Tuesday 19 December 2006

Rock Discipline

The True Rock Discipline 

Have you ever learned a lick or exercise and stopped practicing it before you had mastered it?

your answer is probaby yes; and you're not alone; Why is that?


Why did you stop, when you know the lick you learned 
would be a killer edition to your playing?



There are quite a few reasons for it,
but the main one I call a lack of "Rock Discipline" (thanks Petrucci ;) ).
This is the point when the initial enthusiasm of learning that new lick/exercise wears off.

It is no longer so new and exciting.

This is the time when you will have to use your self-discipline and complete your practice.

The point of discipline is when most guitar players quit.
Rather than using their self-discipline to TRULY master the lick/exercise,
they stop practicing it and move onto something new; 
in doing so wasting valuble practice time and effort


We have all done it at some time or other when trying to improve your playing.
you will learn a lot of new licks but your overall level of playing will not get better.

without having a strict rock discipline attitude; you will never reach the killer level of guitar playing you want

Can you imagine guys like
Yngwie, Rusty Cooley or Petrucci quitting before
they have mastered what they are working on?

No way; they didn't  attain their abilities on guitar by being a quitter .

They have a high level of discipline and they had to work at it; 
they're only human!

You want to confront your technical difficulties and push the envelope.
You will know lots of little things but not enough to stand up onstage and impress

So what can we do about it?

Here are a few tips:
 
When you have decided on a new lick, set a speed goal.

Keep practicing the lick/exercise until the speed goal has been reached.
(Realise that this can take weeks, months or even years!)

Learn to enjoy being disciplined,
think of all the other guitarists not practicing correctly;
not making as much effort as yourself and feel proud of youself for each good practice session 

never take your mind off your goal; imagine how good you will play in the future
because of practice.  


Make a commitment to completion. refuse to quit.




I doth see a vision of fucking rocking all the time



2 comments:

Richard van Schaik said...

Nice to see that you're still writing articles. :-)
Thank you for posting this useful article. I'll try not to quit in the future. Although I've already noticed that good practicing really helps. I can now, for example, play the first part of 'Stairway to heaven'. This may sound easy, but when I first looked at the tabs and tried to play it I thought otherwise. But after just three days of practicing I could play it pretty fast.

I still have one question though: should
I start learning a song when I know it's really difficult, and then play it for like months until it's good? Or should I just skip those songs and start learning an easier song (without quitting).

Thank you,
Richard

Asterlius said...

start on a difficult song and take it really really slow making sure that you are playing it ok.

keep at it and until you get there
and can play the whole thing, as long as its not crazy difficult though (like 16 notes per second XD )

you will be a much better player each time you learn a song above your level. just never give up :)