One of my students asked me something like this today: “How do I keep wanting to practice this solo that I am working on? I can play it, but I can’t get to full speed and I have a hard time with the transitions.”
My answer was: “Are you bored of playing it?”
He had been working on this solo for a few months and he answered that he was bored with it. So, why would you do something that you are tired of doing?
I am like anybody else, I dislike doing the same thing over and over. Our brains like challenges. Have you ever gone to school or work and arrived there not even remembering how you got there? Now, if you do the same exercise, but take a route that you have never taken, this will not happen, because you will be in the moment, making sure that you get to the right place on time. The same thing applies to learning an instrument. Change the way you learn that song or solo and you will improve much faster. Have fun with your instrument, play with it, don’t keep practicing it like it’s a chore.
Be Creative with the Way you Learn
Try to understand yourself and know what works for you. When I have to learn a really hard solo or song, I will tackle it a few different ways.
I’ll start by learning the notes, I’ll work on the rhythm separately, I’ll try to sing the root note of the chords or solo, I’ll listen to the song several times. I will try to understand the chords or solo in the context of the whole song: Why are these notes used where they are used? What kind of scale are they using? Are there any notes or chords that are not part of the key signature?
I will take certain sections of the song or solo and play it in a different context (different time signature, different tempo, different key, change the rhythm). I might try to create a different song with a section of the song or solo I am learning. I might turn a part of the solo into a riff or simply use that part to create a different solo with it.
I feel like a kid most of the time, I try to fool around with what I am learning to be able to use it in my own songs. I am not talking about stealing an artist’s song and saying it’s mine, but every musician learns from other musicians and get inspired by them. So, I take ideas that I like and play them in other songs. Over time, I start to play the lick or phrase I learned my own way. After accumulating a roster of ideas, I start to have my own musical personality.
Another trick that I use is saying out loud what I am doing as I am doing it. What I mean by that is counting the beats and/or the rhythms that I am doing, or singing and/or saying the notes as I play them. When I teach guitar, mandolin or ukulele, I usually have my students say the strumming pattern as they are doing it. A lot of my students are shy about doing that, but as soon as they start doing it, they usually manage to do things that they weren’t able to do without it. It makes me focus more on what I am doing. If I play a song that I find boring or too easy, my mind tends to go somewhere else. I start to think about what I am going to have for dinner, or what happened that morning, or why this person is looking at me funny, etc. So having my hands and my voice focused on this one thing that I am doing helps my mind not wonder in every direction.
Same thing applies when I tap my foot or move my body at the same time as I play my instrument. I find that some of the best drummers look like they are dancing behind their drum kits, they are feeling the music and it helps them focus and stay in the moment.
Visualization is another great tool to help getting better. I often have students that complain that they don’t have time to practice. My answer to that is that you can always practice without your instrument. This concept is a little harder to swallow for some people, but it is extremely effective if you do it honestly. When I have free time, but I don’t have my instruments around, I can sing the solo or melody I am working on with rhythm. I can visualize myself playing my instrument. If I am somewhere where my hands are busy, like driving, I can say out loud the fingering for the melody, solo or scale that I am practicing. If I am working on a chord progression, I can say what chords are played in order. If I am trying to remember lyrics, I will sing them and recite them. All this is very hard to do, it is often harder than playing the instrument, but it works. When I go back to my instrument, I am way better, I hesitate less and it becomes more instinctual. I used to beat myself down about not practicing enough.
When I started, doing those exercises, I stopped feeling so bad, because I could now practice almost anywhere. It might be five minutes at a time, but it makes a huge difference in the long run. I find that changing the way I practice a hard song helps me keep my practice fresh, therefor I learn faster, because I keep wanting to play it. I don’t like to be bored, so I make sure that my practice is not boring. I try to have fun and be creative with how I approach a song.
They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Try to not be insane and change the way you look at the song, be a kid with it and see where it takes you, you might be positively surprised by the results.
To Use a Metronome or Not to Use a Metronome, that is the Question
I don’t usually encourage beginners to use a metronome. I love using the metronome for myself nowadays, but when I first started using it, I hated it. When I was starting guitar, I thought I was really good and had great rhythm. It turns out, I had no rhythm. The metronome is a machine that is very precise and when I played with it, I always felt like it should follow me. It never did, unfortunately. It was very frustrating and discouraging. Over the years, I started loving playing with it, because it feels like I’m playing with a drummer and it’s helpful when I am trying out difficult rhythms and want to make sure that I don’t speed up or slow down.
