We all know the stereotype: teenage kid hunched over guitar, back bowed, straggly long hair falling over their face, staring intently at the fretboard. However, I’ve found that students who move their eyes away from their fingers become much more fluent, much more quickly than those who don’t.
We all know (hopefully) that it’s best to practice slowly, carefully and accurately. But we all want to get everything up to speed as quickly as possible. So often we try to go to fast too soon and as a result it takes longer to get up to standard than it would have otherwise…
I get this situation all the time: A student proudly tells me they’ve been working on something and then plays me a bit of it – scrappily, slowly and out of time but just about identifiable as the relevant song. So I dig out a backing track, or the original track, and ask them to play along. They usually can’t manage it….
The more I play with more and more top musicians, the more convinced I am that having great rhythm is the most important skill a musician can have.
I’m not talking about being able to play complex rhythms, just being able to play reliably keeping really good time. Even if you only know a handful of chords but you can play really consistent, tight, in time, eighth note rhythms you will soon a reputation as a good player. You will impress far more people than…
