Musician, performer & teacher, Chris "Citrus" Sauthoff
Guitar Q&A
The question that I get the Most from my students is "how should I practice?"
What a great question!
I was involved in both organized sport (Hockey particularly) as well as the martial art of Kendo for many years and my practice and training philosophy in music has taken many of the concepts I learned to heart.
The ONE book that changed my life more than ever is the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi...A KENSEN in japan...or Sword Saint. One of the first to take the art of killing and turn it into the art of knowing yourself!
There are little tidbits like this thru the entire book
"If you want to learn this Way, deeply consider the things written in this book one at a time. You must do sufficient research."
Over and over he says that the ONLY way to really understand the concept is to practice it until it becomes second nature!
Now...if you read some of that book are excited, then welcome to
the Way of the Guitar
....if not...well....here's some good ideas on practicing anyway!
I really suggest that you break it up into 4 parts.
Finger Exercises.
Do the warm ups! They really help you to develop your Hands! They get you to play the entire guitar without the pressure of playing MUSIC all over the guitar. Consider them stretches! I have watched hundreds if not thousands of top guitarists all around the world from my position as stage manager of PFunk....and the best ones are always found in the wings or backstage warming up before they hit the stage!
Scales
Yes...scales. the MAJOR scale in particular. Get it as soon as possible! LIke DAY ONE...One string, Caged, open shapes.. every possible octave and position...
You should play the scales up and down, 3 and 4 note coils, skip thirds, arpeggiate...etc...
"The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly."
Chords
Start with the open chords. Be sure to get all your fingers hitting the right spot at ONE TIME. IF you have to put your fingers down one at a time...start from the BASS side of the instrument! Whatever style chord you are working on...get your hand in the right spot and then push down and release pressure a thousand times so that it happens naturally..
THEN practice changing from one chord to the next....look at a song and play the chords one at a time without any consideration of rhythm...just to get the changes. G to F G to D G to C a hundred times each! or less...LOL
When I studied Kendo in Japan they made me practice a thousand cuts a day...outside of my normal classes!
Chords and Scales are your tools to make music with...without them...you can't do much!
"The carpenter's attainment is, having tools which will cut well, to make small shrines, writing shelves, tables, paper lanterns, chopping boards and pot-lids. These are the specialities of the carpenter. Things are similar for the (trooper) Guitarist. You ought to think deeply about this!"
Music!
Ok...Now you may try to put it all together and play some music!
Get out the songs you are working on and try to play them. If you have a difficult passage, try to just play one measure correctly at a time and then add them together. Set out three picks and when you play the first measure right move a pick to the "right" pile...if you make a mistake, move it on back. When you get three in the "right" pile...add the next measure...rinse and repeat until reach your goal!
Have fun and JAM....
don't forget that during each of these phases you can have fun and improvise!
ok...my hands hurt from typing...more later...IF ya'all appreciate this here.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Molly Livaudais on -
The instruction on doing scales is a great one, but I have neglected that step in favor of emphasizing chords and chord shapes. So if my "scales" knowledge is poor, where should I look? Is there a good book or a website that has them listed in order of "importance?" Just the pentatonic scales and shapes are a LOT of info.
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Permalink Reply by Chris "Citrus" Sauthoff on
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I would just start with that Open C and Open G that are in the first pdf for Guitar 1 A. Then move on to the E and A Forms...last is the D form. I will start a Bibliography thread somewhere.
Then move on to other forms.. I will give you some stuff next week if you remind me!
Scales and Chords are the two wheels for the cart that is MUSIC...If you only have one wheel you can't get too far! That works for Theory and Practice as well.
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Permalink Reply by Molly Livaudais on
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Ok I think I looked up that info-just to have a quick fretboard reference. If i can post these links here, would you take a look and see if it's the right scales?
I just cut and pasted from a scales website. So hopefully that's correct. - Attachments:
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E Major.doc, 27 KB
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What you have there is All of the notes of each of those scales on the guitar.
I am talking about a few different SHAPES or FORMS that are based on the open chords that we know and love. C A G E and finally D. Each one has an OPEN shape and a Closed shape that you can then move all around the fretboard to play ANY scale you want!
Here is the page you want to study. The top section shows the Major shapes and the bottom shows the minor shapes...hmmmm same shapes...very interesting!
The TOP part shows the C Major Scale....in all the forms! The bottom shows the A minor scale which has all the same notes as C major....hence they are Relative Major and Minor.
Enjoy - Attachments:
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MajorMinorCagedScales.pdf, 189 KB
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Permalink Reply by Molly Livaudais on
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Cool, I will do that! Thank you for posting that info.
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You are very welcome...thanks for asking!
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