BC-105 • Make the most of your practice time

[justinguitar]

Lesson Link: http://justinguitar.com/en/BC-105-PracticeTips.php

Questions...

[barryg_nyc]

Just a quick "best practices" question.
I've just started your "Beginner" lessons and am trying to spend about 45 minutes per night on the guitar.
On average, how much practice time would you suggest for each lesson? I realize that it will vary on the individual and on the complexity of the lesson, but I'm trying to pace myself so that I make continued progress and don't jump ahead before developing the skills.

On a typical night, I start with a few minutes of warmup, then spend about 10 minutes doing your 1-minute chord changes (BC-124); next, I play a simple song (like 3 Little Birds). Finally, I dig in to the next lesson and try to master whatever is next.

I guess what I am wondering is - should I plan on spending 2-3 sessions on the same lesson until I master it? Should it be 4-5? I guess the official answer is "until you master it", but it's hard to assess my own skills at times. So, any guidelines on best practices for following your program (beyond the 10 tips in the lesson) would be welcome.

Thanks!

[Guss]

I have a similar issue. You recommend keeping the lessons short and often. The session plan works out at about 15mins (5min chords, 1min changes x3, 5min song) but I find that when I get to the end I want to keep going. Is it more beneficial for me to stop and let my brain take it in or should I keep going if I'm getting into it?

I know there should be 5 min 'JUSTIN' training but I havn't worked out how I'm doing that one yet

[Guss]

I know there should be 5 min 'JUSTIN' training but I havn't worked out how I'm doing that one yet

Just worked out that the links for the sound files don't appear useing firefox but there ok in internet explorer so forget the last bit

[ImagineLED]

I see them just fine in FF, maybe you are missing some plugins or something

[vegetable]

Hey!  I'll attach lesson translation in Spanish for anybody who could need it.  Also sent to Justin, to include on website.

Hola!  Adjunto la traduccion a español de la leccion.  Tambien lo envie a Justin para que lo incluye en su web.

Nos vemos!!!



Language: Español/Spanish


BC-105 • Make The Most Of Your Practice Time
=======================================================
BC-105 • Aprobecha tu tiempo de practicas





How you doing? Justin here. Welcome to BC-105: How to make most of your practice
time. Now what I have done for this lesson is I have made Justin's Top Ten Practice Tips
and I am just going to run through them a little bit with you and make sure you are
clear about what it means because some of them may seem a little bit weird.
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Hey! Que tal?  Soy Justin.  Bienvenido a BC-105: Cómo aprobechar tu tiempo de prácticas.  Lo que he preparado para esta lección son los "10 consejos para practicar de Justin" y voy a hablar de ellos un poco y asegurarme de que entiendes claramente lo que significan porque algunos pueden parecer algo extraños.






First one: Practice what you can't do, don't practice what you can.

Everyone is guilty of this. They get their guitar, they have only got ten minutes to do a
little bit of practice so what do they do? They pick up their guitar and they play the thing
that they can already play, like their favourite riff or their favourite song. Not going to
do you very much good. It may help you play that song a little bit better but when you
practice, generally what you should be doing is practising the stuff that you can't do.
Working on those things that you struggle with the most. I know it is not quite the most
fun but if you really want to get good at the guitar you practice the things that you can't
do. Don't practice the things that you are already quite good at.

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Primero:  Practica lo que no puedas hacer, no lo que puedas.

Todo el mundo cae en esto.  Cogemos nuestras guitarras, y solo tenemos 10 minutos para practicar así que, qué hacemos?  Cogemos la guitarra y tocamos aquellos que ya conocíamos, como nuestro riff (punteo) o canción favorita.  Y eso no va a hacer ningún bien.  Puede que mejores en esa canción, pero cuando practicas, normalmente lo que deberías de estar haciendo es practicando cosas que no puedas hacer.
Trabajando en aquellas cosas en las que te atasques.  Se que no es lo más divertido, pero si realmente quieres ser buendo con la guitarra, deberías practicar las cosas que no puedes hacer.  No practiques las cosas en las que eres bueno.







Tip number two: Never practice making a mistake.

