Classical Guitar Seating Position: Five Ways To Move

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Now that we have the checking procedure for each hand (Classical Guitar Seating Position and Checking Procedure), we can move on to the adjustments that can be made in any seating position to acquire the most advantageous position. To my knowlege these are the five movements:

  1. Moving the head of the guitar closer or farther away from your body.
  2. Raising or lowering the head of the guitar (i.e. increasing the angle of the fretboard without adjusting the height of the entire guitar)
  3. Tilting the bottom of the guitar on your left thigh to increase or decrease the visability of the fretboard.
  4. Raising or lowering the body of the guitar in relation to your torso.
  5. Moving the guitar from left to right in relation to your torso.

Of all of these movements, the fifth is the hardest to accomplish with most devices used for a good seating position. All will be discussed in relation to using a footstool, an A-frame, crossed legs, an Ergoplay, and a strap in following posts. Remember that everyone’s physique is different and only through experimentation can you discover most comfortable and advantageous position for your hands.

TIme-specific Guitar Practice Routine

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Timing is Everything

Einstein is famously defined insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” There are few challenges in life that can prove or disprove this statement more than guitar playing. In music is also the saying that, “timing is everything.” The issue of time abounds in music and your timing in a piece can be just as disastrous as your timing in your guitar practice routine.

Every Three Months

Three months is a good time period to evaluate your success or failure. You might set goals for technique, memorization of a piece, or execution of a performance. No matter your goals, it’s always the clock that gives us an objective view. Recording yourself will have an immediate impact if you observe yourself in a three month time period. Listening to your recordings will give you a clear picture of your progress.

Making three months the evaluation point also makes it the “time-specific” point of execution. There must be a timeframe that you wish to achieve a certain goal. If the goal is not achieved, then it’s time to rethink your plan and adjust your goals. If the goals are too high, then aim a little lower. It is better to aim a bit lower and hit the goal than to always miss. This feeling of always missing will work its way inside you and build a habit of failure. Failure in anything over and over again is where Einstein tells us we need to change. The change might be minute but will build a successful forward progression in your development on the guitar.

Every Six and Twelve Months

It really doesn’t do much to plan for every six months and twelve months. It might be nice to say this is where I’d like to be, but there is no way to adjust in your micro schedule over this period. The time specified must be closer together. At the six and twelve months reflection is more appropriate. This will let you evaluate everything on a macro level and let you know whether your micro management of the three month time-specific cycles is effective. Using the year long period as a time-specific criteria is not very useful and I’d stay away from the frustration.

It’s TIme to Begin

Choosing to make specific and relevant choices about your guitar practice routine are only the beginning of success at playing the guitar. But, they are the biggest step. Without choosing to create tangible goals you’ll never reach them. And, without taking the first step the mountain of guitar playing will never get smaller.

Part 1: S.M.A.R.T. Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 2: Specific Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 3: Measurable Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 4: Attainable Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 5: Relevant Guitar Practice Routine –>

Relevant Guitar Practice Routine

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Relevant in a Guitar Practice Routine?

Have we begun to talk about current events and what’s popular in the guitar playing world? Are we trying to make a statement? Not in the least when it comes to a guitar practice routine. The idea of being relevant is focus. Everything in your guitar practice routine must be relevant to the goal of your playing.

Relevant Technique

Many guitarists, including myself, tend to focus on technique separate from playing. This is a worthwhile practice for everyone. It keeps your fingers progressing forward in their overall development. However, when it comes to making it relevant to your guitar playing make sure you realize where to put your focus.

Let’s assume you have a huge scale run in E-flat minor in the piece you are getting ready for performance. Obviously it would make sense to practice multiple fingerings of the E-flat minor scale in your technical practice. You may not be playing it exactly like the piece calls for, but you will be enhancing the piece when you do practice it. You may also want to add elements of dynamics and attack to your technical practice of the scale. This will assure you that when the final “draft” of your piece is ready, you’ll be able to execute it in whatever manner you choose. Your technical practice has become relevant.

Relevant Pieces

As we learn more and more pieces, we tend to want to hold onto the ones we play well. Again, as with technique, there is nothing wrong with this. But when you are focused on a specific goal of three pieces to play, then don’t focus on the other four pieces you already know. This may seem very elementary, but I have found that people tend to wander in their guitar practice routines. Be sure that when you pull out a piece to practice that it’s moving you toward your goals. You can always return to the other pieces when they become a part of another goal. But if your goal currently does not include them, then leave them alone.

Practice Performances Are Relevant!

If you believe that you can just get up and perform without ever practicing your performance, then you are in for a rude awakening that first time. Yes, your practice performances are one of the most relevant elements of a solid guitar practice routine.

When I was in college I would set up a mock performance in my dorm room. I created a stage and took the brightest lights I had and aimed them right at me. Then I set up a recording device, a cassette recorder at the time, and went through the entire performance. I included walking to the stage, bowing, waiting for applause, and even talking about the upcoming pieces. This prepared me for a similar experience on stage. The recording part was one of the biggest elements of the process. You’ll be amazed at how much it will cause you to feel like you are in front of other people. The recording doesn’t lie!

I am a huge believer in the idea of practicing performance because of the benefits it gave me. But I also believe that our practicing needs to constantly be refined and made relevant to the goals we are pursuing. Each element of our practice needs meaning and without it we just meander through our guitar playing lives.

