| By :
Nick Clipton
Copyright (c) 2010 Nick Clipton For those who are going through guitar learning for the first time, the word practice means tedious, boring, and a waste of total time. Most probably the learner is thinking along the lines of 'I know this already, why I have to practice this over and over again?' The point of practicing is to make guitar playing like an extension of the fingers. It should be flawless, no hesitance in between shifting from one string to the next, from one chord to the next. It takes practice to do just these simple and basic exercises. That is why scales were composed, to make the fluidity of playing the guitar become seamless. Simply knowing what the chords are or the strings are, or where the fingers are supposed to be pressed on which frets is a time consuming and concentration hugging affair. For beginners, the shifting process is difficult especially if the fingers are not doing what it is told to by the brain. The reading of the guitar tab can be learned easily. So the mind knows what it means, can it make the fingers do the walking on the fretboard? Most likely, the mind is telling the fingers to move and the fingers get frozen. Why? Because it lacked that one guitar learning activity that is highly essential to playing any instrument: practice. Developing good practicing habits will train the eyes, brain and the fingers to do their assignments. This will lead to faster playing capabilities and better connection between the three. The usual complaints of beginners are that they know what they are supposed to do but they cannot do it. This only takes practice to make it easier. Eventually, the learning will reach a level where there is nothing more to be learned in terms of identification of the notes and the timing of each one. Now is the time for guitar learning in terms of rhythm and timing. Timing and rhythm makes the music whole. If there is no timing, the notes can be played but the music does not make sense. There is no expression behind the notes being played and if there is no expression, there is no 'feel' to the music. How to compare? Well, an obvious choice would be the piece 'Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This is a piece that involves a lot of shifting chords and flats and sharps. The great guitarist can make the imagination go with the flow of the music and make it imagine the flight patterns of the bee. But, even if the guitarist can play each note perfectly, if there is no 'feel' behind the playing, then the only thing left is technique, not the essence of the music.
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