Thanks for the replies guys
MAHARZAN: Sounds like you have a plan that is working for you so stick to it! Some players do better with more structure and more planning while others do better with a much looser approach. In the end it all comes down to you as a player. It can take a while to figure out how you best learn. Teachers/Instructors will often teach in the manner that they best learn in, which makes sense when you think about it. Players that learn in a looser fashion, tend to instruct in a bit of a looser way and feel their way through it. Players that learn better with a structured approach tend to teach that way as well. At least this has been what I've seen over the years. Of course, as instructors gain experience they learn to adopt other teaching styles to accomodate the student population.
A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO PRACTICE AND LEARNING:
As you may have noticed during my Saturday Video Chat's, I've prepped a lesson ahead of time and have a lesson plan for what I'd like to cover as well as tablature, etc. We then learn the lesson/lessons and work them up in speed with a metronome. Quite a bit of structure over all. Where as other Video Chat instructors may keep things much looser and work without a hard lesson plan or tablature and let the lesson just develop in an organic way. Both approaches are valid and useful. And both typically make use of elements of the other. That said, I do tend to learn and teach in a more structured way. I tend to break a lick/chop/scale down to it's base elements or maybe in half or in to four parts and play them individually and then combine them. Working with a metronome to build up speed until I have it down.
THE STRUGGLE WITH YOURSELF/ YOUR GUITAR":
I've always believed that "True Skill is Effortless". If you really know a scale/lick etc., you should be able to play it up, down, back forth, slow fast, whatever, without it seeming difficult. Making that a goal will set you up for success. It does require focus, patience and above all persistence. Getting over that hump that separates you from being the player you want to be is perhaps the greatest challenge of all. But it's quite doable.
THE SECRET OF GETTING "GOOD":
When you need some motivation, visualize yourself playing something that you can't yet play, something amazing. And see yourself playing it without looking at your hands, without even breaking a sweat, just effortlessly playing and feeling the music instead of worrying about hitting the notes. That image of the player you can be is within your grasp and every time you practice you close the gap between the player you are now and the player you want to be.
Practice!
Todd
Todd
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