In our guitar course at Do Re Mi Studios, we teach students how to practice. This is because many students do not know how to practice. This article explains 5 common mistakes made by students. In the article, I will also explain how to fix the mistakes. The aim here is to make your practicing more effective so that you get better results and less frustration.
Mistake 1: Setting up the guitar in an inconvenient location
Leaving your guitar in places such as under your bed or on top of a cupboard, does not encourage you to practice. Set up your guitar in a place where you can easily access it. Make sure you can see your guitar in the room you are setting it up. This will mean that every time you go into the room it will remind you to practice. In our guitar course, we recommend you get a guitar stand and leave your guitar on it so that you can see it when you walk in the room. Ideal rooms to set up your guitar are your bedroom and your living room. This is of course subjective to the space available in your home.
Mistake 2: Not practicing!
We all have extremely busy lives these days and it is easy to make practicing your guitar not a priority. However, try to set time aside to practice. Ideally, you should be practicing daily for a minimum of 30 minutes. However, this may not be realistic with your lifestyle. Therefore, aim to practice for at least 30 minutes 4 time a week. If that is still not a realistic time schedule, practice 15 minutes 4 times a week. Failing that, any practice is better than no practice at all! Ensure that you have an organized practice schedule with goals set for each practice session.
Mistake 3: Practicing without a break
Practice for short periods of time. Regular breaks means that each time you come back to practice you will be more concentrated and fresh. As mentioned earlier, in our guitar course we recommend you practice at least 30 minutes per day. I would then divide the 30 minutes practice into 10 minutes blocks.
Mistake 4: Using incorrect fingers
Most music scores will give you recommended fingering for the notes. We encourage you to use the recommended fingering in our guitar course. Two reasons for this are:
- By sticking to a sequence of fingering you will memorize the piece quicker and thus it will save you time learning.
- Being consistent with fingering will make you more confident and secure when performing the piece in front of an audience.
Note: If it feels uncomfortable to use the fingers recommended, change them to suit you.
Mistake 5: Practicing too fast
Slow down! All of us would of course love to be able to look at a piece of music and play it straight away at the tempo it is set. However, this is not realistic. When you play faster than you are capable, it will actually take you longer to learn. Playing fast may also lead you to develop technique mistakes that you will have to fix up later. So, really slow down! Give your motor coordination and brain a chance to learn the music.
Later, when you are comfortable with the music at a certain tempo, try to play it a bit faster. If, at that faster speed, you start making mistakes, slow it down again to a comfortable speed. Be patient with this and you will learn the music a lot faster!
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