Hone Your Craft and Get it On

By gilewitz on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 4:45pm

Use it or lose it. I can't think of a better cliché to explain why we should practice our craft. In my case I know that without constant attention to all the details that go into maintaining my guitar playing skills, there are many ways I can lose my own chops. Fingers get stiff and rusty, making tunes that once embodied finesse to appear clunky to both the player and listener. The struggle becomes more noticeable and that formerly effortless feel is lost. Even if you have been playing for years and you have heard someone state, “Oh, you make it look so easy", that comment will subtly disappear without a constant and dedicated practice routine.

Another way to lose it is with the gradual dissipation of a tune. If you can imagine a puzzle that is finished and every day or so when you’re not looking, someone takes a piece out of the puzzle. That is what can happen to your once beloved and memorized tunes that held a proud standing in your repertoire. The more notes or phrases that are fogged within a tune, the less likely you will re-visit the music and you will run the risk of that piece leaving its home in your repertoire.

So how do you use your skills that you have worked so hard to develop? Practice. I’m sure students have their own methods and there are many ways that are mapped out, often with the guidance of a good instructor. I tend to have the mindset of two major considerations: the development of new pieces to keep me interested in exploring and playing the instrument, and the almost surgical attention to detail in the maintenance of my existing repertoire. Granted, there are some pieces that require very little attention and there are even some I don’t mind releasing from the repertoire to make room for fresh material. I only have so much room in my brain. I sometimes wonder if one of my earlier recordings, “Synapse Collapse”, might have had something to do with one too many tunes on my memorization hard drive.

During practice sessions, I spend most of my time working on timing with the help of a metronome, along with expression and dynamics within phrases, and note treatments such as staccato effect, palm mutes, and vibrato. I also tend to seek out or sense the effectiveness of variations that might be available.

In a nutshell, play every day. If you can’t find the time to do this, do it anyway. Play before you go to bed and as soon as you get up. Focus on your breathing when you practice, too. While practicing, stay away from eating your meals at the same time because you will forget to chew as you focus on your session. Trust me on this one as I once discovered a forgotten mouthful of donut about a half hour into a practice session.