Part 1: S.M.A.R.T. Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 2: Specific Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 3: Measurable Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 4: Attainable Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 6: Time-specific Guitar Practice Routine –>

Attainable Guitar Practice Routine

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What is Attainable in Our Guitar Practice Routine?

Each element that you decide to work on in your guitar practice routine has to have attainability. That is, you need to have the ability to attain it. For instance, I would never dream of being a professional basketball player starting at the age of 40. In the same way, you should never expect to play the Aranjuez Concerto in your first or even second year of playing the guitar. Let’s break down our attainability into piece difficulty, technique, and performance.

Knowing If You Chose the Correct Piece

Many guitarists choose pieces based on their likes or what is popular rather than what is attainable at the moment. The question then becomes, “how do I know if a piece is attainable?” Can you sight read without much hesitation the entire piece in 15 minutes? If you can’t, then you may want to consider another piece. Sight-reading is linked to our ability to memorize music. The quicker we can locate a note the better we know it.

Many will want to work on pieces that are too hard for them. That’s fine, as long as your expectation is properly set and you remind yourself that you won’t successfully play it well anytime soon. If you can sight-read it, then you probably have the technique to execute it. Otherwise, you’ll get stuck on certain movements that are beyond your capability.

Attainable Technique

Technique allows us to play the pieces that are at our level. As you set goals for technique, remember to make them attainable as well. If you are working on an A major scale and have reached a tempo of 80 beats per minute (bpm), then don’t make your goal of the a week 120 bpm. You are setting yourself up for failure. Take it slower and adjust. Make a goal for 88 bpm by the time your next lesson comes around. If you meet it, great! If you don’t, then adjust your learning curve. Setting too high of an expectation from week to week and day to day will lead to much frustration. Be patient and let your hands and mind learn at the rate they are comfortable with.
Why Performance?

The ultimate goal of making music is sharing it with others. I tell people all the time that if they had the opportunity to play 8 hours a day for a year but never play for anyone, then they would lose their motivation quickly. Deep down we all want to share our music with others. When you go to perform, make the song(s) you choose attainable for the performance.

Let me illustrate. A good friend of mine was called upon to perform for Pepe Romero in a master class. He just memorized a Villa Lobos choro. It was less than a week old. He decided to try and impress them with this great piece but failed miserably because the piece had too many rough edges. I have heard him play other pieces wonderfully. He should have chosen one that was attainable for the performance; one that he had the ability and history for the performance. If he had kept his music attainable, then his results would have been much more rewarding in completing a successful master class with a true master.

Part 1: S.M.A.R.T. Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 2: Specific Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 3: Measurable Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 5: Relevant Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 6: Time-specific Guitar Practice Routine –>

Measurable Guitar Practice Routine

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Why Measurable?

Semi-Hollow BodyAs we progress in guitar practice routine, there has to be a way measure our progress. We can compare it to designing and building a house. You not only need a blueprint, a plan, but you also need to know that each piece is coming together to make the completed building. An architect will continually check with the contractor to make sure the house is coming along in the right timeframe. There will always be setbacks in the building of a house, but the blueprint keeps the construction moving forward.

The One and Only Metronome

As mentioned earlier, the metronome is one of the most loved and hated tools a musician has in his/her arsenal. We love it because of the results it gives, but we hate it for the clarity it gives us in our playing. Let’s say we have a difficult section of two bars. We are struggling to make the hand movements up to tempo. Obviously, we need to slow things down. But do we just slow it down for a while and then try it again a few days later at the correct tempo again. This is where the metronome comes into play. By using it you can continue to keep track at how well you are able to execute the movement at a consistent tempo.

Practice Time and Focus

Is it better to practice for an hour three days a week or twenty minutes five days a week. The answer is the latter. But why is it better? The first reason is muscle memory. Muscles need to be reminded often in order to build habits of movement. The second is focus. We have a difficult time, especially in today’s society, focusing for long periods of time. The more our focus dwindles, the less quality our practice becomes. Therefore, longer times of quality focus bring more success to your practice.

Most of us can only focus for a mere five minutes at a time until our minds drift to something else. A good exercise is to time how long you can effectively continue to practice a movement or phrase without getting distracted. This focus can be on a dynamic or physical movement. It can be on shear repetition to attain tempo. Irregardless of the focal point, the amount of focus becomes the important part. As you get better at focus, you will see that your improvement takes less time.
A word here about visualization. Visualization is another tool to improve focus. The farther you can see a piece mentally the better you’ll be able to execute it physically.

To practice, try to visualize a piece you know without the guitar in your hands. You should be seeing the movement of the left hand on the fretboard. If you cannot see your hands, then play the part you want to visualize focusing on your left hand with your eyes. Then, put the guitar down and try to see it in your mind’s eye. This process will get better over time, and you’ll find that you will be able to eventually see the entire piece from beginning to end without ever touching a guitar. The amount of focus needed for this task is very large and will improve your playing immensely.

Keep Records

All of this needs to be measured. You can measure how many bars you can see or the amount of time you can spend on one element of practicing. You will also measure the speed at which you can play a specific section or movement. The measuring aspect needs to be present to give you something objective to look at and to tell you if you have improved. Just like the builder of a house, you need benchmarks to tell you if you will be in the house by the first week of winter. Without a plan and a record, you might be in your living room with no windows. For your guitar playing, that might be sitting on stage with only half a piece to play.

Part 1: S.M.A.R.T. Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 2: Specific Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 4: Attainable Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 5: Relevant Guitar Practice Routine –>
Part 6: Time-specific Guitar Practice Routine –>