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A Gradual Approach To Practice And The 75% Rule
All of us have been there, we hear a great piece, buy the score, and begin diligently working through the piece. Two months into playing it we get frustrated, put it down, and feel as though guitar just isn’t in the cards for us. This, of course, is a completely backward approach to practice.
Marathon Approach To Practice
Let’s imagine that you want to run a marathon. Tomorrow you get up with the intention to run 26 miles. You do this every day until you realize it will never happen and you quit. The same holds true to learning the guitar. Pieces must be chosen at appropriate levels for increased technical difficulty that push you just a bit further but not so much that it causes great frustration and time.
75% Rule Of Practice
Obviously, a good teacher will be able to guide you in this process. One method without the help of a teacher is the 75% rule. When learning a piece of music, can you reach continuity of playing at 75% of the tempo within three or four weeks of beginning the piece? Some piece may take longer, but they should not take too much longer to get to 75%. These pieces will be just about at your ability of endurance, reading, and technical understanding.
By all means, play pieces that are more difficult. When you do, however, give an acceptable understanding of where you should be in a general amount of time. By knowing that the difficulty is a bit out of reach, you will be able to accept the longer time it may take to play the piece given your ability at the moment.
P.S. Don’t Forget Technical Practice
As an aside, always remember that your technique has a direct impact on the level of pieces you will be able to play proficiently. Therefore, do not fall into the fallacy of getting technique from pieces (as Christopher Berg calls it). There needs to be a continued striving to develop technical ability away from the pieces you play in order to play the pieces you want to play.
I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.
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