Series Review Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (02:00) Series Review The Importance of Technique

Remember that technique is a means to a musical end. Many players fail to realize the importance of technique. These players struggle to produce the sounds they hear on their favorite records. Others practice technique at the expense of developing essential musicianship skills. These guitarists often sound quite mechanical and devoid of any true artistic expression.

Billy Corgan's Philosophy on Practice and Technique

After the release of the Pisces Iscariot album, Billy Corgan wrote a monthly lesson column for Guitar World magazine. The following information originally appeared in Billy's article entitled "Searching For Style."

"Practicing usually falls into one of two polar camps: the technique-oriented, 'I must never make a mistake' camp and the punk rock camp, which holds that practice just makes you sound like everybody else. For me, the actual truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes. There have been times with my band when I felt the musicianship wasn't proficient enough, and this is the way I explained my point of view to them: You should never let your technical limitations prevent you from achieving your goals. If you have the artistic vision of playing something grand, don't let your lack of technical ability keep you from getting there. The most important thing is what you are trying to say, and you need to work on whatever it is that will enable you to express yourself eloquently."

-Originally printed in the September 1995 issue of Guitar World.

Warming Up

Technical exercises such as the ones Brad has demonstrated in this series should be incorporated into your daily warm-up routine. It is absolutely necessary to warm-up with light technical work at the beginning of every practice session. Your warm-up routine also prepares you mentally for the task of playing guitar. Few guitarists are aware of the importance of preparing the mind to play the guitar. In reality, this is the most important component of warming up. If your mind is in the right place, your hands will follow.

Karl Wohlwend, professor of guitar at Otterbein University and Ohio Wesleyan, frequently harps on the mental aspects of guitar playing. (Karl taught JamPlay instructors Matt Brown as well as Dennis Hodges.) The following information about warming up is taken from an article by Karl Wohlwend.

"A Few Thoughts on Warming Up"

Warming up is the process of preparing to play. We play with our hands, so perhaps we concentrate on stretching out our fingers, or maybe we thing about our technique. However, our hands are connected to the rest of our physical beings. Therefore, it is very beneficial to stretch the entire body, and to be aware of the rest of the body while playing. This includes breathing.

Just as our hands are connected to the rest of our physical beings, our entire physical beings are connected to our mental / emotional / creative beings. As we prepare to play physically, we should also prepare mentally and emotionally.

We should practice thinking and feeling the way we want to think and feel when we perform. To be clear of mind and free from anxiety when playing, we need to practice in such a manner that allows us to be clear of mind and free from anxiety.

Observation is far more important than effort

Awareness is far more important than skill.

Our bodies do exactly what we tell them to do. Perhaps our minds do too.

Creating a Practice Schedule

By now, many of you may feel overwhelmed by the number of technical exercises that you have learned from Brad and other instructors on JamPlay. For this reason, it is important to organize all of the technical exercises that you know into some sort of practice regimen. Begin by simply listing all of the exercises that you know. This should include picking, left hand exercises, reach development, scales, arpeggios, barre chord practice, etc. Then, divide the total number of exercises by the seven days in the week. This will tell you how many exercises you should try to fit into a day. If you do not have time to practice this many exercises in a day, you may need to lay your practice schedule out over a two or three week period.

Please visit Matt Brown's, Jim Deeming's, and David MacKenzie's lessons entitled "Proper Practicing" for more information about developing a practice routine.

The Simplest Exercise Is the Best Exercise

Some of you more advanced members may be saying, "Gee, why is Brad covering all these easy, beginner exercises?" Remember that basic exercises can be made challenging by playing them at very fast tempos. Also, Matt Brown has added some extra John McLaughlin exercises as well as some Kirk Hammett exercises that are quite challenging. These exercises can be found in the "Supplemental Content" section in some of the early lessons in this series.

Review Time

It is extremely important to periodically review material that you have covered in the past. This is essential to ensure that you haven't forgotten anything. You might also notice some mistakes or errors that you failed to notice the first time around. This is a great opportunity to fix these errors or bad habits.

Reviewing past material also serves as a confidence builder. Odds are that you are much better at these exercises now than when you initially learned them. This allows you to see all of the improvement that you have made. This idea can be applied to anything that you have practiced: exercises, scales, repertoire, etc.

Topics Covered in This Series

So far, Brad has provided you with all of the information necessary to develop solid picking technique.

Here is a list of what he has covered:

1. Rhythms and Counting

For additional information and exercises pertaining to rhythm, please check out Matt Brown's Reading Music and Rhythm series as well as Dennis Hodges' Phase 2 Metal Series. Several of these lessons are dedicated specifically to rhythm and counting.

2. Picking Patterns

A. All Downstrokes
B. All Upstrokes
C. Alternate Picking (starting with down and upstrokes)
D. Sweep Picking
E. Economy Picking

Upcoming Lesson Topics in This Series

Here is a quick preview of some of the topics that Brad will cover in future lessons:

A. Picking Technique
B. Fret-hand Technique
C. Library of Brad Henecke licks. These will build speed, dexterity, and your vocabulary of licks that can be inserted into your solos.
D. String Skipping

Member Comments about this Lesson

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