Beta blockers anyone?
I knew a bass player who sometimes got so drunk he could barely walk to the stage but once he started playing, he’d play the whole show without missing a note. Dimebag Darrel was like that too.
Are we speaking about acquiring new motor skills? If so, then I have this experience all the time. I don’t think it’s specifically the time away, but more that whatever you were doing previously produced results that took time to sink in. There is lots of research on this subject pointing to a time period anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for acquired skills to start to stick. There’s also lots of research on the role that sleep plays in this process.
Speaking very generally, I have no issue at all with putting the guitar down for one or more days at a time, and no real sense that this hurts me in any way — not when it comes to learning new skills and even less so maintaining existing ones which are already pretty solid.
More generally, if I feel bored, burned out, or overworked at all, my interest level and enthusiasm improves with time off. Guitar is already a job, so anything I can do to make it less so is a plus in my book.
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Post Practice Improvement.
good stuff
I’m not sure if it’s that, exactly… It wasn’t like I was working on something new, stepped away for a while, and it clicked, so much as something I was already doing just suddenly was flowing a lot better after 5-6 days away from the guitar.
It may have been a little bit of burnout, I guess - I had a lot going on, I was practicing when I could as a form of stress relief but didn’t have the time I wanted, and was run down and frustrated about a lot of non-guitar stuff. After four days on my road bike with not much else going on, I was in a way better headspace when I got back, so maybe it was as simple as that.
I do know from working out, I always felt strongest when taking a multi day break. Body seemed to catch up. And you feel more connected, or stable, In movements.
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Months? Days, not months lol.
This is particularly interesting. When I’m about to finish practice for the day, I usually try to rip as fast and clean as I can, then I feel satisfied to put it down. But perhaps I should adopt this method.
“You must do everything right to maximize PPI. Many students do not know the rules and can negate the PPI with the result that, when they play the next day, it comes out worse. Most of these mistakes originate from incorrect use of fast and slow practice; therefore, we will discuss the rules for choosing the right practice speeds in the following sections. Any stress or unnecessary motion during practice will also undergo PPI and can become a bad habit. The most common mistake students make to negate PPI is to play fast before quitting practice. The last thing you do before quitting should be the most correct and best example of what you want to achieve, which usually a moderate to slow speed. Your last run-through seems to have an inordinately strong PPI effect. The methods of this book are ideal for PPI, mainly because they emphasize practicing only those segments that you cannot play. If you play HT slowly and ramp up the speed for a long section, PPI is insufficiently conditioned because you don’t have enough time to make the necessary number of repetitions. In addition, the PPI process becomes confused because you mix a large proportion of easy material with the small amount of difficult ones and the speed, motions, etc., are also incorrect.”
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yep. im going to say there is some pure gold in that book. Chap 2 from sections 12-17 has many nuggets. of course people must form their own philosophy but mine is quickly coming together. (wish id worked it out 30 years ago lol)
http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.13
its great because he touches both ends of the spectrum. The good AND bad of practicing fast AND slow.
" Playing so fast that you start to feel stress and make mistakes will not improve technique because you are just practicing mistakes and acquiring bad habits. Forcing the fingers to play the same way faster is not the way to increase speed."
So he is against trying to force things too quickly and thus just ingraining mistakes, but he is also against endlessly repeating something slowly that might not work when u speed up.
“If you do not make significant progress in a few minutes, you are probably doing something wrong – think of something new. Students who use the intuitive method are resigned to repeating the same thing for hours with little visible improvement. That mentality must be avoided in order to learn faster.”
“the need to attain speed quickly and to practice accurately become contradictory. The solution is to constantly change the speed of practice; do not stay at any one speed for too long. For very difficult passages that require skills you don’t already have, there is no alternative but to bring the speed up in stages. For this, use speeds that are too fast as exploratory excursions to determine what needs to be changed in order to play at such speeds. Then slow down and practice those new motions.”
Basically he says to try something faster than you current manageable best speed to see how it goes and what needs to be changed to get to that speed…but only do a few reps! lol
I checked out a piano forum and they were discussing the book. Naturally some loved it and some hated it. In the end though they came into agreement that the “slow to fast ratio” of practice should be about 2/3rd slow and 1/3 fast with some saying as much as 9 parts slow practice to 1 part fast.
I have been trying to work on some licks in desc thirds starting on the top string but, true to my old self, id try a few times and when it fell off the tracks id leave it for something else. So I ran across that book last Thurs. So I decided to try some of the techniques.
