Transcript included below…
Today, we’re going to talk about what it’s like to be a clumsy guitarist, and seven intentional strategies for how to avoid being a clumsy guitarist.
When I’m puttering around at home, I dress pretty casually. One item of clothing that I tend to favor is khaki cargo shorts. They’re comfy.
But sometimes, especially when I’m in a hurry, I occasionally catch the corner of the leg pockets of these shorts on some things around the house. Like drawer knobs in the kitchen. Or the corner of a license plate on my car in the garage.
Catching the pocket on a drawer is startling, but not as startling as the loud “thwap” that happens when I bend the corner of a license plate.
I know what you’re thinking – maybe wear a different kind of shorts than cargo shorts.
But that could be treating the symptom.
Here’s another idea I need to consider: slow down, be more deliberate, and be…less clumsy.
I think this approach applies to a lot of different aspects of life, including…you guessed it…our guitar playing.
Picture me practicing some guitar exercises or a song, whether I’m in cargo shorts or jeans or whatever. What if I make my way hastily through said exercises or song?
I’ll get hung up on things, I’ll miss things, or totally play something wrong.
Is that ok? Yes, I suppose. Because I don’t want to be so perfectionistic that the joy of music goes away.
However, and I think you’ll catch this – I can slow down a bit and really take some intentional steps towards setting myself up well for playing more accurately during my practice time.
In Guitar Serious Fun Episode 34, “Can Practicing the Guitar Be Harmful?” I took some time to talk about the importance of mental focus.
I’ll expand a bit on those thoughts and add a few more here today.
1. Set yourself up for smooth sailing.
If my guitar is in good working order, I’ll be in great shape for a solid practice session. In GuitarSuccess4U, one of the five instant bonuses I award to new members is a video called “10 Tips for Making Sure Your Guitar is Properly Set Up.”
I’ll probably not play as smoothly if my action is too high. I may get clumsy.
If my guitar is set up properly, it has a much better chance of staying in tune when I tune it. And speaking of tuning, I also offer my new members another bonus – “How to Choose a Tuner.”
In this video we go over the merits of tuners that are attached to the headstock of our guitars, thereby allowing the vibrations of the notes to be picked up and tuned precisely.
We also talk about tuners you can plug into, whether handheld, or mounted on a pedal board.
We even talk about sound wave beats that can be matched with a tuning fork. All kinds of possibilities.
But having my guitar set up and in tune is going to make for a great practice session. Less clumsiness, right?
2. Make a bit of space.
Having a space dedicated to your guitar practice can be a huge blessing, even if it’s just the corner of a bedroom, or a space that serves multiple purposes (like an office or a study.)
Being able to close the door of a practice space allows for fewer interruptions, but also the opportunity for me to play something repetitively without feeling self-conscious.
If I’m sharing the space physically (or sonically) with someone else, I’ll feel reluctant about practicing something diligently until I get it right, because the repetition may seem a bit tedious for my listeners.
These practice space tips and others can be found in yet another of the five instant GuitarSuccess4U bonuses: a PDF called “10 Tips for Making Your Solo Practice Space Great.”
I include photos and descriptions for making your practice space a place that you love to spend time in.
3. Give yourself the gift of solitude.
I love to be able to close the door of my practice space, as I mentioned above.
New members of GuitarSuccess4U get a fun door hanger that is basically a snazzy “do not disturb” sign for their practice space. On one side, it says: “Hold that thought. I’m practicing the guitar. Please give me a few more minutes. Thanks.” On the other side, it says “Get in here – you’ve got to hear what I’m discovering on the guitar – wooo!”
As you might imagine, having uninterrupted time at my instrument can promote better concentration.
Now, we don’t live in a vacuum, and there’s “life” happening around us all the time, especially if we have children under our roof, which is a good thing.
But setting aside time and expressing my need to have an uninterrupted practice session can be a huge gift. It helps if this is a time of day that’s consistent, like before breakfast, or after work, or just before bed, etc.
That way, my family can give me the allocated time to tackle my practicing, and then I can be free to engage with them after I’m done.
What’s the opposite of solitude? Well, maybe chaos or at least a state of many distractions.