So, if you are getting it wrong, stop doing it. Figure out how to do it the right way.
Usually this is about speed. If you are making a mistake you are probably doing it too
fast. If there is something you are doing wrong, stop doing it. Work out how to do it the
right way. Every time you practice doing something the wrong way you are ingraining
that mistake and making it harder for you to do it the right way. So, if you can never
ever practice a mistake. Really bad idea.
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Consejo numero dos:  Nunca practiques cometiendo errores

Es decir, si lo estas haciendo mal, deja de hacerlo así.  Encuentra la forma de hacerlo bien.  Normalmente es cuestión de velocidad.  Si estas cometiendo un fallo, probablemente lo estás haciendo demasiado rápido.  Si hay algo que estás haciendo mal, para.  Trabaja en como hacerlo bien.  Cada vez que practicas algo que haces mal, estas arraigando ese fallo y haciendo que cada vez sea más dificil de hacerlo bien.  Así que nunca practiques un fallo.  Muy mala idea.









That kind of leads on to tip number three: Play perfectly slowly before you speed it up.

A lot of guys really struggle with this, especially you young whipper snappers out there.
Anyone under the age of about eighteen really struggles with this. You have to learn to
practice slow. If you are learning a new scale or an arpeggio or a new chord do it slowly.
Really slowly. Like a snail slowly. Because if you are trying to do stuff fast you will end
up making mistakes and then doing it wrong. I see students all the time that do
something wrong and I go “That wasn't right. Do it again.” And they try and do it faster.
Like that is going to help.

You are in a racing car and you go round a corner, the corner is a bit tight and you
screw it up and you go off the track. So you think, the next time you come up to that
corner what are you going to do? Go even faster? Or you could slow right down and take it carefully and see the way to do it. It is so obvious. But it is hard. I definitely suffered
from that when I was learning guitar. I always wanted to do stuff too quick. As you get
older and you see everyone making mistakes – I am not trying to make myself out to be
too much of an old man – but it is really important that you do start slowly. Get it right
and then only when you can do it right and you are confident that you are doing it the
right way should you speed it up. So always practice doing things slowly. You young
guys really try and take that to heart because it really will make a difference on how
quickly you develop on the guitar. Young guys that heed that and really work on getting
stuff right and then speed it up they learn so much faster. Twice as fast probably as the
guys who ignore that advice. So be aware of that one.
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Esto me lleva al consejo numero tres:  Toca perfecto despacio antes de acelerar
Muchos se atascan con esto, especialmente los pequeños principiantes.  Cualquiera con unos 18 se atasca con esto.  Has de aprender a practicar despacio.  Si aprendes una nueva escala o arpegio o un nuevo acorde, hazlo despacio.  Realmente despacio.  Como un caracol.  Porque si intentas hacer las cosas rapido acabaras equivocandote y tendras que repetirlo.  Y lo intentan y aun mas rapido.  Como si eso fuese a ayudar.

Estas en un coche de carreras y giras en una curva, la curva es un poco cerrada y la cagas y te sales de la carretera.  Asi que piensas, la proxima vez que llegue a esa curva, que vas a hacer?  Ir mas deprisa?  O podrias ir mas despacio, cogerla con cuidado y ver como hacerlo.  Es tan obvio.  Pero es dificil.  Yo tambien sufri esto cuando empece.  Siempre queria hacer las cosas demasiado deprisa.  Segun te vayas haciendo viejo y veas a los demas cometer errores - no pretendo ser tan viejo - pero es importante que empieces despacio.  Hazlo bien y entonces cuando estes seguro que lo haces bien, entonces acelera.  Siempre practica despacio.  Los jovenes intentadlo porque marcara la diferencia en lo rapido que os desarrollareis con la guitarra.  Aquellos que hagan esto y trabajen en hacer las cosas bien y luego aceleren, aprenderan mucho mas rapido.   El doble de rapido probablemente que los que ignoren este consejo.  Asi que tenedlo en cuenta.

[vegetable]

Tip number four: A timer saves time.

A little bit ambiguous. Might seem a little bit weird. What's that all about? OK, what I
mean is when you are practising use some sort of timing device. Either your watch or
use the timer on you iPhone or use an egg timer. But if I say as part of a routine
“practice this chord change for five minutes” a lot of people go well it's five minutes and
they look at their watches and and they go oh yeah, it is five past now. Then they spend
two minutes looking for their book, then a minute finding it and then a minute tuning
their guitar up and then they practice if for a minute and look at their watch and go “Oh!
I've done five minutes practice”. There you have it.