So on Friday I started with the few good notes I had to start with, which was basically going to end up being a descending D mixolydian lick working its way down to end on an e note. So basically I sat there and tried to work out an exact fingering. I tried several different ways, especially for the goofy b to g string etc.
came up with this in 16ths:
e—10-14-10-12–10
b-------------------13–12-13-10-12–10
g----------------------------------------12–11-12-9-11—9
d------------------------------------------------------------12–10-12-9-10—9
a--------------------------------------------------------------------------------12–10-12-9-10-7
pretty much just desc thirds with the exception of the first note lol
well obviously you see its a tangle of back and forth and lots of double escaping etc. Luckily I have had good success on the Paul Gilbert lick lately, partially by using lots of vain repetitions lol
So I worked out the fingering on Fri. worked on it some slowly etc. knowing me i tried it fast at several point too, or at least portions of it. (I also worked out a simpler sextuplet lick on 2 strings which I was closer to being fast on. so i was splitting my time between 2 licks)
Saturday I went to work and actually did mental practice on the lick lol. That was a first for me. Its interesting because you have to decide what to visualize. visualize the tab? (nah). the fingers? the fretboard??but from what point of view?
so at work Sat I wrote out the tab and wrote lines to divide it into sections of 4 notes and I worked on it mentally during the day
Came home Sat just dead tired and only managed 30 minutes practice, splitting the time between my 2 new licks
Today I did 50 mins of practice this morning. some slow etc, then tried fast a few times. At one point the lick just popped out WAY faster than I thought I could do. This was near the end of that session this morning. So now I will gradually up the practice speed without pushing too fast into mistakeland.
So all told, on Fri my diary shows 80 mins total practice time. This was partially spent working out the 2 licks. Then grooving them slowly. Sat I did mental practice at work then a very tired 30 mins at night. This morning a 50 min session and basically I now have a complicated desc thirds pattern grooved pretty well.
Im sort of sold.
of course now I need to repeat the method and figure out how to optimize things etc
In the “slow vs fast” philosophy wars, I see the need for both but im heavily leaning towards the “DONT GROOVE MISTAKES” side of things. I think the whole “omg, slow practice form isnt the same as fast form” mantra is way overblown, especially for advanced players and/or us modern folks who now have more conscious knowledge of mechanics. Maybe the slower form isnt exactly the same…neither is a form where im making 50% mistakes!
The dude who wrote the book is like 80 something now lol. I might still write him with some questions hehe
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I think ‘visualise’ isn’t the best word because that sort of implies that you imagine watching yourself do it, whereas you should be imagining doing it, from the same point of view you would normally practise from i.e. attuned to your fingers, the sound, the feel, etc.
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yeah I am going to work on it going forward I guess. Its funny because when I was about 17-18 I had a book called “Peak Performance” by Charles Garfield. It went into detail on sports visualization etc. of course at 18 I unfortunately wasnt quite ready lol
can someone click on this email and figure out what Chuan Chang’s email address is? I use web based email so it wont show it to me
thanks brother, imma send ol boy some questions lol
Yes, the brain needs time to digest the feed. Is like a pc, you are saving files on your drive. If you try to store new data while saving, this new input will be sent to the saving queue. But because we are humans, the queue will be dropped to the thrash by your brain selectively, depending on your organics, that is : your drive space and speed, your procesor power , the RAM, etc…All is in your brain. If you try to practice 5 minutes some challenging stuff, a little bit out of your scope, then leave the guitar for other 5 m, and then play the same thing
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When I used to play in a band and we first started gigging I started having a few beers at rehearsal because I wouldn’t. And then when we played gigs I would, and I couldn’t play as good as when I was sober LOL
For what it’s worth, that magical feeling of effortlessness lasted for a couple days but now things feel pretty normal again. Odd.
I have a feeling that relaxation is a MASSIVE key. Sometimes the more you practice, the more you expect, and the more tension creeps in. Whereas sometimes your fastest licks are sort of effortless and accidental
golf is a direct correlation. if you stand at the range and hit drivers you might hit some good shots and get all yummy feeling inside but then you swing that itsy bitsy bit harder and little by little it all falls apart
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There is the skill acquisition phase of learning which is physiological and that takes time, however also I find that there’s a psychological phenomenon at play when I take time off and step back a little.
As we all know practicing and playing involves a lot of critical and constructive personal judgements. Stepping back allows me to enjoy the fruits of my labor that I wouldn’t notice before as I am too wrapped up in my head on whatever I’m working on at that time.
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I strongly believe it’s down to strength, more specifically strength in certain ranges of motion.
The ability to hold a pick loose and tight in a certain ROM is everything in terms of fluidity and ease of playing.
This is why most people hold a pick between thumb and index, it’s naturally an effective grip allowing loose and tense grip.
But for someone like Eddie van halen, he has hypermobility of the thumb, letting him grip really effectively between thumb and middle finger. This gives him certain advantages, and a big reason why his playing is so… akward for a lot of index players.
I really enjoy the EVH technique. It feels good, I also love the Gypsy jazz/ Marty friedman technique. They just give a energized feeling that brings about interesting playing.
But I don’t have the hands they do, it becomes very hard for me to remain fluid in their techniques without extended rest. My hands can not produce the forces theirs can in the angles or range of motion theirs can. And this lack of fluidity over time proves to me it’s all about strength and endurance in certain angles and range of motion.
It’s something I’m constantly struggling with, just like how people with long hair just seem to be more legitimate guitar players. It’s bullshit… but it’s a show of virility and strength. A lions mane. Though that’s a different topic…