Practice Makes Perfect, Part 2

Organizing your material

In order to become a well-rounded musician, you have to master the three

major aspects of guitar playing: the technical side, the musical side and the
creative side. The technical side comprises the actual physical components you
need to have under your belt in order to get around your instrument, such as
right- and left-hand technique, synchronization of both hands, executing
scales, arpeggios and patterns, string-skipping, sweep picking, difficult licks,
and memorizing (and playing) complete songs.

Once you've developed some technical facility on the guitar, the musical side
(which entails theory, harmony, chord structure, ear training, sight-reading,
composition and being able to hear chord progressions and licks) comes into
play a lot more. This aspect is a lifelong study, but it's what makes you a good
musician, as opposed to a good guitarist.

The creative side entails expressing yourself as an artist by composing music,

lyrics or songs. It's often accessed in a totally opposite manner than the other
two components-through free association. Sometimes just allowing yourself to
noodle without any structure will enable you to stumble upon great new ideas,
culminating in creating your own distinct voice on the instrument. I spent a lot
of time developing my chops when I was younger. In doing so, I found that
one of the hardest things was dealing with what to practice. That's not
surprising, considering the almost inexhaustible supply of study materials
(such as CDs, transcription books, magazines and instructional videos)
available. With such a wealth of information out there, it's often intimidating to
know where to begin, especially if you only have a limited amount of time.

I had to figure out how to organize my materials in such a way that I would be
able to cover all three facets of guitar playing during a practice session. So I
did the only thing I could think of: I set up a filing system. And you know
what? It helped me so much, I still use it to this day! I heartily recommend
that you create one for yourself.

Here's what I did (and you're welcome to use whatever suggestions work best
for you): I created three different sections in my file cabinet, one for each of
the aforementioned components of guitar playing. Subsequently, I divided
each section into sub-categories. I bought a bunch of folders, and labeled each
one with a particular sub-category.

Then, whenever I came across a piece of music that I wanted to learn, I'd
assign it to a sub-category and pop it into its respective folder. The music
could be from any source-a guitar lesson, a transcription, a magazine column,
my own written exercises-it didn't matter. Everything went into that folder,
including any books on that particular topic.

For example, let's take a look at how I filed the technical section. First, I made
a list of all the technical sub-categories I could think of, and then I assigned a
folder to each one. I created one folder for scales (which also included scale
patterns and sequences), and another one for arpeggios. Then I had a folder
on left-hand studies, where I included things such as legato licks a la Allan
Holdsworth and trilling exercises. I also made a folder that contained intervallic
studies, such as string-skipping licks, and one containing chop-building
exercises, such as speed studies and chromatic lines.

I also created a separate folder that only contained licks, whether written,
transcribed, or culled from magazines. For example, I used to transcribe licks
from Steve Morse and Al DiMeola, and they actually worked like technical
exercises. The mere effort required to master those licks helped my technique
immensely. By the way, you may have noticed that I didn't make a folder for
right-hand exercises-that's because the exercises in all the folders
automatically encompass the right hand.

Of course, you're not limited to just those sub-category choices. Create ones
that interest you. When I was younger, I had a folder on right-hand tapping,
but since I don't really use this technique that often anymore, I no longer
require a tapping folder. But if you want to master your tapping technique, by
all means create a folder. Same thing goes for whammy bar tricks, etc.

I break down my musical component section into the following sub-categories:

sight-reading (which includes single-string reading studies from Berklee
College of Music [the school I attended] and classical pieces), chords and chord
theory (which contains chord books, articles that depict chord boxes, and
chord-melody transcriptions), and general music theory.

If you want to master a lot of different musical styles, I strongly suggest that
you also create a styles folder. In this folder, you'd have blues, country and
jazz sub-categories for starters, as well as any other styles you're interested in
(death metal, bluegrass, etc.).The creative section will contain folders where
you can catalogue your songs, chord progressions, melodies and lyrics-any
original work that defines you as a guitarist and an artist.

The cool thing with this filing system is that when you go to practice, you not
only have tons of material to choose from, but you can customize your practice
sessions. This is especially helpful to guitarists who are in a practice rut where
they don't know what to work on, or where to start, so they practice the same
things over and over.

For example, let's say you have two hours a day to practice, and you've
decided you're going to dedicate every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to
working on scales and arpeggios. With this filing system, you'll never have to
play the same exercises every day. Just go into the appropriate folder, and, if
you filed your topics correctly, you'll have a bunch of different things to work
that concentrate on the same technique. That way, you'll never get bored and
you'll always be working on something new and interesting.

We'll go more into this next month. Until then, get those folders, and start
compiling your own customized guitar library!

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