What I mean is, if you are going to practice one minute chord changes, for example,
and you are supposed to practice it for five minutes. You get your folder out. You check
out what chords you are supposed to be changing to and from. You check them out a
little bit, you make sure you have got it. You get your timer out and you set that to five
minutes and then you go start. And for five minutes you are just doing that. You don't
think about making a cup of tea, going to the toilet, answering the phone. While you are
doing that five minutes practice just do that five minutes practice.

I don't know about you, there are not that many people in the world, or things, that I
have to answer the phone for straight away. If I want to practice for five minutes and
then call them back I can. Most of us don't have that kind of heavy duty stuff going on.
Maybe some of you Secret Service agents or something. Not normal people.
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Consejo numero 4.  Una alarma te ahorra tiempo.

Esto es un poco ambiguo.  Tambien puede parecer un poco raro.  De que va esto?  Ok, lo que quiero decir es que cuando estais practicando utiliceis algun tipo de reloj.  Tu reloj o el cronometro de tu iPhone o un cronometro de cocina.  Pero si digo que parte de la rutina "practica este cambio de acorde durante 5 minutos" mucha gente diran bueno 5 minutos y miraran a sus relojes y diran vale, ya pasaron.  Asi que pasaron 2 minutos buscando su libro, luego un minuto encontrandolo y luego 1 minuto afinando la guitarra y luego practicaron durante 1 minuto y miraron su reloj y dijeron "oh! ya he practicado 5 minutos"  Ahi lo tienes.

Lo que quiero decir es, si vas a practicar durante 1 minuto cambios de acorde, por ejemplo, y se supone que has de practicarlos 5 minutos.  Coges el archivador.  Compruebas los acordes que has de practicar.  Los vuelves a comprobar.  Pones tu cronometro 5 minutos y luego empiezas.  Y durante 5 minutos solo haz eso.  No piensas en hacerte una taza de te, ir al baño, contestar el telefono.  Durante esos 5 minutos de practica, practica 5 minutos.

No te conozco, no hay tantas personas en el mundo, o cosas, por las que tenga que coger el telefono inmediatamente.  Si quiero practicar por 5 minutos y luego devolver la llamada, puedo hacerlo.  La mayoria de nosotros, no tenemos ese tipo de tareas importantes que hacer.  Puede que algunos de ustedes agentes del servicio secreto o algo.  No la gente normal.






Justin's little practice tip number five: Focus on one element at a time.

This is really important. Your brain can only think of one thing at a time. So, don't try
and practice and focus on too many different areas of your playing at the same time.
Always be thinking about one particular thing. Working on your picking. Working on
your fretting hand. Working on getting that new chord right. Trying to get your rhythm
groove right. And while you are concentrating on that if something else starts to go
wrong, by all means try and fix it, but try not to spread yourself too thin trying to think
of doing too many things at the same time because generally it doesn't work.

So if you are working on your rhythm and your chords get a bit sloppy don't worry
about the chord being a bit sloppy just keep working on your rhythm. Then once you
have got your rhythm right then move your attention over and try and sort the chord
out as well. Try not to spread yourself too thin, particularly when you have got a
practice session. So, for five minutes you are working on your rhythm guitar. Work on
your rhythm guitar. It doesn't matter if the chord changes are a bit loose or one of the
chords is a bit buzzy. Don't stop and practice it now because you are doing your chord
change stuff.

A lot of this might seem a bit too regimented for a lot of you guys but I am just trying to
explain the way that I think you can make the most of the time when you are practising.
If I'm practising and I'm on holidays and I'm chilled out on the beach I don't use a stop
watch. I play what I like when I feel like. I'm just trying to give you some general hints
here.
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Practicas de Justin numero 5:  Concentrate en una cosa cada vez

Esto es muy importante.  Tu cerebro solo puede pensar en una cosa a la vez.  Asi que no intentes practicar y concentrarte en varios aspectos de la practica a la vez.  Siempre piensa en una cosa en particular.  Trabaja en la pua.  Trabaja en la mano de los trastes.  Trabaja en que ese acorde nuevo suene bien.  Intenta que tu ritmo "groove" vaya bien.  Y mientras que te estes concentrando en eso, si algo mas empieza a ir mal, intenta por todas las maneras de arreglarlo, pero intenta que no te extiendas mucho intentando pensar en hacer muchas cosas a la vez, porque normalmente no funciona.