In between the period of time where I hated the metronome and now that I love it, I found a great way to build my sense of rhythm without the stress of the metronome. I was going to college by car every day and there was lots of traffic, so it gave me plenty of time to listen to music and try to tap my hand or foot to the beat of the song (if you do this yourself, be careful, try not to get into an accident). Nowadays, music is almost all recorded with a click track, which means that the tempo of the song is consistent throughout the song. So, when I tap the beat, I am basically practicing with a metronome, but it is much more pleasant. Once I got good at that, I started giving myself challenges, like taping just the 2nd beat, or the 2nd and 4th beat of every measure. Then whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eight notes, sixteenth notes, triplets. I tried to create different rhythms and play them to the songs I was listening to.
Another exercise that I use is to tap my hands to a certain rhythm, while my foot is keeping the tempo. Let’s say I am in 4/4 time signature. I will tap my foot to the quarter note and have my hand tap whole notes for four measures, then half notes, then quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes and do it all over in reverse order. It usually takes a few minutes. It requires a lot of coordination.
Some people will find it very easy, some very hard. It’s an exercise that I can practice anywhere and it doesn’t require an instrument. When it comes to intermediate to advanced students, I will have them use a metronome if a song is really hard and really fast. I’ll have them focus on the rhythm and practice their transitions. I’ll also have them play the song with a recording of it. On YouTube you can slow down videos to 75%, 50% and 25% speed.
The great thing about it is that it doesn’t change the pitch of the song like older technology used to do. It’s an awesome tool, because it can help to hear the little details and practice the parts that I struggle to play at a speed that is comfortable.
Rhythm and Transitions
Often, I see students practicing a song fast during the parts that they are good at and slow during the parts that are challenging. One of the most important things when it comes to a song or solo is to practice the transitions and keep the tempo steady.
Make sure that you play the song at a speed that you are comfortable with for the hard parts. Otherwise, if you keep practicing fast in the easy parts and slow in the hard parts, you’ll get into the habit of changing tempos constantly. It will feel like you are the passenger in a car with a beginner driver with a standard transmission; your neck will hurt a lot.
I know it is tempting to play fast because we all want to feel like pros, but if there is a constant variation in tempo, the song does not sound like the song. It might feel painful at first to go slowly during the easy parts, but it’s for the good of the song. The most important thing in music is rhythm, so make sure that you consider that when you are working on a song. Often, if you are practicing a solo and you know you have the right notes, but it still doesn’t sound right, it is usually because you are making mistakes rhythmically. So, slow down your tempo and try to make sure that your notes are where they should be. I often try to tap with my fingers or my hand to the rhythm of the changes that are difficult for me.
I break down the parts into rhythm and notes, then I put the pieces back together. Recently, I have been working on really hard songs on the bass. I get challenged by some songs, just like anybody else. The difference is that I know that if I practice slowly, I’ll get better faster. I had to practice this really hard funk song from Tower of Power for my funk band. What I did was to practice it at 75% of the speed for several weeks (to do that, go on Youtube, look in the gear icon in the corner of your video, you will find playback settings where you can change the speed). Then, a few days before our rehearsal, I played the song a few times at full speed and when came the band practice, it went alright. One of the reasons why this technique works so well for me is that when I practice at a slower tempo, I focus on making sure that I am playing the right notes at the right time without feeling pressured by the speed of the song. It teaches me to be relaxed, so that when it comes time to play at full speed, I am calm and my fingers know what to do instinctively. Another thing that I did with this song, and I do that with any hard song, is that while I am playing it at full speed I keep telling myself to relax. I can’t play anything fast while being tensed, I have to consciously relax otherwise my muscles tense up and I make more mistakes.
Briefly, try to be creative with how you practice your instrument. You don’t have to be a martyr and feel like if it’s not boring you’re not practicing hard enough. Find ways that work for you, have fun with it and practice without your instrument sometimes. Make sure that you enjoy your practice, keep it fresh, keep it interesting and you’ll want to play more, so you’ll get better faster. Break songs down into parts, so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming. Make sure to play, don’t practice!