A lot of people has heard of the saying “Practice Makes Perfect”, and that is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.
Practice makes permanent, not perfect. You practice the wrong way for 20 years, you are going to play the wrong way for the next 20 years.
My goal in this post is to give you some very effective practice tips that will whip your playing into shape, but keep you safe.
“All I’m doing is practicing the guitar, what’s so unsafe about that?”
I’m glad you asked!
I started noticing a reoccurring theme among veteran players that I used to see play. A lot of them complained of hand and wrist fatigue. A lot of them had to where braces while playing, because they’ve spent years practicing the wrong way, and now they have carpel tunnel.
Playing the guitar can add a lot of strain on your muscles and tendons within your hand and wrist. So it’s very important that you take your practicing time very seriously. Use it as a time to sharpen your musical abilities, but also use it as a way to get your hands into shape.
Would you repeatedly go out and try to bench press 500 pounds, if you’ve never worked out before? No!
Because you could wind up killing yourself. But if you go out without proper training, conditioning and warming up, you can kill your chances at becoming the Rockstar of your dreams.
Exercise 1 – Stretch, Stretch, Stretch
Don’t dare pick up the guitar until you’ve spent at least 5 minutes stretching your hand. This will loosen up your muscles and tendons, and get the blood flowing to your hands. This is imperative to having endurance in your playing. Muscles need oxygen, and the blood it what get’s it there. So stretch your fingers, hands, wrist, and forearms.
Exercise 2 – Timing, Timing, Timing
Get a metronome, always play with a metronome, live, breath, eat with a metronome. You have to develop your timing. That’s the most important part about being a musician. That’s what set’s the greats, from the wannabe guitarist.
If you ever think that you don’t need a metronome, then you show your inexperience.
Exercise 3 – Use chromatic scales
These are no brainier exercises, with the sole purpose of conditioning your hands in mind. ItÆs the quickest way to increase your speed and dexterity, and since you donÆt have to worry about what whether or not you’re playing the right note; it’s and easy exercise you can do anywhere, anytime.
I used to sit for hours a day just practicing the chromatic exercise below, and I owe my speed and agility to just that one exercise.
Practice this every single day, and you’ll be able to zip around the fretboard in no time flat.
E|—————————————–1-2-3-4———-|
B|———————————1-2-3-4——————|
G|————————-1-2-3-4————————–|
D|—————–1-2-3-4———————————-|
A|———1-2-3-4——————————————|
E|-1-2-3-4————————————————–|
Once you play this then, reverse it:
E|-1-2-3-4——————————————|
B|———1-2-3-4———————————-|
G|—————–1-2-3-4————————–|
D|————————-1-2-3-4——————|
A|———————————1-2-3-4———-|
E|—————————————–1-2-3-4–|
Always practice using alternate picking!
Once you’ve done both of those exercise, then move everything up one fret and play it again. Once you’ve don’t that, then move everything up a fret and play it again.
Try to work all the way up the 11 fret and back down again.
If you start feeling a burn (which you will), then finish that exercise, and then stretch your arms, wrist, and fingers before continuing.
If you follow these tips then you’ll be the Schwarzenegger of monster guitar solos.
