WHEN You Practice Your Guitar Playing Might be More Important Than HOW You Practice

In this article I will discuss a concept which I've come to know and appreciate over many years of playing guitar. This concept is how the brain programs muscle memory overnight when we sleep. This has been studied in regards to many fields (mainly athletics), but I will be discussing its use and value as it relates to playing guitar.

If you've been playing guitar for quite some time or just know a few chords this scenario may ring true to you:

You're practicing a key technique, strumming pattern, picking pattern or maybe even a simple chord and it is really difficult. You know what I mean -- it's frustrating you to the point where you would rather use your guitar for a planter at the time. You finally give up and go to bed. The next day, suddenly like magic, you find you can now play the thing that mere hours ago was giving you fits.

As you can guess, your brain is responsible for this feat. The key point here is that your brain does the "wiring" for your newly acquired skills during sleep. This is referred to as "muscle memory". Everything you know how to do automatically (such as walk, drive, eat with a fork) is due to your brain processing new data learned and in effect rewiring itself to help you do that physical activity again more efficiently. Muscle memory is a bit of a misnomer, because as far as we know, your muscles do not actually remember things. However your brain does restructure itself to make new neuron to nervous system connections. Scientific research indicates that these connections are made primarily while sleeping. This is where the benefit is for the guitarist, whether you be a beginner or an advanced player.

How to use Muscle Memory to your advantage

Try this experiment and see if you don't learn more rapidly. I've used these techniques with my guitar students before with good success.

1. Pick a chord or picking pattern you want to learn (maybe one you've already been practicing and having difficulty).
2. Practice the chord or technique exclusively before bedtime for only 10 to 15 minutes. I've found that in most cases the best practice-to-skill acquisition ratio falls within this time frame. Any more and you see declining results and increasing frustration. Any less and you may not get the full benefit of programming for muscle memory.
3. Go to sleep for the night.
4. The next day, try to play the desired guitar technique you are learning and note how much easier or faster you can play.
5. Do this for as many nights as you need to develop the proficiency you desire.
   
   These steps may seem simplistic, but the concept is powerful. As a practical example: If you are a beginner, learning chords, I would do the 10-15 minute practice time by carefully making the chord shape strumming each string to ensure each string in the chord rings clearly and hold the chord shape for a few seconds. Remove your hand from the fretboard and attempt to make the chord again as well as you can automatically. I usually recommend verbally saying the chord you are fingering as well. Practice no more than two or three chords and practice switching between the chords as well. Remember - do this no more than 10 - 15 minutes before bedtime.
   
   One word of warning in regards to muscle memory - it does not differentiate between good technique and bad technique. In other words, you need to be sure to do all that you can to use proper form, posture, finger arch, or whatever you can do to ensure that muscle memory does not program a flaw into your technique. I will probably discuss these good practices and techniques in more detail in the future, but for now just be aware of this.
   
   If you utilize these simple steps, you can make rapid advancement in your guitar playing, particularly as a beginner. The power of these techniques is in the limitation of time. The point is to keep guitar playing fun and rewarding. By not allowing yourself to relentlessly practice the same piece over and over for hours you eliminate the potential for burning yourself out on guitar playing due to the frustration.
   
   Give these tips a try and let muscle memory and your brain do the hard work while you sleep and wake up a better guitar player.

This article by: ©2009 by J. Corey Lewis - All Rights Reserved

Knocking on Heaven's Door - Guinness World Record Broken with 1,730 People Playing Guitar at the Same Time!

Wow! A large group of people - 1,730 to be exact, assembled to all play Bob Dylan's classic tune - "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". When confirmed by the Guinness people, this will break the record currently held by a group that assembled 1,683 people together to play "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. Where was this massive guitar feat done? San Francisco? Chicago? Dallas? London? Nope. In Meghalaya, India. Who knew those Indians were such big Dylan fans?

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta
The hills of north-east India may seem an unlikely place to reverberate to the tones of nearly 2,000 people playing a Bob Dylan classic.

But that is what happened when 1,730 guitarists played one of the great man's songs in a bid to break a record in the state of Meghalaya.

The guitarists hope their achievement will now earn them a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

If confirmed, it will be the second Meghalayan record-breaker in a year.

Last year, 7,951 drummers from across the state broke the record for the highest number of drummers to perform collectively.

Tourist destination

"Ours is surely the largest guitar ensemble in the history of the world," claimed RG Lyngdoh, the chairman of the Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF).

The current Guinness World Record is held by a guitar-ensemble from Kansas City in the US in June last year.

On that occasion 1,683 guitarists, played Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water.

The Meghalayan guitar-ensemble, like the drum ensemble last year, was part of the autumn festival that the MTDF holds every year in the state capital, Shillong, to promote the state as a tourist destination.

On Friday the gathering of guitarists - most of them amateurs - met at the city's Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.

Music-mad

Later in the evening - organised by MTDF officials - the guitarists started playing the immortal Bob Dylan classic, Knocking on Heaven's Door.

Officials say that they counted the number of people participating in the event five times over.

They announced that no less than 1,730 guitarists played the song together on Friday.

Bob Dylan is perhaps a natural choice for Meghalaya's music-mad population.

The picturesque state - often called "Scotland of the East"' for its striking similarities with the Scottish Highlands - has been celebrating the legendary singer's birthday with a gig for the last 35 years.

But unlike last autumn's drum ensemble, Shillong will have to wait a while to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records.

No Guinness representative could make it to Shillong on Friday, so the Meghalaya police chief Bijon Dey Sawian was asked "to judge" the event and send them a detailed report.

"I am sending them recorded visuals according to the Guinness norms along with my report," Mr Sawian told the BBC.

He said the Guinness will make an announcement after examining his report and video recordings.

"Every youngster in Meghalaya either owns a guitar or knows how to strum one. So beating Kansas City's record was not a problem," said the MTDF's vice-president Larsing Ming Sawian.
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