It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I've seen people try to learn something like sweep picking for years and never get there because they have the wrong approach- usually not playing slow enough, not working to a metronome, not being consistent in their approach to practice.
You can learn things in a surprisingly short amount of time if you have the right approach- I'm talking months, not years.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Extending this, smart and focused brings results faster.
These both sound a bit "new age-y" and soft; I guess the tricky bit is that "perfect, smart and efficient" is different to everyone, i.e. diff. methods work for diff. people and although contemporary tutors catch up into these ideas, we still have to do the work to find out what works best for ourselves.
I've worked on flashy techniques on and off throughout the years, sweeping being one of them.
Unfortunately I'm the type of person who gets distracted and bored easily so what I found is more efficient and practical for me (practical being the key word) is to work on the technique required for a certain phrase - lick that I want to implement in my vocabulary and make it fit in the context of a given song or progression.
e.g. if I'm planning a solo out and want to stick in a fast ascending passage somewhere, I work on the notes (melody) and then practice the technique I believe will fit the passage. If said passage "demands" ,say, alt. picking I'll work on my alt. picking for that passage only. I won't spend the time to perfect my alt. picking in whole.
But I'll endeavour to find the most efficient way to make my alt. picking for this passage great. The end result may not necessarily work as well on a diff. set of strings or fingering pattern but I don't care about that.
Although, if you're smart about it, by doing more of this it will eventually become easier to move things around and make things work over a broader range of scenarios (string sets, scales, fingerings etc).
Long post and perhaps out of topic. To answer the op's question, YES. I've dropped practicing techniques many times because I got bored or due to bad learning habits and distractions and probably because this way of practicing didn't suit me.
Nowadays I don't think of technique practice like this but as I explained above.
We can try to play various techniques at speed and will probably fail. But slowing things down to the point where you cannot fail, then you will always 'do'. It's then a case of working on the speed.
Clive Carroll has spoken about applying the marginal gains approach used in sport, where you focus on a specific area and improve that, rather than trying to tackle the whole.
At the same time, it is important to work with your strengths. Some techniques will come easier to some people than it does to others.
Oh and I gave up learning to play the violin. Jesus wept.
I guess the psychology of being an adult learner has a lot to do with it. I've read that adults tend to over-estimate what can be achieved in a short period of time but massively under-estimate what can be achieved in a slightly longer period of time. That's what makes it feel like learning is harder as an adult. If you combine a desire to learn with not really minding when (or even if) you reach your goals you put yourself closer to the psychology of a child learner and somehow you learn quicker.
In terms of how that translates to learning techniques, it means being more relaxed about taking time and focussing on fundamentals. Now I don't think there's any technique I'd give up trying to learn on the basis that I might never get there, it would only be if I decided it was too much effort for whatever enhancement it would bring to the music I wanted to make.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay