How to apply the scientific method in Guitar Learning

7 min readMar 23, 2020

Firstly i need to say that this is a trial of experiencing a new approach in practicing music, a different perspective of how we can be more effective in what we do and also how to not lose several hours repeting the same pattern without reaching new levels.

In my experience of more than 10 years teaching the Guitar, i always tried to find the best ways so i can help my students get better in little time. In observing the majority of them, i picked many bad practice habits:

They all experienced the procastrination way sort of speak, it was like even if i gave them the easiest exercice, they didn’t try to work on it step by step, every week they trained just a little bit before our class and when they showed me what they did, many of them could have done really better.
Even with the recommendations i gave them, they did what they wanted and didn’t want to get out of their confort zone, for exemple they didn’t want to use their pinky finger. Is it laziness? is it just the fact that it is easier to play with the other fingers … I didn’t understand that.
Wanting to play faster than they can is a big issue too. We can’t play something on this instrument without owning it, mastering it, knowing how to do it with clarity and confidence.

These are some of the main observations i reflected on . In this essay, i will try to give a new idea of how we can better learn our instrument; it can be applied on other musical fields too, and I hope it will help you get the best of this experience.

What is the Scientific Method ? we probably need more than an article to explain it but for the sake of our subject here we will apply its main known processes : Ask a question/Gather information and observe/Make,Experiment and test your hypothesis/Analyse your test results/Present a conclusion.

1-Ask a Question

In this early step of learning, we need to extrapolate what we really need to do first. For exemple, if we’re just starting to learn a new song in any level of technicity, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Listening to it is a start, that would help to understand the parts of the song, we can determine what are the main guitar parts, the main theme and how it’s structured.

I’ll use 2 exemples in different levels of difficulty:

Deep Purple-Smoke on the water: this is one of the most recognized songs in the world, the first riff is probably the most played one ever. When listening to it and even before trying to learn it, we can differenciate at least 4 parts in the song (The main riff, The verse, The chorus, Solo) Each one replayed many times except the solo one.
Metallica-Master of Puppets: one of the most difficult Metallica songs ever, this is a masterpiece of arrangement, technicity and sound diversity; its epicness is a fact. This song works like a big story, in Acts : for me the 1st one is probably the intro, 2nd the verses and choruses before the acoustic part; the 3rd act is the acoustic part and melodic solo, the 4th one is the bridge and the heavy solo, and finally the 5th act is the final instrumental part, verse/chorus and outro.

2-Gather Information and Observe

What information can we get now ? one of the things we can do with all the technology access we have is at least watch some live footage of the song played, even some playthrough covers (but we make sure that is a professionnal one) research for the tuning the guitar is normally set up for that song. Depending on what level we are in music theory, we can be interested too in learning about the scale used, rythm details…this stuff is really important at some point.

In the guitar world, we use tablature mainly as a transcription format, it’s easier and more efficient when we need to practice and learn the song faster; many good platforms offers plenty of good version and artist approved tabs, ULTIMATE GUITAR is one of the best.

So this step is about making a good search, continue listening deeply to the song, trying to find the best guitar videos of it and as mentionned before searching for quality tablatures.

3-Make/Experiment/Test your hypothesis

Obviously, we’re not working on an hypothesis, we are working on a song haha!! Now the fun begins and it’s time to practice.

We need to make a basic daily to do list; we have to achieve small goals so we can attain the big one. You’ll need to seperate every part you will be working on itself and starting this point, what i can advice you is making a schedule on when you will play guitar each day, at least 30 min and if you can 2 hours per day.

In this time of practice, you will take the song piece by piece and focus on the technical side of the playing:

If we take the intro of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water, it’s a series of inverted power chords played on just 2 strings ( D and G string ) , the goal here is to be precise rythmwise and mute the other strings, secondly we need to work on it very slow and a little bit faster every time. Surely, this is an easy one but focusing on that part and get it right will put you in a good spot.
Let’s try the main rythm parts in Master of Puppets, their particularity is that we need to master palm muting, fast downpicking and perfect coordination between the two hands. That’s why we have to experiment with what technique we already know and stuff we don’t.

The meaning of experimentation here, is all about understanding the hand/finger movements you’re doing. Analyse how you are playing the part and make a rapprochement on how it needs to be played. It’s very important for mastering the techniques on their basic levels : for exemple if we need palm muting, we need to work on it, search for the information and listen carefully on how you are playing it — — — -> be aware of what you’re doing.

Take your time in working on the details of playing, you will beneficiate more from the experience. Film yourself and record yourself because it’s one way to know your flaws and wicknesses.

Be aware too, that it will take time to progress so be patient with yourself and as long as you’re evolving as a player you’re doing great because great things take time.

If you do this approach for all the parts of the song, it may appear that you need new skills. Playing lead/solos for exemple is a tricky part of playing the guitar; that’s why you have to test your abilities, try and fail, but more importantly focus on what you need to do in order to level up. Guitar lead playing regroups all the mastery and the skills you have on that moment, it needs to be precise and clear so surely you’ll need to take time for every part, make exercices from the patterns you find difficult; this way and little by little you will learn the lead part and dominate it perfectly.

Obviously, we need to learn slowly in order to play it fast. That way helps in memorizing the song, be aware of what you’re doing and own what you’re playing. You need to make sure that the strings you’re not playing are muted too, it’s a big part of the sound clarity and quality we will hear.

4-Analyse Your Test Results

Now, and after several hours and weeks may be learning all the parts; it will be greater to try and play the whole song. In this step you’ll understand for exemple how you can transition the best way possible from a rythm part to a lead one and and vice versa.

‘Analyzing the results’ means that you will know what are your playing qualities, how to get better in your weaknesses; you will be able to make new goals knowing what you need to do after this experience.

It’s all about upgrading your learning capability and becoming the best musician you can.

5-Conclusion

This approach of learning music is more focused on the technical side of playing, the movements and the way you will be working your skills. It’s a way of mastering any song you want if you give it the proper time and concentrate on what matters the most.

I hope that it will help you take the most of any musical experience you’re living and don’t forget

PRACTICE !! PRACTICE !! PRACTICE !!

See you next time.