep in at such a slow speed, what do you think will happen at warp speed? You will only get more of the same. At that ultimate slow speed, make the moves you are doing as close to perfect as possible. Once in a while close your eyes, and visualize yourself doing the exercise in the most perfect manner you can imagine for a few moments. Then work on the exercise again and let your mind and body sync’ up to help you achieve your goal. Then, and only then, reach out for a metronome and start playing the exercise against a beat. And work your way up, keeping in mind that “perfect practice makes perfect results”.
There is a very noticeable side effect to this approach. Your mind and body will “learn to learn” and as this kind of practice routine will become more and more natural to you, you’ll notice that new stuff takes less and less time to learn, bring up to speed, and master. You will have taught your system to develop a “learning mode”, which is an invaluable tool to gain mastery in much less time.