A few weeks ago the egg timer I use to help me gauge my practice sessions broke. Since then, I've tried using the clock on my cable box as a substitute. I finally got around to buying a new egg timer last night, and felt more productive using it than I have in the weeks I've been without one.
Egg timers are a great practice tool for any guitarist, new or experienced. For one, they're portable. I keep mine on my music stand, next to my sheet music. For another, they're an excellent way of helping you maintain discipline during your practice sessions by 1) Making sure you don't spend more than 10 minutes on any one thing, and 2) Making sure you spend at least 10 minutes on any one thing. Because they wind down, you don't lose track of time when practicing, either.
Now that I finally have a new timer, I'm able to re-structure my practice sessions and maintain a nice, steady pace while learning. My current regime is as follows:
10 min - Finger Calisthenics
10 min - Stretching Exercises
10 min - Scales
10 min - Mazurka (a Polish dance I'm currently studying)
10 min - Seis Caprichos (a Spanish guitar concerto I'm currently studying)
10 min - Fretboard Mastery - I use a free program I downloaded from this website to reinforce and maintain my growing knowledge of the fretboard. I learned, long ago, that it's just as important having lessons to learn away from the guitar as it is to have lessons that employ the guitar.
10 min - Sight Reading - I use this web site to reinforce and maintain my sight reading skills.
If you don't already own one, I highly recommend buying one. They're available in the baking section at any grocery store.
Well, I had my embarrassing moment for the week, tonight. We were performing Mazurka reasonably well until I got to the end of the third line of the first guitar part and, rather than advancing to the next line of music, I played the third line again.
To any musicians out there reading this... have you ever spent so much time going over and over and over a particular section of a song, trying to really hammer it into place, that you forget to learn the rest of the song? Well, guess what. That's what's happened to me during the last few weeks. I've been so focused on this one run of measures that span the entire third line of Mazurka that I've neglected the fourth line!
I felt like such a loon! LOL!
The fifth line isn't that big a deal because it simply starts the repeat of the first and second lines of the piece. But the third and fourth lines are a separate pattern that connect the second and fifth lines, with one small difference between them: the last measure on both lines.
So now I get to work on the fourth line again, re-incorporating it into the rest of the piece.
Caprichos coming along. I'm getting really good at each of the patterns of music that make up the piece, now I have to improve my ability to piece them all together. Right now there are several places where I pause to get my bearings. I need to be able to eliminate those pauses so I can make the entire piece sound like one.
I know it's been nearlya month without an update, but it's difficult finding different ways to write about my progress with the same two pieces I've been studying for about two months now.
hehehe...
The good news is that both Mazurka and Capricho are coming along very well. I've still got a lot of work to do, to iron out some of my tough spots, but I'm really happy with the progress I've made so far.
One thing I found, while practicing Mazurka, is that I've spent so much time focusing squarely on the first guitar part that I've forgotten how to play the second part. Now I have to go back and brush up on it again.
LOL!