Pathways to Mastery - Share Yours Here

[John_c]

Greetings fellow forumites!

I started this thread so as to put our combined wisdom on one thread and discuss the enlightening moments and experiences we have had playing guitar, what has worked for us, what has not, great lessons we've had, wonderful gigs we have played and the downright stinking days which in them had the seeds of greatness.

Feel free to share anything relating to a certain piece, a technique, stage technique and presence, practice and performance tips, things worth hearing/rehearsing/incorporating into our skillset as musicians. The ultimate goal here is to build a base of ideas, skills, technique and repetoire that will enable us all to fulfill our goals as classical guitarists, no matter how big or small they be.

[John_c]

I'll start :)

I have played guitar since the age of 3 but only in the last three months have I gotten lessons in CG from an outstanding teacher. My breakthrough moment came when I started practicing everything from a totally relaxed position, no tension, no stress and

I

WENT

VERY

SLOWLY!!

I very consciously make my move with regards to my hand positions and still do that for each piece, bearing in mind that practice makes PERMANENT (not perfect!) and muscle memory is unforgiving. It will retain incorrect fingerings, bad technique, poorly executed passages and especially, muscular tension in the hands, arms, neck and shoulders.

So now, when I practice a piece, I relax myself completely, take it slowly so as to physically get the piece correct and after that I find, I'm in a state of meditation to speak. I don't have to worry about playing because my hands know what to do. It's after that, that I FEEL the music and I can make it that bit more beautiful.

An excellent book relating to this particular topic is Kenny Werner's "Effortless Mastery."

[John_c]

One other thing I mentioned to my teacher that he totally dismissed and that I have seen written here several times, is that if you practice classical guitar on your own and build bad habits, it takes a LONG LONG time to build up the correct technique.

I'm glad I've listened to him because I totally disagree! I can't believe how my sound has improved in only a short space of time and how much easier it feels to play with correct technique. I mention this so maybe others have heard myths or stories about CG that your personal experience has shown otherwise.

So far, I've worked on rest strokes with the full plant, sequential plant, partial plant (using the Sor studies) and tremelo technique also, as well as having started legato exercises and left/right hand independence exercises.

Any thoughts, ideas, feedback?

[Todd]

Great idea for a topic. :)

I just wanted to say, i had many "moments of clarity"
when reading "Effortless Mastery".

What a great book! I think its something that must
come After, one has technique under control.
Its more about mental attitude at that point.

That book really has alot of truth in it. Its a little scary
when you first read it. Didnt go as far
as to meditate with the included CD's.
But i kinda developed my own little pre-playing attitude
adjustment. :)

Anyway, just wanted you to know, im with you in
reccomending that book. It can really take a musician
to that next level of performance.

[John_c]

Great idea for a topic. :)

I just wanted to say, i had many "moments of clarity"
when reading "Effortless Mastery".

What a great book! I think its something that must
come After, one has technique under control.
Its more about mental attitude at that point.

That book really has alot of truth in it. Its a little scary
when you first read it. Didnt go as far
as to meditate with the included CD's.
But i kinda developed my own little pre-playing attitude
adjustment. :)

Anyway, just wanted you to know, im with you in
reccomending that book. It can really take a musician
to that next level of performance.

Thanks for the reply Todd! Good to hear someone else out there has heard of it - that book IS superb and has applications no matter what instrument you play or art you pursue. The meditations are good, I like them and have used them regularly.

To sum it up, I'd say - relax into the experience and let the music flow.

[bruno]

Hi there!

One idea that I've always found helpful is the concept of "having the score inside your head", as opposed to "having your head inside the score". Get it?

[John_c]

Are you talking about memorisation or actually hearing what you play as you go along?

[Beumont_suite]

I already have the Books 'Mastery of Music' and 'The Inner Game of Music'. Would i be getting any additional benefit (besides another authors point of view) by picking up 'Effortless Mastery'? Is it the same info just in a different package?

[bruno]

It means studying a score without a guitar in hand. Thinking about the notes and mentalizing the fingerings is really helpful in improving knowledge of the fingeboard.

[Antigone]

Id say when your preforming
its important to focus on your breathing and not on technique or
the notes of ther peice.

[John_c]

Hey guys and gals,

I went to the Christopher Parkening masterclass in Pepperdine University last weekend. I was personally delighted to actually hear some other guitarists play, finally! I haven't ever been to a recital or anything like that so it was a lot of fun. CP gave great advice and is definitely unforgiving as a teacher in that he demands perfection - my only gripe would be, where does his advice end, and the student's own voice begin?

Anyway he share some interesting stories. When he first began recording, string noise was a big issue when you are sliding up a string etc. They tried using olive oil, talcum powder etc and nothing would work that would not deaden the string at the same time either. So then he sanded the entire string, that didn't work either. In the end, he sanded just the top of the string down to the 12th fret and wiped out the residue from sanding and apparently, that did the job. Interesting little side note I thought. (My teacher tells me that now they have 'recording strings', so sanding ain't an issue anymore.)

One guy actually played the Chaconne - give him his credit there, almighty piece to be playing! Another played 'Carnival' by Tarrega...superb piece of music, total CG showcase. The Hancock brothers, luthiers from Australia were also there - they have a deal with Guitar Salon to sell their wares here in the US. They both build replicas of old masterpieces, like Hausers and one of them had built an exact replica of Tarrega's guitar, which Torres built.

All in all, an interesting day :)

[ChrisAM86]

When I started La Catedral a few months ago, I found that learning the final movement was much easier when I actually broke it into four sections, then practiced each phrase of each section individually. I find the best way to practice is to go phrase by phrase, timing yourself so that you make sure you don't end up spending an hour on one phrase and no time on the other. I've noticed that even if I only practice two hours a day, I can still get a ton of work done if I apply myself.

Another thing that helped me a lot was running my pieces constantly. Since I'm doing the first Lute Suite for my recital at the end of the month, I'll warm up by practicing the piece I'm going to run very slowly, making sure all the kinks in the phrases are smoothed out, and then I'll do the "penny trick". I put 5 pennies on my music stand and run the piece until all of them are gone, if I make a noticeable mistake (string buzzing doesn't really count), then I put all 5 back and start over. Remember, your performance is going to sound like your practice, so if you don't run your pieces enough they won't come out as you want them to.