Over
the years, I have met many guitar students who
could not actually play anything, even though
they had taken lessons, perhaps for years. If
they were asked to play something, the best they
could do would be offer you some isolated "pieces"
of songs or solos they had worked on. They are
missing certain pieces of knowledge about the
Art & Science of practicing that would enable
them to get past a hurdle that stops the progress
of many guitar students: how to actually finish
something you are learning, and bring it up to
what is called "performance level",
which is another way of saying "I can get
through this without it falling apart so badly
I can't keep it going", or "I play it
all the way through well enough to not cause me
major embarrassment, or the listener major discomfort,
or pain".
Do you have a repertoire? (pronounced
rep-eh-twah)
Answer these questions:
-Do you have a group of songs
or pieces that you feel comfortable with, feel
confident with, and that you enjoy playing?
-If someone asks you to play
something, do you have things you can sit down
(or stand up) and play?
-Do you have a group of songs
or pieces that you can play all the way through,
not just "pieces of"?
-Have you tested and refined
your repertoire by playing in front of people?
Here is a letter I recently
received, expressing this problem from someone
who made the wise decision to educate themselves
out of this situation.
Jamie,
"Your book arrived today.
I am really hoping that your book can help me.
I'm getting tired of "trying" to play.
I want to be able to play for myself and others,
i.e., have a repertoire of at least 10 songs under
my fingers that I can play without embarrassing
myself. At the moment I can't seem to struggle
through a simple song, Devil's Dream, without
fumbling even though I know, or at least think
I know, it. I have been looking for the correct
way to practice for some time. When I saw your
article at Wholenote.com and the name of your
book, I had to check it out. I'll let you know
what happens."
Steve
This letter was good timing,
since I had just decided to write about this very
important subject of why you need a repertoire,
and how to develop and maintain one.
There are many reasons why having
a repertoire is vital to developing properly as
a guitarist, and I will go through them. But first,
let me tell you that the reason many "players"
don't have a repertoire is: #1) Nobody told them
how important it is, and #2) Nobody told them
how to GET one, #3) it is EASIER to leave things
half finished, in pieces, than to put it together.
In fact, putting something together, in tempo,
and bringing it up to performance level, is often
the hardest part of the whole process of learning
a piece.
Play For Yourself First
Some people always practice,
and never play. Others always play, and never
practice. Each is bad, but the first is worse.
One day, in the early part of my development,
I happened to just grab the guitar, and start
playing this piece I was working on in lessons.
I realized then, as I started to notice how much
I enjoyed playing this little Baroque Sarabande,
that I rarely allowed myself this pleasure of
"playing", I was too busy "practicing".
It is times like this that I say to myself, "Jamey,
you are an idiot. Now, stop being like that!".
And I did! I began to sit every
night, after practicing all day, light a candle,
and just PLAY. No obsessing about mistakes, or
self flagellation about how well I "should"
be playing this piece; just playing, and enjoying.
For me, that was the beginning
of developing a repertoire; responding to the
simple need of feeding myself emotionally by playing
music. I was getting back to the original point
of it all, the thing that made me pick up the
guitar in the first place, before I complicated
the whole issue with "my concerns".
Then Play for Others
As time went on, I realized
that if I didn't start performing, offering and
sharing the results of my "work" with
others, I would not get any better. I was starting
to feel my motivation for practicing getting weaker,
and I knew it had something to do with not having
a REASON enough for practicing. Playing for myself
the rest of my life was only going to take me
so far. I realized that if I did not learn HOW
to give a finished form to the many things I was
practicing every day, (a finished form that would
hold together in front of others) I would simply
not break through to the next level as a player.
So I realized that, like it
or not, I had to start performing (and there were
many parts of it I didn't like). I had to accept
the fact that it would be a shaky start, I would
often play with mistakes and various imperfections,
but if I did not subject myself to this, I would
not learn how to make it all better. So at first,
I started to "create" performance situations"
for myself.
I started grabbing family members,
and made them sit down and listen to me play a
piece or two, just so I could experience the pressure
and nerves, and see where I would fall apart,
so I could focus on that spot in the next day's
practice.
Then, I started planning a piece
to perform for my teacher at the beginning of
every lesson. He didn't ask me to do that, I just
would go in and say "before we start, just
let me play this piece for you". After every
lesson, I would plan the piece I would play next.
As I continued to do this, I
got better and better. By setting these informal
"performance goals" for myself, I began
to see that my practicing was taking on more "structure"
and organization, I now had more of a reason for
practicing. The payoff of course, was the satisfaction
of having achieved the ability to play something
for someone else, and receiving their gratitude
(applause). For those of you suffering from "lack
of motivation" to practice, let me tell you
that there is nothing like that experience for
acting as an instant shot of "motivation
medicine"! As Beethoven said after playing
for a group of people who were too moved emotionally
to applaud "what's the matter with you people,
a performer wants APPLAUSE!"
From there I went to giving
public concerts, and the fun of seeing my picture
in the paper!
How to Get a Repertoire: Write
it Down!
II have often written of the
need for developing your Power of Intention, the
ability to feel a desire consciously, and put
your actions behind it to bring it to reality
in your life. One of the important tools for doing
this is to WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN, AND LOOK AT
THEM OFTEN (many people write them down in a fit
of resolve one day, and avoid looking at them
later, because it is too depressing to face how
they are avoiding working toward them!)
Putting your desires in writing
helps to marshal the inner resolve to put forth
the effort to accomplish them. As you begin to
discover your own power for doing what you say
(have written down) you will do, it gets easier,
and in fact, becomes fun.
As a first step, write down
3 songs or pieces that you like, and that you
feel are within your present level of playing
ability. It doesn't matter what they are, it is
just important to start somewhere, and it will
develop from there.
After practicing them each day,
record them, (use a cheap little hand held cassette
player). LISTEN BACK, don't wince at the mistakes,
but resolve to PRACTICE THOSE PARTS THE NEXT DAY
AS CORRECTLY AS YOU KNOW HOW!
You will see these pieces or
songs getting better and better.
When you are getting through
things reasonably well, plan on who your first
victim will be, the first person you will try
playing your developing repertoire for. I usually
try to pick someone who really likes me!
Record that too. Later as you
listen back, you can have the reassurance of knowing
you are now hearing yourself at your worst. It
won't get any worse than that! You will have undoubtedly
fallen under the power of Murphy's Law, which
was invented specifically for performing musicians:
everything that could possibly go wrong, will
have gone wrong!
Now that you have hit bottom,
and faced your worst fears, there is no where
to go but up! You will take that tape, and little
by little, every day, you will improve it. In
a month, you will have significantly raised your
level as a guitar player, in fact, you may begin
for the first time to feel like a guitar player,
instead of a guitar student!
The next time you "perform"
those pieces, they will be better, and the next
time and the next time. As time goes by, you will
have a SOLID repertoire.
Personally, I have things I
can pull out and depend on no matter how many
beers I have had, or how tired I am. That's because
these pieces have been tested, refined, and tested
again over the years. All longtime players develop
these "trusted friends".
Ask yourself how you measure
up when it comes to having a repertoire (I'll
bet you already have). Try out the ideas presented
here, and you will have increased power to realize
your goals as a guitar player.
