In this essay, I am going to apply a number of the Principles of Correct Practice to a technical area that is of major concern to players. For beginners, it poses one of the most challenging difficulties, and an incomplete appreciation of it’s difficulties dogs many an advanced player (sometimes without them being aware of it).

If you are like most players, you are desiring to become a better guitar player. Through my own learning experience and through teaching well over 1,000 students, I have learned a lot on this subject. Students often ask why they are not not at the level that they desire to be and what can be done about it. I have asked myself this same question many times in the past. A long time passed before I began to understand the answers.

Here is a simpler scenario for beginning players. Perhaps you suffer from the common complaint of not being able to change chords smoothly so you can sing that old favorite of yours without feeling like a new driver learning to drive a stick shift (go, stall, go, stall, etc.)

As weeks and months go by, your old “bad habit” will begin to weaken, it will change. It will be replaced by the new finger action you are training into the fingers. The important point to realize is that the new habit will take over, if you are doing the proper proportion of correct practice on the bad habit.

Merely playing the music where the bad habit displays itself will not disturb the changes you are building into the fingers by your powerful, correct practice. As time goes by, the new habit will begin to show itself in your playing, and become stronger and stronger.

Segovia (the classical guitar master) wasn’t well rounded - he didn’t waste his time to master jazz or bluegrass for example. Yngwie Malmsteen didn’t study intense jazz guitar. Most great jazz guitarists don’t study classical guitar or heavy metal guitar.

Measure your progress. Document your practice time. Keep a record of how much you practice each day. For technique things, use a metronome to see how fast you are able to play a particular scale, exercise, lick, arpeggio, etc. cleanly. Write down the result, practice it all week and see if you can play it one or two beats per minute faster by next week (or next month).

Music just happens to be your medium and guitar just happens to be your instrument, but YOU are the artist. From this day forward when someone asks you what you do or who you are, don’t reply by saying you are a guitarist or musician.

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