Advanced Vs Pro Playing #3, my personal practicing, a little update Options

[Kristofer Dahl]

Hey guys - here is a little update on my personal practicing and progress,

Around 4 years ago my personal interest for improving on the guitar was reborn.

However, I felt strongly I needed to rethink the way I was practicing - because the metronome thing was really not cutting it for me.

This resulted in these two threads - where I was basically writing instrumental tunes - and then practiced them as a madman for ~8 months. This was a better method for me than the metronome, but still a bit of a torture routine.

Advanced Vs Pro Playing, How to get that extra bit of mojo which makes all the difference?

Advanced Vs Pro Playing #2, Still working on that extra bit of mojo which makes all the difference

Eventually I realised that what really intrigued me was to try to just play whatever I felt like: just try to improvise from the bottom of my heart. However that was easier said than done.

So today's post is just a little update on my work-in-progress - and here you can see me improvise over a super known song (but which I have never played before). Obviously I am overplaying a bit - but this is still much more musical practicing than working with a metronome.

Have you had any personal revelations that changed the way you practice and progress?

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[DeGroot]

That sounded amazing! I bow to your progress...

I think my sorta revelation to "practicing" is similar. I play to a lot of backings and just practice some old 'go to' licks. I've also found it a useful way to try newer licks. Not to mention it usually opens up some new ideas in me... since playing to a new track the music can bring something spontaneous to my practicing.

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[Todd Simpson]

Great stuff! Yeah, I'd think you were way past the Metronome stage. At some point, the metronome becomes internal, at least it did for me, to the point where I really didn't need one anymore. Almost like how people develop relative pitch by playing a lot. I agree all the way that being able to Improv is a wonderful thing and something that every player should strive toward. Being able to respond in a musical way to whatever you are listening to, just off the cuff, is one of the things that delineates good players from great players IMHO

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[Kristofer Dahl]

That sounded amazing! I bow to your progress...

I think my sorta revelation to "practicing" is similar. I play to a lot of backings and just practice some old 'go to' licks. I've also found it a useful way to try newer licks. Not to mention it usually opens up some new ideas in me... since playing to a new track the music can bring something spontaneous to my practicing.

Well said - this is what its about! Thanks!

Great stuff! Yeah, I'd think you were way past the Metronome stage. At some point, the metronome becomes internal, at least it did for me, to the point where I really didn't need one anymore. Almost like how people develop relative pitch by playing a lot. I agree all the way that being able to Improv is a wonderful thing and something that every player should strive toward. Being able to respond in a musical way to whatever you are listening to, just off the cuff, is one of the things that delineates good players from great players IMHO

I don't necessarily think everyone should strive for it. Some people are perfectly happy working on the technique and then use it for writing their own material or playing cover tunes.

And I still use the metronome (or a drum machine rather) but not for pushing speed using exercise - rather to focus on problem areas or just for jamming.

Thanks!!

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[Darius Wave]

I think what you do these days is best thing a player can do for himself. Practicing over many different backing tracks and keys is almost simialr to your playing developement while playing with real people. The only missing thing is an interaction with other people but I would put this to a totally different "bucket" for considering other aspcets of playing. The worst thing a player can do to himself is to know thousands of licks and not being able to use them in a random, occasional impro. Practicing with metronome creates a good time feel and ability to be a solid root of the part of the song...while you keep the rhythm for example. But I consider it to be different kind of workout - same important, but definitely not one to be chosen as a stadalone. You're doing great job these days

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[Kristofer Dahl]

I think what you do these days is best thing a player can do for himself. Practicing over many different backing tracks and keys is almost simialr to your playing developement while playing with real people. The only missing thing is an interaction with other people but I would put this to a totally different "bucket" for considering other aspcets of playing. The worst thing a player can do to himself is to know thousands of licks and not being able to use them in a random, occasional impro. Practicing with metronome creates a good time feel and ability to be a solid root of the part of the song...while you keep the rhythm for example. But I consider it to be different kind of workout - same important, but definitely not one to be chosen as a stadalone. You're doing great job these days

That's a good point - the spontaneity is certainly not two-directional. I doubt the youtube backings will ever do any gigging though

I agree there is a tendency among guitarists to try to learn as many different licks as possible, instead of making use of the ones they already know. This is why progress is often so slow. Learning new stuff is hard!

Thanks man for the great words!

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[Darius Wave]

That's a good point - the spontaneity is certainly not two-directional. I doubt the youtube backings will ever do any gigging though

I agree there is a tendency among guitarists to try to learn as many different licks as possible, instead of making use of the ones they already know. This is why progress is often so slow. Learning new stuff is hard!

Thanks man for the great words!

You wellcome. These are well deserved \m/. I believe that aside from the gift that some players have it's 90% of self-discipline, that makes people become guitar gods. Instead of rest of us, they now their weak spots and they focus on them. Most of us just take the guitar and do whatever we like at the moment. As you said - it makes the progress come later than it could

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[Kristofer Dahl]

You wellcome. These are well deserved \m/. I believe that aside from the gift that some players have it's 90% of self-discipline, that makes people become guitar gods. Instead of rest of us, they now their weak spots and they focus on them. Most of us just take the guitar and do whatever we like at the moment. As you said - it makes the progress come later than it could

You know I love this topic mate!

This is a common way to look at 'natural talent' today - ie it's the last 10% that can't be bought/practiced.

I personally do not believe this - instead I believe that labelling those last percents as natural talent is an oversimplification. Creativity, unpredictability and even 'fine timing' can be practiced - but require very different practice approaches.

So those 10% are exactly what I have been aiming at. And the reason I made these posts about my prcaticing was to try and proove that it is possible to practice these things.

So my personal learning curve could be illustrated by comparing two of my videos, ie this one from 4 years ago and this recent one. Or just go to my youtube channel to see the gradual progress in chronological order.

Also I think you have much more potential than I had when I started changing my routine - so I am very excited to follow your progress mate.

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