Category: Memory

How to Visualize Your Pieces

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Very early on in my guitar adventure, my teacher at the time said that he would never perform anything unless he could see it physically happen in his head. He had me read a few articles on visualizing, and, because I tried to be a good student and wanted to be a good guitarist, I tried his advice. It was hard work. I SO much preferred to "do." I close my eyes and mentally sweat to "see" my fingers on the fretboard. No, thank you.

But I persisted. And, having read enough about it, I am convinced . . .

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Slow Practice

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I often try to convince students to practice ultra slowly by using various metaphors. How much more would you notice if you were to admire a great piece of art for an hour instead of a minute? How would your thoughts change if you read a complex paragraph quickly versus reading it slowly and contemplating the meaning of each word and sentence as it related to the whole? If metaphors don’t convince them they can go read this fabulous article for pianists written by pianist Graham Fitch about the slow practice that I think is spot on!

Enjoying Ultra Slow Practice

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

Technical Workout – Speed and Flexibility

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I’ve just published another workbook entitled A Technical Workout for Classical Guitar: Level 2 – Speed and Flexibility.

Like A Technical Workout for Classical Guitar: Level 1 -Base Building, it expands some basic building block movements to help the guitarist develop a strong technique through the use of rhythms, extensor movements, and fixed fingers.

 

Guitar Talk with Yuri Liberzon

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Manuel Barrueco on Slow Practice

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While listening to Manuel Barrueco’s podcast, he was asked about whether slow practice was a good method. Here was his response:

“[Slow practice] is a very good method, perhaps it’s the best, I’m not sure if it’s the best, but it’s one of. I think slow practice is extremely helpful in a lot of ways. It helps with memory because it breaks down muscle memory. It also allows one to look at the technique very closely. And look at any excess motion, bad movements, and tension in the technique. Also, it gives the hand and the fingers time to learn how to do their job. Also, their is another aspect that is often underrated which is that it is good musically. By practicing slowly, it allows you to slowly hear the harmonies and the lines and everything that is going on in a piece of music. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it is the best technique to practice in.”

With that in mind, try practicing a piece like the Allegro from Agustín Barrios’ La catedral at 60bpm per sixteenth note.

Leo Brouwer’s Axioms

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Years ago, I came across an article on a Spanish site guitarra.artepulsado.com posted by Oscar López who had taken notes during a summer course with the great Cuban composer and guitarist, Leo Brouwer. The title of the post was Axiomas básicos de Leo Brouwer. I found the word file and thought I’d translate it for all non-Spanish speakers. It provides a wealth of advice. I’ve added a few commentaries below to expand the ideas a bit. Hope they are helpful.

Warm Up

Use chromatic octaves for the left hand and arpeggios and rasgueados for the right hand. Play close to the body in higher resonant positions upon starting your practice.

*I think this may mean to start your practice without having the left hand in an extended position. Starting in higher positions is less stressful for the left hand.

Speed and Scales

Use fixed, non-shifting positions in the left hand that are close to the body (i.e. higher positions) to play short bursts of notes. Play bursts in short crescendos (soft to loud or light to intense). Start on one string, then expand to two strings. Add one note at a time and pause between each mini-scale.

Add color and articulations to scales.

Left Hand Shifting

Left-hand notes should be played staccato (*perhaps he means before a shift). Focus on the arrival (not the departure) as you shift from 1st to 2nd, 1st to 3rd, 1st to 4th, etc., position.

Left Hand Independence

With a fixed first finger bar, play slurs and scales across all the strings with the rest of the fingers. Try all combinations possible.

Memory

To avoid embedding errors, do not start memorizing at the very beginning of learning a piece.

Fingerings

There are never definitive fingerings.

*What Brouwer most likely means to covey here is that fingerings evolve throughout the lifetime of learning a piece. Inevitably, we discover better, more efficient, more musical, more interesting ways to play passages and discard or change older fingerings as our familiarity with the piece increases.

Color

Exploit the three primary sonorous zones of the guitar: over the sound hole (resonant zone), over right part of the rosette (resonant and clarity zone), and near the bridge (clarity zone).

Harmonics

Do not pluck harmonics diagonally.

More Advice

  • The position of the guitar to your body should remain consistent.
  • Remember that the 2nd and 3rd strings tend to be the weakest so we must compensate when necessary.
  • Pluck consonant chords with no arpeggiation. Pluck rare (dissonant) chords with arpeggiation for clarity.
  • Velocity contains impulse and direction.
  • Cadential ornaments should be in time.
  • Resonance is at the heart of the guitar.
  • Vibrato is used for intensity not rest.
  • The thumb (left-hand) acts as a pivot during slurs.
  • Forte is found at the limit of a beautiful sound.
  • Breathe between phrases and project energy towards the end.
  • During rasgueados the energy is channeled towards the 1st string.
  • Anything that is repeated should be varied. Change either the color or the volume or the timbre.

