'BIG 3' SECRETS OF GUITAR PRACTICE - PT.3/3 (Free Tempo - Go Slow)

3. GO SLOWEST, SLOWER AND SLOW

You may have heard this before, but I’m including this secret because even great guitarists could not live without this one, and I can’t stress its importance enough.

If you plan on learning a song or lick that’s:

a) new or unfamiliar

b) fast

c) relatively challenging

d) something that makes it difficult for you to relax

e) or if you simply wish to increase your overall speed,

--- the FASTEST and EASIEST way to get

your goal right is to actually GO SLOW.

This principle lies under the concept of how the ‘muscle memory’ of your fingers works. (more on this on another post)

This is how you practice building up speed ‘properly’ until you get the actual speed, accuracy and fluidity that you need:

a) FREE TEMPO – outright practicing with a metronome, drum machine or the actual tempo running through your mind without going over your ‘material’ can be dangerous. This is because of the impulsive tendency to ‘run after’ the song or lick without quality in mind. Can you imagine the mess? – improper fingerings, missed notes, off-timing, awful sound – which in the end can give us the wrong impression that ‘something’ is just impossible to be done!

Your task at this moment is to focus on executing correct movements, know what it is that you want to achieve – which finger goes to where, what does the picking hand do, what sound are you supposed to hear, is there a particular feel that your supposed to nail, etc. - get every possible detail of the passage as you can.

b) SLOWEST - Basing from the tempo that you need (use a metronome for accurate figures), practice with 25-35% of the speed first. Do this until you’re confident enough that you’ve actually got the ‘passage’ right, this time with a slow beat.

c) SLOWER - Increase the tempo to 50-65%. Do this for a couple of times. If you’ve done step right, you’d be staying at this tempo with less time.

d) SLOW - Increase the tempo to 75-90%. If you’re confident enough that you’re doing your ‘runs’ after just a few tries (from start to end), then you can graduate from this phase and blaze at the normal tempo or break that if your goal is to increase your overall speed.

Now go get your guitar and have fun practicing. Good luck!

'BIG 3' SECRETS OF GUITAR PRACTICE - PT.3/3 (Free Tempo - Go Slow)