4 Things NOT To Do While Practicing | tonebase Tips

Normally on the tonebase blog, we share tips and tricks that you can start using to get the most out of your practice routine and time with the guitar.

This post is a bit different.

Today, we will be exploring four things that we all do without noticing and should actively try to do less of going forward!

1. Keeping your phone volume on

It happens to me all the time... I am practicing and focused. Then, I get a call or some kind of notification on the phone.

Even though I try to fight it, there’s always the human part of me that is curiosity: “I should check it. Maybe it’s something important…”

I give in and check it, and without even realizing it, I end up wasting half an hour watching random posts on Instagram.

Solution: Silence all notifications (or put your phone on airplane mode) and place it out of site.

2. Repeating passages “ad nauseum”

Something is not sounding good. You repeat it over and over and over again.

If after one hour it still sounds bad and you see no progress, then I’m sorry to tell you, but you are doing something wrong!

Instead of repeating mindlessly the same thing 50 times — STOP! Think. Analyze. What is wrong? Left hand? Right hand? Which notes are giving me trouble? Why?

Save yourself time by breaking down the passage and identifying the problem. Repeating the same thing “ad eternum” will not make you a better guitar player.

3. Delaying fingering a new piece

You are learning a new, fast piece. You start practicing at a lower speed, using just “random” fingerings. It works! You are managing to play the piece.

But then, as you speed up, the passages get harder. You repeat and repeat. Eventually, you find out the obvious: your “random” fingerings were not efficient.

At this point, you now have to learn the whole piece again, this time with a more effective fingering. A “waste of time” as we would say.

Of course this happens all the time, even with professionals. We change fingerings a lot of time.

On slow pieces, this usually does not constitute a bigger problem, but fast, “flashy” pieces need to be carefully studied and analyzed before even trying to speed up.

In his tonebase lesson on the difficult Etude No.2 by Villa-Lobos, you can see how Tal Hurwitz carefully breaks down and thinks his fingering through to be able to play at incredible speeds:

Start your free trial of tonebase Premium to watch Tal’s full lesson on Etude №2!

4. Beating yourself up (“I should be better”)

This one is a very personal but important point to be aware of because many people suffer from this problem.

It’s good to always be striving to improve, but are those thoughts actively driving you to become better? Or are you just getting sad and frustrated instead?

The truth is that we all have limitations.

We all could “be better.” Our technique can always “be better.” Our sound can always “be better.”

It’s a never ending journey. The important thing is that we enjoy ourselves along the way.

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About The Writer

Francisco Chaves is a guitarist, composer, teacher, sound designer and producer based in Germany. He was born in Castro Verde, a tiny village in the south of Portugal and started there to study classical guitar. Later, he also found a second passion for composing with his first harmony lessons.

He completed simultaneously two bachelor degrees (Classical guitar and Composition) in the University of Évora (Portugal) under the guidance of Dejan Ivanovic (guitar), Pedro Amaral (composition) and Christopher Bochmann (composition), having received the “Scholar Prize”, for finishing both degrees with the highest grade. After that, he finished his master degree in Classical Guitar and graduated “cum laude” in the “Maastricht Conservatorium” (Netherlands) in the class of Carlo Marchione.

Currently, he teaches in several music schools in Germany. Besides that, he also teaches by Skype and works as a freelance musician, giving concerts around Europe and composing music for orchestras, ensembles and soloists. He also devotes his time composing music and making sound effects for video games and films.