Improving Your Musicianship

By Donald Lee

It's common for new guitarist to unintentionally form bad habits when learning to play the guitar, bad habits which can become more difficult to break over time and which can greatly affect your playing and learning in the future.

But breaking bad habits requires knowing which poor practices you may have acquired, and the easiest way to see which poor practices you may exhibit is recognizing which bad habits other players may have unintentionally formed.

(1) One of the first common mistakes novice players make is not having their instruments professionally setup. Your guitar will usually sound better too! It will require a lot less string pressure if your strings are at their proper tension, resulting in the ability to play for longer periods, and a frequent occurrence with beginner players is they will often give up learning to play their instrument altogether!

A professional guitar setup is often needed when changing to different environments; even for lower-end instruments a proper setup can make a world of difference, and even for higher-end instruments a tune up can make a difference. And when you change string gauges the tension and intonation changes as well.

(2) Mastering proper techniques while playing takes time and patience, trying to move too fast before fully comprehending and dialing in each note and playing sloppy will lead to poor playing habits. Playing with poor techniques will make it more difficult to change poorly learned performance skills. The key is to slow down until you have mastered the technique.

(3) Be honest with yourself about your musical abilities because it will make you a better musician, don't put on rose colored glasses and overlook your mistakes, and in the same light don't judge yourself in a negative light; we tend to be our own worst critics. Look at your good qualities as well as the areas where you need improvement. Negative feelings can keep you from recognizing the areas where you can improve, and more importantly it can destroy your future as a fantastic musician!

(4) Make sure your long-term, and short-term goals are realistic; short-term goals are goals you can set and accomplish in a week or even a day's time, and long-term goals are goals that you set that won't happen over time, or even in a year's time. But goals are important, whether long or short because they give you something to work towards.

Long-term goals, such as learning a new song, don't usually take place in a single practice session, new songs take time to learn and play correctly each and every time. Whereas, short-term goals, such as practicing separate parts of a new song, until we have mastered each part can be short-term goals.

(5) Consistency is the critical driver for success! Repetition is required for developing muscle memory, and muscle memory is important for effortless finger movement and mastering techniques! Practicing from 15 minutes to 30 minutes daily rather than playing for hours every weekend will greatly improve muscle memory.

(6) It's better to master one technique at a time than try to master a multitude of techniques together, that is, it is better to fully learn one scale perfectly, such as the Minor Pentatonic Scale than to inadequately learn a hundred different scales.

(7) Breaks are important in the learning process, that is, we're more effective if we take a 15 minute break about every hour before continuing the practice session. Give your mind and body the rest needed to fully absorb yourself in your work and perhaps gain fresh new perspectives.

(8) Learning music theory will help musicians in their creativity process. Music is language and grasping how language is constructed will go a long way in being able to speak fluently. Speakers whom use English as a second language often have trouble putting sentences together that sound like proper English; and musicians whom don't grasp how to properly string notes together will likewise be hindered in constructing music which sounds proper to the trained ear.

However, music theory for most musicians isn't fun to learn; it is hard work, time consuming, and boring, and playing music is fun or should be! But music theory teaches you why certain notes and chords sound good together and don't sound good together.

(9) Don't limit your listening ears to one style of music! All music will have something to offer; by putting yourself in a box and not traveling outside the box you will limit your musicianship, even in the music style you prefer! Don't become a one trick pony and limit yourself or you limit your ability as a musician. Good studio musicians who have played on countless records from other musicians are often well-rounded musicians that can play efficiently in more than one style of music.

(10) If you were to check out videos on YouTube where they're trying to sell cheaply made instruments you will notice they often use electronic effects to mask the sound of the instrument's true sound, as well as the poor musicianship of the seller! Electronics will often make poorly sounding musicianship sound better to the untrained ear. But they also hinder your ability to hear your own mistakes.

You should learn to use electronic effects; they take skill to master too, but don't let them hinder your overall musicianship by masking your mistakes and sloppiness.

(11) We're all human and not machines and our music should reflect that we're human and not machines! Perfection is difficult to achieve 100%, 100% of the time. And we shouldn't get too hung up on being perfect, this is why many people prefer studio recordings over a live performance, because in the studio you can play it again, and again, until the desired results are achieved. And by the same token many people may prefer live performances because of the free form of musicianship.

Music is an expression of feelings, and expressing our feelings should always be in free form, without bias or hindrance governing our actions; it's what separates us from the machines we play. When playing live our music should be an embodiment of our living feelings, and when playing in the studio, or when recording than we can worry about crossing our Ts and dotting our Is; however, we should have the ability to cross out Ts when so required, if we want to be well-rounded musicians.

You will become a better musician if you practice and set goals and then work to accomplish them. Practice and then practice some more, and you will become a better musician.

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Improving Your Musicianship

By Donald Lee

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Today's Issue		Friday 18th April 2025