Practice Guitar Without SUFFERING [Discipline Is OVERRATED]

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

Oh, an I just published this FREE eBook + video that helps you learn the notes on your guitar... in just 5 minutes a day. What a coincidence! Get it now: www.musictheoryforguitar.com/guitar-notes.html

[@arpeggioblues5924]

that part of the brain that gets "tired" is 'short-term memory'.. after rote repetition; you have to walk away from it, take that break; you come back and try again, and you can't do it, so you work it out again, then walk away.. the third time you come back it gets easier; take the break; and it becomes second nature: Challenge, go sit in front of the TV, watch news, series, movie.. and just practice a pattern over and over until you can watch the TV and not pay attention to what you're playing.. That forces your playing into your long-term memory; Another awesome technique.. LISTEN to what you are practicing and how it should sound. Do that while your driving to work.. THink of it, sing it.. What I learned over years of playing. "If you can sing the line/lick/sequence" you can play it. most guitar players that practice, they concentrate on the pattern, but don't listen to the melody; learning, deep, and the playing will follow.. it's joint-effort.

[@kristi94]

I love this. The "Grind" mentality always puts me off. "No pain no gain" nonsense = frustration and quiting for most people. I saw it with working out. Small steps..every day. And not even everyday! Breaks are necessary. It's the consistency and time passing that makes us move.

[@troydj]

This is revolutionary practice advice. So glad you took the effort to make an entire video on it, especially since everyone seems to assume that it's necessary to grind out consecutive hours of playing to master a concept or technique, etc. Thanks!

[@edelcorrallira]

This makes all the sense. As a multi-instrumentalist (not expecting to become a virtuoso, happy with being meh on all just a better meh that's all) this makes way too much sense. Singing, switch to guitar, switch to bass, back to singing, switch to harmonica for a bit, maybe some drums, ear training, etc. What you said about the division makes sense too, give each instrument a bit more focus on one of the core musical aspects. Also put a limit to practice time so you mix practice with creation, and bang. Guess there should also be must haves, and nice to haves (things you are trying to nail down, things you are just maintaining). Such a cool concept, and it just clicks thanks to this insight, thank you for this great break down (and yeah, we're not bots thankfully) :)

[@nedim_guitar]

That is very important to tell us! I'm not a shredder, but I've done some speed training. I start slow, play perfectly and then ramp up the speed of the metronome by 10 BPM, or 5 BPM when the speed picks up. Sometimes it's just hard to quit, so I've been sitting with same exercises for over an hour. I just get into it. But I've discovered one interesting thing. When I'm early in the session, I have much better flow. But after half an hour it gets more difficult. After an hour, I can't play the speed exercise at the same speed after an hour, I played it faster in the earlier stages of the session. So I stopped doing that, because when my speed starts going down, it's already too late. Five minutes timer us VERY important, and it's important to respect the timer, and not go "I'll just finish this", and then suddenly instead of 5-15 minutes, almost an hour has passed. Listen to the teacher!

[@BrianVallotton]

Hello, and thank you for all your good teaching.

[@greenygg3498]

I am about 2 weeks into MTFG fretboard note training. The 5min limit was incredibly difficult to follow as I usually just push through when practising thinking that extended periods of repetition will somehow make what im doing stick, which it hasn't been. I almost didn't take on the course because I was so sceptical. For the first few days it just felt so counter intuitive but I trusted the process. Glad I did as this morning I had a significant breakthrough with exercise 1. Was like my hand being on autopilot and I was plugged into the matrix.

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

Yay! Way to go!

[@bass3966]

G'day from Australia 🤟

[@TaoGroovewitch]

Well I went into this thinking this would show me a different way to practice and instead it validated the "Oh look SQUIRREL!!" method I already use... And it works. Thanks! 🤘🏾

[@kieranroberts9119]

This is the best piece of advice my guitat teacher ever gave me new things practice 8n small chunks and spend the long time playing or performing to backing tracks etc for stuff u can already play as that's fun boosts ur confidence and the the small chunks over time really work making the repetire of fun performing stuff get larger all the time 🎉

[@jeffreyburnwood8084]

You helped me learn the fretboard with that exercise! Now, I'm able to do triads much quicker (still working on knowing exactly the note, but referencing notes in the way I learned from you was incredible) Thank you for your time!

[@Xplora213]

My experience on guitar is super helpful for my job as a personal trainer. Your improvement on guitar like everything is not linear. Practice prepares your fingers and brain to take a step forward. If you don’t rest enough or you massively overdo it, the step is not a big one. I find it’s three days of something and I get dramatically better. Even more interesting… after a really long time of playing (25 years here) you will start to notice that your practice merges with your old style very fast. Ultimately it is just up stroke down stroke. It takes time. There is a good argument to make that Vai and YJM are good players despite their crazy routines when they were kids. I can’t do what they did at17. Your task is not to copy them.

