Slow is Fast: The #1 Guitar Practice Strategy for Mastering Songs Quickly
“I really love this song, what is the fastest way to master it so I can play it well?”
As a guitar teacher, this is one question that I have heard many times ...and it's a great question. However, the answer may surprise you. The fastest way to master a song is by using SLOW PRACTICE techniques.
Think about what happens when you are working on a song and you are making mistakes while trying to play it. What are you actually practicing? That’s right--you are practicing your mistakes! Every time you play a chord change or passage incorrectly you are increasing the chance of playing it wrong again.
Try to remember that practicing is programing. Program your fingers to play the parts of a song correctly and they will play it correctly every time. However, keep making mistakes and you will program those mistakes into your performance (ever noticed that you always make the same mistake in the same part of the song?).
"Everytime you play a chord change or passage incorrectly you are increasing the chance of playing it wrong again"
In many years of teaching guitar, I have found that the following steps help students master songs up to 10X faster. Use these steps and you will see results as well--guaranteed.
- When first learning a song simply do your best to play it all the way through.
- Begin to identify the parts that stand out as more difficult than the other parts of the song—parts that will need extra practice.
- Narrow your focus. Now identify the specific transitions, phrases, chord changes, etc. that are going to need extra practice. Get really detailed here!
- Work with each of these specific passages by practicing them slow enough that you can play them without making any mistakes. (you may need to slow down to below half-speed here).
- Alternate between really slow and faster tempos. Play the part 3x really slow (with no mistakes), than try once or twice at a faster pace. Keep doing this over and over—this really works!
- Repeat the last step (step 5) for every part you identified in step 3.