Asi que si trabajar un ritmo y tus acordes suenan descuidados, no te preocupes y centrate en el ritmo.  Una vez que domines el ritmo, pasa tu atencion a arreglar el acorde.  No te esparzas demasiado, particularmente cuando estes practicando.  No importa si los cambios de acorde son un poco vagos o si uno de los acordes vibra un poco.  No pares y practicalo ahora porque estas haciendo cambios de acordes.

Este puede parecer muy estricto para muchos de ustedes, pero intento explicar la forma en la que creo que aprobechareis mejor vuestras practicas.  Si estoy ensayando y estoy de vacaciones y relajado en la playa, no uso un cronometro.  Toco lo que quiera cuando me apetezca.  Solo intento daros algunos apuntes.








OK, number six: Try and practice a little bit everyday.

I have already mentioned this. But really do try and get your practice consistent rather
than having a just a thing when you are trying to do a whole load of practice on one
day. That is not a good idea. So see if you can get a little bit of practice done every day.
A proper, good idea. If I know I have got to do something and I think it is going to take
an hour for me to learn it, practice up a solo or whatever, I tend not to do it one block. I
will to it in a few fifteen minute sessions instead of trying to do it all at once. It makes a
difference. You learn stuff better.
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Ok, numero 6:  Intenta y practica un poco cada dia

Ya he dicho esto.  Pero intenta y practica consistentemente en lugar de sobrecargarte en un solo dia.  Eso no es buena idea.  Asi que intentar practicar todos los dias un poco.  Una buena idea.  Si se que tengo que hacer algo y creo que me llevara una hora en aprenderlo, practica un solo o lo que sea, intento no hacerlo en un bloque.  Intentare hacerlo en sesiones de 15 minutos en lugar de hacerlo todo.  Esto marca la diferencia.  Aprendes mucho mejor.







Justin's practice tip number seven: Try and keep a practice schedule.

So keep a practice record of what you practised and when. Aside from anything else it is
a really good self motivational arse (ass) kicker. To keep you keeping an eye on how
much you practice. I know a lot of the time as a private teacher my job is as much
motivational as anything else. Trying to make sure that people are doing their practice
and doing the right thing. Obviously in these internet based lessons I can't do that. I
can't keep an eye on you. You have to do it.

Keeping a practice schedule where you tick the boxes every time you practice
something is a really good way for you to be able to kick your own butt and see “Oh my
god, I haven't done any practice. I have done only two practice sessions all week” or
whatever. Having a practice schedule is a really good way for you to keep an eye on
your own progress. Especially writing down how many changes you are doing in the one
minute changes. The writing it down part is the bit that helps keep you motivated. I
wish I could be sitting there helping keep you motivated but I can't be. So you have to
learn a bit to do it yourself. But if you really want to play guitar you will do it. It's a
good idea.
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Consejo de practicas de Justin numero 7:  Intenta programarte las practicas

Guarda un registro de lo que ensayas y de cuando lo haces.  Aparte de eso, es una buena forma de motivarse.  Viendo lo que practicas.  Se que mucho del tiempo que empleo como profesor lo empleo en motivar a la gente.  Intentando asegurarme que la gente hace sus deberes y que los hacen bien.  Obviamente, en estos cursos de internet, no puedo hacerlo.  No puede estar pendientes de vosotros, teneis que hacerlo ustedes.

Guardando un registro de practicas, en los que anotas lo que practicas, es una buena forma de patear tu propio culo y ver "Oh dios mio, no he hecho mis practicas.  Solo he hecho 2 lecciones en toda la semana" o lo que sea.  Esto es una buena forma de ver tu progreso.  Especialmente viendo anotando cuando cambios estas haciendo en "los cambios de 1 minuto".  La parte de escribirlo es ese poquito que te ayuda a estar motivado, pero yo no puedo hacerlo por ti.  Asi que tendreis que aprender un poco a hacerlo ustedes mismos.  Pero si realmente quieres tocar la guitarra, lo tendras que hacer.  Es una buena idea.







Couple of these last ones are a little bit more advanced. Maybe not that useful for
beginners but it is important for you to know them. Number eight is: If it sounds good it
is good.