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

Yes!

[@guidobolke5618]

Also, as your concentration gets weaker you start to make more mistakes. And then you practice making mistakes. I think everybody feels when it is enough. I usually practice multiple short periods with long time in bettwen where I do something else. To me it sometimes seems as if I learn by not practicing, because I can do things when I continue to practice that I couldn't do when I stopped. But maybe that's wehen I stopped too late. Boredom and fun are signals from our reward system. That's a system that influences what and how we learn. It can enforce behaviour or prevent it. To work against it (discipline) is unsustainable. You learn better when you have fun and learn worse when you are bored. Finding out how to make learning fun, is not lazy, it is smart and really neccessary. Discipline IS overrated and fun IS underrated.

[@AntDawg766]

Love the channel. Thanks for everything you do!

[@David_Raab]

I did not master guitar but learned other things up to a professional level. My general advice is to learning anything is to optimize for fun. The more fun something is, the more likely you will do and repeat it and stay at it. It's also not bad if you do mistakes. Learning something includes making mistakes and learning from them. You get better at making mistakes as opposed to not doing them and trying to make everything "correct" the first time. You will anyway not be correct the first time you do anything and it can build up the wrong mental ideas that held you back. Doing mistakes is important and are not bad. Just have fun, don't stick too much to a plan if the plan is not funny.

[@johnmac8084]

Great idea Tommaso, I'm going to start that today, thanks

[@bbfeign1]

This guys great

[@FlashyLight]

Thanks for this video Tomaso

[@ghfdt368]

I'm also one of those people who cannot practice the same thing for long periods of time.Personally I put in about 10mins a day into 4 different areas Technique, Rhythm, Soloing or lead and Creativity, I always do them in random order except I do the creative part last. I'll take a day off when I feel like I need it. For example economy picking, I practice 5 mins at 160bpm then 5 mins 165bpm. I then move on to something such as a type of chord or Inversion I don't know, or practicing a chord progression that I don't know well for 10 mins. Then it could be chord tone soloing over a progression but I stay in one specific area of the fretboard I'm not confident with for 5 mins then the last 5 use as much of the fretboard as I want. Then finally this is the most fun for me, Is to be creative and practice something that I can use theory to help. such as taking an A Sus4 chord and rearranging the notes to make inversions or voicings I just wouldn't come up with on the spot then form them on the fretboard.

[@ruechel]

Mille Grazie, maestro!

[@richardracette6162]

Very good video, makes a lot of sense.

[@stolguy]

Like an ostinato figure- the repeated idea disappears, and there are diminishing returns on long practices. AND a change is as good as a rest. Simply break up the practice patterns that work best for each individual on any given day. CIAO!

[@jackschijven8219]

Very good and very logic and also motivating. Thanks.

[@donaldryder5534]

Great advice

[@Apr1cotBunny]

Interesting approach 🤔👍

[@FlashyLight]

Question: how do you overcome musician's block? I wrote a part for a song but I don't know how to continue so I can finish the song

[@AIRDROP999MONEY]

Hey loved the video but i have so many exercises like 20/30 exercises including legato sequences i am learning should i apply this advice in my exercise too... Waiting for your answer ❤

[@tres913]

I once had a teacher who stressed repetition over hours long practice sessions. He suggested five minutes at a time but also said to do it several times a day if you can. Is it still counterproductive to do five minutes of various exercises if I do it several times per day?

[@moutine]

Well that's true, but i find that practicing for long duraition can help sometimes when you have to improve in a short duration for an event that gonna happen for x reason, but that's more for an advanced situation right ?

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

That's more of a specific situation. If you have a deadline, then you have to make that deadline, and you do whatever you need to do :)

[@gregoryhaddock5395]

✅ I'm not a robot

[@gregoryhaddock5395]

⚙️ *switches gears 🤖

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

HAHA

[@nononononegative]

Does changing tempo every five minutes count?

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

It's better than nothing, but you can do better than that ;-)

[@listopadoff]

That's why the Monty Python were so successful... And now for...

[@RemyLuciani]

Doing the same thing for one hour harder and harder is the best way to get a tendinitis. 've been there, done that. Listen to Tommaso folks!

[@GenericSpace]

I like all your videos and I like this video, but discipline has F***-ALL to do with anything that anyone else says or does. Discipline is all about what standards and goals you set for yourself coupled with how well you adhere to them and no one else has anything to do with that.

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

I think we are using the word in a slightly different way, but I like the point you make.

[@stefano.salari]

Sure, no discipline... Tell Robert Fripp! 😅

[@MusicTheoryForGuitar]

That's not what I mean, and you know it ;-)