Again, our world has lots going on, but if I allow sounds from a TV or radio to intrude on my concentration, I’ll get clumsy.
4. Invite distractions on purpose.
The only caveat I’d offer to having a distraction-free environment is that if I’m working to take something I already know well musically to the next level, I can actually invite distractions into my process from time to time.
I can practice a song with totally different music playing in the background to provide a bit of mental resistance, much like a weight lifter can add more weight to strengthen their muscles.
I can also have a TV on if I’m working on rudiments, etc.,
If I can persevere (and play well) amidst distractions, I will do better when it comes time to stand up in front of an audience, a congregation or a studio microphone.
I was gearing up for a Christmas tour one year, and we had guests over for Thanksgiving. So, I invited them to listen to me play one of my most technical songs.
One of the guests proceeded to turn on her phone and capture me on video…from about four feet away.
It was initially a bit startling and of course, very distracting, but ultimately, it served as a fabulous catalyst and strengthened my preparation on the song, which went much more fluidly on my Christmas tour.
5. Haste Makes Waste.
If you’ve heard this expression (or lived it) you know that some things can fall off the wagon if we’re too hasty. So, one thing I recommend is to slow down and take things deliberately.
In Guitar Serious Fun Episode 26, “Don’t Get Caught in a Speed Trap,” I speak plainly about how I am prone to rushing the tempos for the songs I play.
Sometimes this is because I’m overexcited in a performance or recording setting, or because I don’t have a strong conviction about how to keep a rushing drummer in check.
But sometimes, it’s because I’m in a hurry to get through a guitar song or exercise. Rushing through these types of things, especially early on in the formative season of the song, can never be a good thing.
Why? I’ll give you a second to guess.
It’s because I’ll likely get clumsy.
And what do my hands know? They only know what I tell them. So, if I rush through my practice session because I’m in a hurry, I’ll make some (or a lot of) mistakes.
And then when it comes time to play the song “for real” (which, in my opinion, is a bit of a misnomer since we should always be playing with intention), I’ll likely “re-state” the mistakes I’ve made in practice.
As several wise music teachers have quipped, “Practice makes permanent.” In other words, whatever is practiced becomes more permanent.
It takes quite a bit of re-training to “undo” incorrectly practiced music.
6. Clean playing is rarer than you think.
The idea of playing cleanly on the guitar is, in some ways, a lost art in some circles.
I recall being at a Pierre Bensusan guitar seminar in his home studio in rural France (and as I string these words together, I’m actually enjoying listening to Pierre’s solo acoustic album, Intuite.)
When he was instructing me and a small group of students, he made it clear that playing clean should always be the goal.
What is playing clean? You probably know. But it’s basically articulating notes and chords in such a way that they ring out clearly.
No string buzz, no unnecessarily muted (or unmuted) notes, and basically a very strong sense of purpose in what we do.
I could probably dedicate an entire episode of Guitar Serious Fun to this discussion topic (and I may), but for now, I recommend being uncompromising in your execution of the notes you play.
I’ll ask a rhetorical question: is it better to learn forty chords that I can play fairly well, or just four chords that I can play cleanly?
Based on what I’ve just discussed, the latter is superior.
If I had a nickel for every volunteer worship guitarist I’ve heard play in a clumsy fashion, I’d have a lot of nickels.
Usually clumsy playing comes across to me as an attitude of compromise. I know that some guitarists are just getting started and they want to be available to serve, so I’ll tread lightly.
But if these guitarists can clearly articulate a strong G, C, D and E minor chord progression, not just with their individual appearances, but in context and in transition with other chords, it’s a much more skillful offering than a bunch of chords that just don’t sound quite right.
And even though some listeners are musicians, many are not…and yet, most can discern the difference between clean and clumsy.
You get it – play skillfully as the Psalmist exhorts us to do in Psalm 33:3.
In GuitarSuccess4U, which you’ve heard me allude to a few times in today’s episode and which you likely know a bit about (or are even a member of, perhaps), we leverage a tool of my own design called The Chord Kite Diagram, which I’ve never seen anywhere else.
Therefore, I had to create it.
It details multiple “communication pathways” so as to allow chords to function very deliberately in context. In creating the Chord Kite Diagram, I use an axiom that is inspired by Dawn Jones called “Reduce it to the Ridiculous.”