Maximize Your Practice

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As many of you who have devoted many hours a day to learning and practicing your craft know, our ability to learn or absorb new information as in memorizing new repertoire effectively and efficiently and our ability to practice effectively and efficiently are two different things. I’ve always encouraged students to focus on quality practice – where all of our mental resources work together to analyze, explore, decipher, and ultimately embed new repertoire into our systems, instead of hours and hours of subpar or mindless work.

The dilemma in what we do, however, if we want to do it well is exactly the need for both: ultimate engagement and long hours. Though I wish I could say that I have intellectual resources that enable me to go for hours and hours with the ideal level of engagement, I don’t. I may have the desire and the passion to play but sometimes, often times, with running a business, raising two boys, running, cooking, yoga, and life, I lack the energy. So how do we maximize the time we have with the guitar and how can we put in hours when we are tired? When do we do our learning? When do we memorize most effectively? When can we get away with less mindful repetition?

One mistake I used to make was to confuse what I was doing – was I learning a new piece, working on technique, or practicing or maintaining existing repertoire? I would try to do a bit of each but despite the hours I didn’t feel like I had made headway into any one thing. Assimilating and problem solving new material is more intellectually demanding whereas practicing technique and repertoire maintenance requires slightly less creativity. Dividing your practice into specific goal-oriented sessions devoted to only one priority is more effective at achieving mastery in a more timely fashion.

So first, we must know ourselves. There are times in the day when our brains are rested, primed, and clear to absorb new information. For me, this time is in the morning (after coffee) and the first hour or two after meditating. These are prime times to problem solve, imagine an interpretation, embed new information, and decipher trouble spots in new and existing repertoire. There are other times of day when we are not as sharp – after a big meal, minute 60+ after pushing ourselves intellectually, and pre-second wind in the evening. These may vary from person to person but I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that many of us fall into this pattern. As I get older, I find that I’m not opposed to enhancing and extending these prime times (within reason) and have found caffeine or enhanced coffee from Mastermind Coffee or Kimera Koffee, being fit, a healthy diet, and certain reputable supplements like Alpha Brain and Ciltep to be very effective.

What about less mindful practice? You will get the most bang for your pluck when practicing in prime mind moments but when you slow practice with a metronome, play through familiar pieces, or try to get in the 10,000 repetitions of pimami, your brain can afford to relinquish some control to the metronome or the repetitive motions once they become automatic. The best time to do this would be anytime that is not prime. However, it is ok to use prime time for this activity though it may not be optimal for progress.

This post is becoming a ramble. So to wrap it up, practice involves many facets requiring different levels of engagement. On the more creative and mentally-taxing side, you have learning new repertoire, problem solving, visualizing, and developing interpretations. On the less intellectually demanding side you have repetition, technique work, and playing. Though resisting another tangent, I can’t help think that this may vary by individual. Is learning new repertoire easy for some while the repetition difficult? Regardless, know yourself first and then try to optimize your practice time to pair the activity with the right state of mind.

A Look at Guide Fingers

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The great Cuban guitarist Marco Tamayo reminded me that all shifts should occur with guide fingers lightly gliding on the strings, preferably the treble strings to avoid unnecessary noise. If you observe any great guitarist’s left hand, like Marco’s, you will witness a great left hand choreography – smooth, soft, efficient, relaxed. One of the key elements in building an effective left hand choreography is a thorough understanding of how to use guide fingers to bridge and connect movements that may seem unrelated. Think of guide fingers as fingers that remain in passive contact with the string while shifting.

See if you can find guides in the next passage.

Excerpt from J. S. Bach’s Double from BWV997

Bach BWV997 Guides 1

Did you find them all?

Bach BWV997 Guides 2

Try to locate all and label all the guides in your repertoire. You’ll find that it not only improves left hand fluidity but it also deepens your physical understanding of the piece you are working on and in turn can help your memory.

Stay tuned for ghost guide fingers and changing guide fingers…

 

Attention to Detail for Memory

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While looking through old scores to inspire myself, I noticed what I always notice: notes to myself throughout the scores I’ve studied giving all sorts of instruction. Lift elbow slightly right before a reach with the third finger to the sixth string, place 1 on string 3 [with an arrow pointing to the space between two notes] indicating a soon to be guide finger,  place p on string 4 here [another arrow pointing to the space before a note to be plucked] indicating a necessary preparation, breathe here, let go early, and on and on.

Unless they are obvious, I write in every left hand and right hand fingering of a work that I am eventually intending to study in depth and ultimately perform. I also find that writing down notes and observations about details I notice whether related to the underlying music (harmony, form, etc.), to motions in the choreography of my hands (lifting, placing, shifting, etc.), or to the emotional associations and musical ideas I develop as I build a relationship with the music aids a great deal in building up a complete mental picture of the work in study.

The result of studying a piece of music this way often manifests itself in being able to play through the music well very early on without the need of the score. If I continue to work up the piece of music, perform it, and move on, I find that reworking the piece is very easy as the visual image is rich with details. Memory never seems to be an issue.

 

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