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How to become a better musician by
creating a balanced practice schedule
by Mike Walsh
There are many elements that make great musicians stand apart from the
others. What and how much they accomplish during their practice time is the
key to their success. Having a plan and a schedule will allow you to see
and meet your goals much sooner with less practice time. It is not always
about how much time you put in, but about what you make of the time you
have. Here are 10 keys to balancing your practice time, in no particular
order or importance. In my future articles, I will talk about each key point
in detail.
1) Technique Exercises
2) Chords and 3rd String Triads
3) Songwriting and Recording
4) Improvisation
5) Rhythm
6) Sight Reading & Chord Charts
7) Playing and Creating music in all 12 keys
8) Fret Board Awareness
9) Playing and Transcribing Songs
10) Ear Training and Theory
* = To be explained in future articles.
Technique Exercises
(Scales, modes, sequences, arpeggios, string skipping, tremolo picking,
bends, vibrato, legato, slides, pedal points, tapping & 8 finger tapping,
chromatics, left hand muting, right hand muting, endurance, coordination,
picking technique, picking while plucking, using both hands efficiently,
practicing with a metronome)
Chords and 3rd String Triads
(3 string triads, 4th, 5th, 6th string open and barred, 7th chords, Jazz
voicings, added tone chords, chord extensions, inversions)
Songwriting and Recording
(Working in one key, multiple keys, modulations, transitions, dynamic
changes, tempo changes, song structure development and expansion, thin
layering, thick layering, counter and contrary melodies, harmonizing,
editing, producing, analyze and write out the arrangement of others bands
songs, use visual composing*, spoken composing*, artistic composing*,
humming into a hand held recorder, getting familiar with recording and all
that goes along with it, finding your sound, critiquing others
recordings-tones-mixes-effects, take note of cool ideas you hear by making a
computer document that you can list them on)
Improvisation
(Soloing alone, with a metronome, using a drum track, instructional cd, your
personal cd collection, with other musicians, vocal mimicking and
imitation*, instrument mirroring*)
Rhythms
(Reading, writing, saying, Reading while playing and saying together, odd meter)
Sight Reading and Chord Charts
(Practice playing just the notes, then saying out loud just the notation
letters, saying the letters in rhythm only, saying in rhythm along to a
metronome, saying while playing the notes, saying and playing to the
rhythms, saying and playing in rhythm to a metronome, playing the chord
chart with open string chords (if possible), then play with bar chords on
only the 6th string, then only the 5th string, then only the 4th string,
then blend 6th and 5th string, then 5th and 4th string, then try to play the
songs chords in one or two positions by using the 6th, 5th and 4th strings,
then go back and play the chord charts in 1st inversion doing the same steps
as above and then in 2nd inversion with the same steps above, 3rd inversion
(if possible) repeat the above while doing them in new positions on the fret
board)
Playing and Creating music in all 12 keys
(Use Major, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor (the ascending
scale structure only, played both up and down in that structure), come up
with numerical chord progressions and do them in all 12 keys and in the
different harmonic keys, also create melodies and transpose them in all 12
keys and then in the different harmonic keys, create solos and transpose,
and transpose all the above to their parallel key)
Fret Board Awareness
(Use the musical alphabet, string names, sharps and flats to find notes,
memorize each strings 3 basic reference points (open string, tuning fret and
octave fret (12th), play chord progressions and say the root note of each
chord as you play, same for playing power chords, say the note you fret
while playing in different scales up and down the fret board, same for
solos etc.)
Playing and Transcribing Songs
(Play along to a complete song, add the songs solo's, then play the whole
album, add different styles of music into this category to play and solo
along to, do not stay on a song or album for to long after you have mastered
it, make a list of songs and solo's you want to play along to and check them
off when you have accomplished them, Tab out a song¹s power chords, move up
to melodies and bass lines, then solos, find notes on your guitar that you
hum to yourself, try to figure out what key the song is in first by finding
what scale fits over it on your guitar, and also by using your memorized
note and singing a scale over it, see if you can transcribe intervals you
hear in your head, work on writing out your songs with tabs - notation and
rhythms, try and transcribe orchestra and band arrangements, also try larger
works in full score)
Ear Training and Theory
(Play the intervals on your guitar, distinguish between major and minor
chords, than add in minor b5, 7th, inversions, listen for the root - 3rd and
5th of the chord, listen for different instrumentation, listen for modes,
learn the scale construction of major - natural minor - major pentatonic -
minor pentatonic - harmonic minor - and melodic minor, what chord qualities
belong in the keys already mentioned, harmonies in 3rds - 4ths and 5ths,
modulations, chord and scale borrowing, take a class at a college for Aural
Skills and Theory to really get more out your head)
By implementing the above key points into your practice time, you can
accomplish the goal of being a great musician. Due to time and space,
today's article offered an outline with the main elements for you to begin
restructuring your practice time with. I will address each key point with
the main elements in detail in future articles, lessons and up coming
instructional DVD¹s done by myself and Tom Hess.
To help maximize this article, use the guidance of a skilled and
knowledgeable music instructor to help you. Finding the teacher that is
right for you is important. Here is a great article by Tom Hess that will
explain what I mean.
Choosing A Teacher
Mike Walsh is an internationally renowned guitar virtuoso, composer and
teacher. For more information about Mike Walsh, his bands SAGE and HESS, to
hear samples of his playing/music and to read more articles visit his web
sites:
SAGE web site: www.sage4.com
HESS web site: www.hess.4t.com
e-mail: hess@mc.net
Copyright 2004 by Mike Walsh. All rights reserved.
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