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

Beginning Guitar? Learn and Master These 10 Chords! Part Two

Now that we've covered the first six of the basic open chords you need to master as a beginning guitarist, I shall continue with the final four chords to round out the first ten you need to master.

Fourth Set - The E, B, and A Chord.

or

Here is another classic chord progression in the I - IV - V format. This progression is very common in Blues music and Country music as well.

I have displayed chord diagrams for both a B chord and a B7 chord. The reason for this is that the B chord is a fairly difficult chord to master due to the barring required on the fourth fret. Thus, you can usually get away with the much easier B7 chord as shown. An upside is that it sounds bluesier and is commonly used. Several Stevie Ray Vaughan songs follow an E, A, B7 progression or E, A7, B7.

The Final Set - The Em, Am, and Dm chord.



These are not always set in a predetermined chord progression, but are some of the most commonly used minor chords. These are all relatively easy to master. The Em is fingered the same as an E chord only you lift your index finger, thus playing the open G string.

The Aminor chord is fingered the same as an E chord except that it is played a string higher in pitch. The Dminor chord is a new form, but is not difficult to master.

You'll find several rock songs (The Eagles come to mind) where there is a G, C, D chord progression, only they will throw in an Em and sometimes a Dm as well.

Master these ten chords and you will be well on your way to strumming along with some of your favorite bands.

This article by: J. Corey Lewis - ©2008 - All Rights Reserved

Beginning Guitar? Learn and Master These 10 Chords! Part One.

A good number of beginning guitarists get frustrated early on by grabbing a chord book trying many of the exotic chords and generally become overwhelmed and frustrated by the sheer number of chords and the complex nature of some of them. What the hell is a Ddim7th? Well, I won't be covering that in this post, but if you want to get a good foundation to playing guitar -- one that will increase your enjoyment of the guitar plus give you the ability to strum hundreds, if not thousands of songs, then master these ten chords.

The technical definition of a "Chord" is simply a simultaneous sounding of three or more notes together.

While I recommend a good chord book to beginning guitar players, they have a fundamental weakness in that they are kind of like a dictionary with no definition. In other words, they show hundreds of chords with no context as to what each chord is good for.

There is little point in trying to learn all of these chords in order, just as in my dictionary example, it would make little sense to learn the English language by learning each word in order alphabetically. Thus, I recommend learning these ten key chords first. Most are relatively easy to master. I would suggest taking a look at my post about muscle memory and sleep to utilize while learning these chords.

1st Set - Chords 1 - 3. The G, C, and D chord.

These three are the bread and butter of rock and roll playing. This three chord combination is probably used in more songs than any other. In music theory, it is represented as a I - IV - V chord sequence. In this case the Key of G . Simply the "I" is the key, and the others are steps from that key. In this case, G is one, so as you count up A would be two, B would be three, C would be four, D would be five, E would be six, F would be seven.

The Key of G is very popular especially in Country music. But you will recognize this chord progression in many genres. Practice these three chords and practice switching between them in different combinations.

2nd Set - The A, D, and E Chord.

You've already learned the D chord, so there are only two new ones to learn in this set. The key of A is also typically a I - IV - V chord progression, which is very popular in rock music. Any song played in G, can be transposed to A with this chord set, but it will be higher in pitch.

The E chord is perhaps the fullest sounding open chord in my opinion and I frequently use it to check tuning. If you can hear any particular string sounding over the others while playing an E chord, your guitar is probably a little out of tune.

3rd Set - The C, F, and G Chord.

Again we already know two of these chords, so now we only have to learn one new one - The F chord. This chord is usually somewhat difficult for the beginner, but it's not terrible. The trick and difficulty usually is barring the 1st and 2nd strings (the smallest) with your index finger. This simply means you are going to be fretting (pushing down) the first two strings on the first fret with your index finger. Otherwise it is very much like the fingering of a C chord only everything is a string higher (higher in pitch).

This chord progression in the Key of C is slightly less popular, but it is important to master. Keep practicing with the F chord and it will come easy soon enough.

Well that's all for this post. You've learned the A, C, D, E, F, G chords. You are well on your way. In the next part we will cover one more chord progression and a couple of Minor chords. Good luck!

This article by: J. Corey Lewis - ©2008 - All Rights Reserved