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Question
#25
I just started playing guitar about 2 weeks ago, and I love
it. I am not in school right now, so I have been playing guitar
10 hours per day. Do you have any suggestions for things to practice?
Answer
That is great that the guitar bug has bitten you with a vengeance.
And off course practicing a lot is the key to becoming a good
guitar player. Now I have to be a party pooper and beg you to
be very careful about played that much at first, or there is a
very really chance of injury......and then no more guitar.
It is not just about the calluses on your fingers, it is all
of the muscles in your hand and arm. These are muscles you
have not used before. If you just start practicing and playing
10 hours per day right off the bat, you are putting those muscles
under severe strain. Think about if you decided to take up jogging,
and started running 20 miles per day. You have to build up to
that 20 mile per day run. You have to build up to playing 10 hours
per day. And even then, that is a lot of time to have the guitar
physically in your hands. A lot of greats practiced for 10 hours
per day. But you have to understand that the guitar is a physical
instrument, and you have to condition those muscles to be able
to handle playing for that long.
Here is what I am going to suggest.
Dedicate those 10 hours per day to music, but not physically
playing the guitar that long. At first I really would limit yourself
to a couple of hours per day, split throughout the day. So at
least break up your practice into 2 one hour periods. Morning
and night. And during that time break up the physical parts of
playing....like scales, and the mental part.....like reading music.
Then as your fingers and arm starts to become stronger, increase
your time. But still break your practice up. Never play for 3
hours straight without a break.
Be sure you warm up. Stretch your arms in some different ways
before you start......over your head....bend your wrist in different
directions and hold. When you first start playing, do some very
slow warm up exercises.
During the time that you are not playing, you can still be working
on your music. You might spend some of that time learning to sing.
That will make you a much more valuable player to a band. Study
music theory. You can work your musical brain while your fingers
are getting a break. Listen to some music....seek out new artist
and new styles. Learn about the mechanics of the guitar and equipment.....pickups,
amps etc. Go get yourself a copy of the magazine Guitar World,
Guitar One, and Guitar Player. Read them. You will learn a lot
that will help you in your guitar playing without physically playing.
Subscribe to one or all of them. They are cheap if you subscribe.
One thing that causes injury on the guitar.....other than playing
for 10 hours per day.....is just overall weak muscles. Do some
basic upper body exercises with some 5, 10 and 15 pound hand weights.
I can't emphasis this enough for all guitar players. This will
help you more than you canl imagine.
As for specific things that you should be practicing, I would
start out with the First
Fret section here at Cyberfret.com. That is an index of lessons
that you should look at first. From there start to browse around
the different sections of the site and find topics that interested
you. And of course start to learn some songs. There are a lot
of different online tablature
sites, and you again may want to check out Guitar One, and Guitar
World magazines which have 6-8 songs transcribed each month..
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