At best, you can play through the notes up to speed, in the right rhythm. Eventually you’ll “finish it”, and it will “be good”.īut this never happens. The mistaken logic fueling this tendency is the notion that if you play through the music enough times, you’ll “get it”. The goal is not to learn the piece, play it beautifully, or solve problems. The goal of sight-reading is to sound the note. Sight-reading is seeing a note and playing it. Many players are guilty of sight-reading their music to death. This is one of the main causes of ‘ stage fright’ (performance anxiety). We notice this, and, aware of it for the first time, get very anxious. If we let our mind wander in practice, our mind also wanders in front of people. If we’re laser-focused in practice, we’ll be laser-focused in performance (perhaps after an initial adrenaline spike). Not only does focused practice feel more fulfilling and rewarding, but when we play for people (perform), we default to our ingrained pattern of attention. One of the most powerful tools in guitar practice is attention. And even worse: you’re ingraining the habit of spacing out when you play. Not only are you not solving problems, but you’re likely ingraining mistakes, undesirable movements and tension. You plan your lunch menu, next year’s holiday, and what you’ll say to that certain person when next you meet. In The Space Out, you begin practicing/playing your piece of music, but then your mind drifts off. But you’re not aware of your hands anyway. All the work you’ve done on technique falls away and you rely on muscle habits that may or may not be advantageous. In this state, you have very little self-awareness. The only thing that exists is the next note on the page. You lose awareness of everything but the music in front of you. Here are a few common traps when learning music: The Deer in the Headlights When most people learn a piece of music without the intention to memorize it, they fall into one or more common traps. What Usually Happens When Learning Music: You still use the music in practice, you just have a deeper familiarity with the piece, and are able to work in different ways.īut first, you have to actually want to (intentionally) memorize your music. And there are methods and techniques that make the process smoother (more on this below).Īnd it’s important to note: Memorizing a piece doesn’t mean you can throw the sheet music away. If you’ve been playing for years, but only recently began playing composed music (classical guitar), to memorize music may sound difficult, but not impossible.Īnd if you regularly practice classical guitar pieces, but have never memorized your music, you may be shaking in your boots right now. If you’re a beginner, the idea of memorizing pages of composed music may sound like some superhuman feat.
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