You can listen to Dawn and me unpack the logic behind this in Guitar Serious Fun Episode 46, “Reduce it to the Ridiculous” – with Dawn Jones.
A quick summary is the idea of zooming in (almost ridiculously) so as to get something done well.
If our guitar playing is worthy (and I believe it is), it’s important to zoom in and get things done well.
Imagine if I was having a minor surgery and I was conscious and could hear the surgeon talking with his fellow staff as he or she worked on me.
What if I heard the surgeon say, “Hmmmm…I guess that’s good enough”?
Would that promote confidence? Probably not.
Guitar and surgery are not at all on the same playing field, but you can tell if someone cares about what they do.
I’ve had people say as much after one of my shows. They’ve said, “You really care about what you do, don’t you?”
Those are kind, affirming words, and they also show that my intentions as a guitarist have had the desired result.
We communicate an unwritten message in the quality of our musical offerings.
A clumsy offering communicates a certain message. So, let’s be the rare clean-playing guitarist, and communicate to our listeners that we care.
7. Get rest; don’t be stressed.
If we are rested, and our stress level is lower, our clumsy factor will decrease significantly.
Yes, playing the guitar is an opportunity to de-stress. But if we’re leaning into an intentional practice session (not just strumming a song for the chance to wind down), it would behoove us to be rested and alert.
Being stressed is also not going to help us with our concentration.
Whether I’m driving a car or cooking a meal, I’m less of a safe driver and less of a deliberate cook, if I’m weary and overwhelmed.
I’ll make silly mistakes, which at the very least can involve horns honking at me on the road, or missed ingredients in the dinner.
There’s a whole continuum, of course, and some car accidents and burned meals have been the result of a certain level of clumsiness.
So, in the words of Daniel Tiger, who took up the mantle of Mister Rogers, “Rest is best.” And a low-stress environment, as each of us knows in our heart of hearts, is much more conducive to effective practice.
In terms of applying this to our guitar playing, this is probably fairly obvious, but I still like to point out obvious things from time to time.
Wrap-Up
I’ll touch on our seven tips today again for review as we endeavor to avoid being the clumsy guitarist.
First, set yourself up for smooth sailing with a guitar that’s set up well and can be tuned to precision.
Second, make a bit of space for your practicing.
Third, give yourself the gift of solitude so you can be uninterrupted if that serves your season of guitar playing.
Fourth, invite distractions on purpose, if it helps you get stronger with your songs.
Fifth, remember that haste makes waste.
Sixth, recall that clean playing is rarer than you think (so let’s stay rare with our playing.) And…
Seventh, get rest; don’t be stressed.
As I’ve implied in my discussion here, the perfect scenario for guitar development won’t always be there. Many times, we work within a less than ideal scenario, and we just have to roll with how things are. But being extra aware and tuned in is good.
Now, if you’re aware and tuned in to today’s episode, you know that three previous episodes of Guitar Serious Fun have been suggested for your enjoyment.
For the listener, you may need to spool back through. For the reader, I hyperlink to other episodes on Substack, as I always have.
If you’ve experienced all 93 episodes up to this point, then awesome!
But it’s likely that you’ve joined us somewhere along the way and haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing my thoughts (and the thoughts of some of my guests) in some of our previous episodes.
If that’s the case, please take the opportunity. We’ve got quite the compendium of concise, well-organized topics here at Guitar Serious Fun.
But if you’re looking for the real feast, well, GuitarSuccess4U awaits you with a curated collection of progressive lessons, quizzes, interviews, exercises, and above all, a supportive Christ-honoring community of like-minded guitarists. The best two parts? 1) It’s highly affordable and 2) you get to set the pace.
It’s my privilege to be the founder and guide for this unique tribe. And perhaps you are in a season where you might join us. If so, we eagerly await the opportunity to welcome you in, and soon.
If not yet, perhaps share today’s episode, or at least our website, with someone you know who might be a good fit for this amazing online experience.
The website is GuitarSuccess4U.com.
Thanks so much for listening. Keep playing your guitar, and the clumsiness will become less and less as you become more and more the guitarist you were made to be.
I’ll see you next time.
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