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Articles: Guitar Article: "Tips For Quick Practice" |
Tips For Quick Practice
by Shane Roe
So you can barely squeeze in any time at all in a day
to practice, huh? There are many of us that share the
same dilemma, but by knowing what to practice in those
short moments of time you can maximize your effort.
For example, if you only have ten minutes in between
jobs, or other things you need to do, here is a list
of some of the things you can do:
- Work up and down a scale, over and over again. In
ten minutes you can work through it 50-100 times.
- Practice chord changes. Perhaps switching from an F
barre chord to a D open is driving you crazy. Spend
ten minutes going over and over the change.
- Work on a lick you want to learn. You'd be
surprised how many times you can work through a lick
in just a few short minutes.
- Listen to a song on a CD and jam along. This
increases your ear for music, and helps to get down
timing. The average song could be played through two
or three times.
- Work on a song you want to memorize.
Self-explanatory, but the more you play it, the better
you'll become.
- Work on picking skills by doing drills up and down
the neck.
- Just mess around, playing chords in combinations
that sound good to you, playing single note melodies.
Again, this improves your ear and you may stumble onto
the beginnings of a song in the making.
There are many other things you could do, with just a
small amount of time - use your imagination. Of
course, keeping your guitar at the ready is essential.
If you only have a few minutes, you don't want to have
to get it out of a case and tune it. Although the
instrument might be safer in its case, it's harder to
access, and instead of playing it, you might find
yourself watching television for a few minutes
instead. Keep it on a stand and tuned. If you happen
to have longer periods of time to work with, do a
combination of the things above and by all means, make
out a practice schedule and stick to it. You'll find
that if you make use of those small blocks of time,
you'll get better and better.
Good luck. |
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Shane Roe is a harried and busy guitar player who somehow finds the time to practice daily, even if it's only for a few minutes. |
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