So, if something is pleasing to the ear then you must be doing something right. And that
also goes the other way. If it doesn't sound very good it is not right. If you are playing a
chord and it sounds really weird then you are not doing it right. So you have got to
believe a bit in your ear and sometimes you can find that something will sound really
cool even though it is not quite right. Well, then that's cool. It is good to find these
things that sound nice. Particularly when it comes to improvisation later on in the course
when you are making up solos. Just listen. Let your ears decide if it's good.

Sometimes you will hit a note that is not the right note, it's not in the scale that I say
you should use. But it sounds cool anyway. Great! It's good. Don't worry about it.
Theory sometimes can get a little bit messy where you have to do this, you should do
this, and you should use that finger and all of this. Well, yeah, it can be helpful but don't
take as gospel. These things (your ears) are the gospel. What it sounds like, that is the
most important thing that you have got to remember.
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Estos consejos son para gente mas avanzada.  Puede que no sean tan utiles para los principiantes pero es importante que los conozcas.  Numero 8 es:  Si suena bien, esta bien.

Si te suena bien, entonces lo debes de estar haciendo bien.  Y viceversa, si no suena muy bien, no esta bien.  Si estas tocando un acorde y suena raro, entonces no lo estas haciendo bien.  Tendras que creer un poco en tu oido y algunas veces oiras algo que suena guay pero no esta bien.  Bueno, entonces es guay.  Es bueno encontrar estas cosas que suenan bien.  Particularmente, en la improvisacion, que se vera mas adelante cuando veais los solos.  Solo escucha.  Deja que tus oidos decidan si esta bien.

Algunas veces tocaras alguna nota que no es la correcta, no esta en la escala que te dije que usaras.  pero suena guay!  Genial!  Esta bien.  No te preocupes.  La teoria algunas veces puede ser algo engorrosa cuando tengas que hacer este, deberias de hacer esto, y deberias de usar ese dedo y todo eso.  Bueno, si, puede ser de ayuda pero no lo tomeis como un credo.  Estas cosas (tus oidos) son el credo.  Como suenan, es lo mas importante que tendras que recordar.






OK, number nine. We are almost out of my ten minutes. Ten things, ten lessons, ten
tips: Playing and practice are very different.

So make sure that you are really aware of the difference between practising and
playing. Practising you are thinking about what you are doing. You are trying to get
something right and you are trying to develop a particular skill. When you are playing
none of the rules apply. When you are playing you shouldn't be thinking about anything
you should just be letting it happen, letting all of your natural things develop. Just going
for it. Playing. That is really important that you practice playing as well. Don't just
practice practising No good.
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Ok, numero 9.   Ya estamos cerca del fin de los 10 minutos.  10 cosas, 10 leccinoes, 10 consejos: tocar y ensayar son cosas muy diferentes.

Asegurate de que entiendes la diferencia.  Ensayando piensas en lo que haces.  Intentas hacer algo bien e intentas mejorar una habilidad concreta.  Cuando tocas, no hay reglas.  Cuando tocas, no deberias pensar en nada, deberias dejar que pase, dejando que las cosas sigan su curso.  Ve a por ello.  Toca.  Es muy importante que tambien ensayes a "tocar".  No solo ensayes a "ensayar".  No es bueno.










And the last thing that I want to leave you with, which is number ten. Quite an
advanced thing: The more you think the more you stink.

The whole idea of this practising and trying to do it as much as you can is to practice
until it becomes instinct. Then you naturally play the chords and you don't have to think
about it.

So that's Justin's Top Ten Practice Tips. Hope you enjoyed that. There will be some
more info up on the website. I will see you all for another lesson very soon. Bye, bye.
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Y esta es la ultima cosa que queria dejaros, el numero 10.  Algo bastante avanzado:  Mientras mas pienses, mas apestas

La idea es que ensayes e intentes hacerlo lo maximo posible hasta que se convierta en instinto.  Luego tocaras normalmente los acordes y no tendras que pensar en ellos.

Asi que ahi van los 10 consejos de practias de Justin.  Espero que los disfruten.  Habra mas informacion pronto en mi web.  Nos veremos en otra leccion muy pronto.  Adios!!!


Translated by/Traducido por: Tomás García Tinoco (vegetable)