Just when I think I understand a lot about how students practice, I realize that something important has slipped by me. This week I was surprised to find out that many of my students are playing their songs through only one time. One time only. And then moving on to another song. No, no, no, no, no!
After you have learned the notes to the song and can play the whole thing S-L-O-W-L-Y you need to play the song over and over many times without stopping in between. What is many times? Two times is the minimum. Three or four times is much better. And remember: no stopping in between. When you get to the end of the song, go right back into it.
There are many reasons for this. One is simply to build up stamina—in fingers and in mind—by playing for extended periods of time. If you play “Banjo in the Hollow” one time, you are playing for what? Maybe 60 seconds? Maybe 90 seconds if you’re going really slow? That’s not even time enough to get situated, to get comfortable. You can hardly start to hear what the song sounds like! Repeated playings will allow you to start listening to what you are doing. It will also give you more opportunities to play through your mistakes, to keep on going.
But an even bigger reason is that if you play the song repeatedly you have a chance of finding the “groove.” That’s the magical place where the song starts to flow, where you can let your mind relax and let your fingers do the walking. And the talking. Where, again, you can start listening to what you are playing. And not just to the notes, to see if you are getting them right. But you can start listening to the MUSIC in what you are playing.
By the way, playing along with the DVD, even the Slow Jam DVDs, is not what I’m talking about here. Playing with the DVDs has its place, but the type of practice I’m talking about here is done on your own or with your own personal guitar player. (I used to pay my son Chris to play along with me on guitar when I was learning fiddle!)
Playing a song three or four times in a row is not a hard thing to do and I can almost guarantee that it will improve your playing in a hurry!
Amen, Murphy — I’ve been doing this more since we talked about it in one of my lessons, and for me it’s been a big help with picking up speed on the tunes I know and like best (Cripple Creek and Foggy Mountain breakdown, in particular). I’ve even had a few of those “groove” moments — just wish I could get there more often “on demand.”
I honestly don’t know how anybody can learn to play a song or tune well or “right” unless they play it through 500 to 1,000 times or MORE. I’m dead serious! Maybe that’s just me and my slow learning. but I have to obsess on a musical piece for a good while before I feel like it comes close to sounding decent enough to “present”. Of course, I have always loved every bit of the struggle to get to clean and fine playing. Nothing pleases me more than working for hours on something “I can’t play” !
I’m checking in late here, but what David McLaughlin said in the comment above is the encouragement and motivation I needed. David is a pro and if that’s what they have to do then ordinary folks like myself can certaninly put in more effort than we’ve been doing in learning a song or tune. Man-o-man, do I undrstand now. And, am I going to practice more!? You better believe it, I am. Thank you Mr. McLaughlin.