Guitar practice strategy that enhances your musical creativity and makes guitar practice fun
To achieve greatness as a guitarist, you must work on the integration of fluent musical skills. This means:
*Combine different skills, techniques or concepts together.
* Actively practice the ability to be creative.
Question: “But Tom Hess, how can you practice ‘being creative’ when playing the guitar? I’ve always heard that either you’re born creative or you’re not.”
Answer: Anyone can become musically creative through practice and hard work. Creativity comes from the mastery of skills and their integration. Integration practice is what you need to become a more creative guitarist.
The following guitar practice loop helps you integrate musical skills:
Perform these steps continuously (don’t stop in between):
Step 1: Choose any phrase, arpeggio, scale play, riff, or lick to work with.
Step 2: Play this idea several times to get it used to your ears.
Step 3: Create four variations of the original idea. For example:
* Alter the rhythms of the notes.
*Use the legato technique to emphasize notes instead of selected notes
*Use bends and vibrato on some of the notes.
Step 4: Make four new guitar licks using the original beat of the idea. Modify all the real tones keeping the rhythm exactly the same.
Step 5: Use the rubato technique. Immediately speed up or slow down, playing out of tempo.
Step 6: Modify the first few notes of the original idea and leave the rest the same. Do several variations of this.
Step 7: Alter the middle notes of the original idea, leaving the first and last parts the same. Do several variations of this.
Step 8: Alter the last three or four notes of the idea, leaving the first and last parts the same. Do several variations of this.
Go through steps 2-8 again with new variations of the original idea for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, start over with a new lick.
Tips for completing this guitar practice circuit:
* Choose a guitar practice item that you can play correctly with ease. This way, you won’t be distracted by trying to play the notes correctly.
*Focus on not stopping between steps. Go from one step to the next as fast as you can. This improves your fluency and musical creativity at a faster rate. Track how long it takes you to go from one step to the next. This is a method to measure your improvement with fluency and integration.
*Make a list of creativity and fluency items that you find most difficult. For example: You may find it difficult to change rhythms and keep the same tones, or add legato technique to your ideas. This helps you understand what to work on to improve your integration and fluency.
Frequent questions:
Question: “Tom Hess, what if I can’t think of variations to use with arpeggio patterns?”
Answer: Here are a couple of ideas:
1. Use rests (rest) at random points in the middle of an arpeggio instead of using the exact same rhythm for each note.
2. Use a different number of strings to play each arpeggio. An arpeggio is a chord made up of 3-5 strings with notes that repeat in different octaves. Changing the pitch range of an arpeggio makes it sound more creative.
Question: “Tom Hess, how can I use circuit training with the rest of my guitar practice?”
Answer: Train guitar fluency exactly as you would train any other skill by adding it to your schedule. Effective guitar practice scheduling gives you the time you need to improve skills that are weak so you can reach your goals faster.
Use this guitar practice loop as a test to improve your fluency and integration skills. Work on this circuit a couple of times a week to challenge yourself. Then spend the rest of the time improving these skills so you can get more creative.