The thing I find frustrating, in my new guitar learning world, is I put in the practice and have been doing this for over a year now, yet I make mistakes when I shouldn’t; let me explain with two examples.
The first is I always take time to practice my C Major scale, then the Em and Am pentatonic. Then I practice the guitar part for Wish you Where here. First run through , spot on, second, good, then third, I screw up a note.
If I can run through all the above, twice, with no mistake, then why do I hit a bum note on the third pass!??
I sould say the amout of times is not set in stone, sometimes its on the 8th pass, or the first, but I hope you know what I mean.
Am I being too hard on myself? Or is there something I can do so I stop making basic mistakes?
Hi Gordon, it used to be like this for me too: on the third repetition of the same thing I started doing mistakes
I remember a few years ago I wrote this little Rhyme to my own self, it went like…
Smile…and play!
Don’t bother too much about mistakes…
…as in the process they’ll melt away!
Now …am I not a poet?!
But probably it’s a practical advice you’re looking for. Have a look at the book The Inner Game of Music, which Justin reccomended, you’ll find a few very effective practical tips (making mistakes related too)…it definetely helped me a lot…still making mistakes though, but less often.
It sounds like you don’t have it down solid enough. Just cause you played it right once (or even 5 times), doesn’t mean you know it.
Can you play it correct consistently if you slow the tempo down? You may be trying to play it too fast. If you can play it consistently at a slower tempo, start there. Play it, say, 5 times in a row correctly. Then raise the tempo (btw, you would use a metronome for this), just 2-3 bpm and play at this tempo for a while. When you can do it, I dunno, 10 times in a row correctly, bump the metronome up a couple more beats. And so on. This is how you gradually increase your speed.
The other thing to consider is if there are specific parts of the piece where you most often make mistakes. If so, you should just play that bar (or 2 bars or whatever), over and over, until you can play it without mistakes (not once, but many times). Then tackle the other weak sections.
Being very, very specific about errors - and laser focusing on them - is the quickest way forward in my experience.
What exactly is the ‘bum note’ error about?
Is it always exactly the same, similar, etc.
Is it on a particular string change, or a specific section, or a specific skill/ technique etc.
I utilise a simple little system called LIE.
Locate, Isolate. Exaggerate ( Chris Brooks)
Very effective.
As you know, you’re never going to eliminate all errors. Progress is having better quality ones.
Apparently some very distinctive album recordings just happened to be mistakes in the studio that just sounded better than what was intended or were just fun to keep.
It’s hard for me to pick up on mistakes in big shows (though I’m sure they happen all the time), but when I see someone perform in a smaller, intimate setting, it’s extremely common for them to make mistakes. If they’re good, I don’t even notice until they say something about it.
Lots of great advice already in here, but I also want to add one:
It’s a fact that concentration decreases over time as well. While being focused on doing what you’re doing during the first run, with every repetition and course of time, you concentrate less and then mistakes creep in. That’s perfectly normal and we’re all going through this while learning something new.
It might also be an indicator that your practice items are not completely ingrained to your muscle memory, yet (at least at the given speed). The more we “automate” things (i.e. have them in our muscle memory), the less we need to focus on them and the decrease in focus will not matter that much anymore. But this takes time and repetition, lots of it. So it’s crucial to take this time and find the right practice speed and build up slowly as John suggested, too. Because we all know Justin’s Mantra:
Yes, sometimes I play a song and say “That sounded really good.” Other days I’ll play the same song and say, “That sounded like .” I believe it’s called being human.
What a great topic to bump in…
I was thinking exactly about the same problem when I am fingerpicking Major Scale Pattern One starting from G… I can do that 5 times without mistake, smooth, right fingers.
But for the 6th time I just hit wrong note… but I know how it is right.
I am gonna follow few tips here… for me the most interesting one comes from GrumpyMac. Not overdo something… I am pretty sure I am staying too long on something and it could make sense.
I think as a couple others said, you may be gradually losing focus each subsequent attempt. You may be laser focused on your first pass and the gradually lose a bit of focus each subsequent pass. I find that happens to me. I will take a pause in an attempt to regain my focus and try one last time in hopes of ending that particular part of practice accurately. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t.
I’d say you’re being too hard on yourself. Look at all the times you got it right, and all you got right at the end instead of the 1 note you missed. Use the Labyrinth method to fix that: play only the section that gives you the most trouble, slowly, till you can get it every time, and you will. Then, when playing the entire song, don’t overthink it, looking to see if you’ll make the mistake at that old point of difficulty, or you might. Just play the song, enjoy it, and if it bugs you again, let it go a while. I always end a practice session with something I know I can do well, even if it seems simple. Gives me the encouragement I need to go on.
Hi Gordon, you are not alone with this at all, I am doing BLIM at present and trying have been trying to get the months 4 Licks Medley right for several weeks now. Sometime I play it perfectly and the next time it’s rubbish, I think it is a focus issue and trying too hard. Sometimes its best to stop and go onto to something else in my opinion or else you are at risk of playing/learning errors instead.
Oh, and Justin talks about this too, having your concentration up and running.
Keeping focused on what you’re doing, not thinking about other stuff, while your playing.
This happens to me frequently and is the major cause of making mistakes.
So now that i know that, i focus at my playing, blocking out other thoughts. Or at least, trying to. It’s a learning process, so it doesn’t always work,but it really helps.
Exactly this! It helps me a lot to sing silently in my head while practicing/playing to really focus just on the music and nothing else than that…thoughts would intrude, but we can conciously observe their intruding and block/reject them and take back our focus on the music only. It’s a process as you say; the more we practice this attitude to awareness the more it will engrain as a habit, the more we will be able to get absorbed by the Music we play
Its true. I never connected meditation (which is what this is) and playing the guitar, now I have. I tried this a few times and, along with other suggestion, and it makes a big difference. I will try “humming” it in my at the same time as well.
.” I believe it’s called being human.
very true!!
It helps me a lot to sing silently in my head while practicing/playing to really focus just on the music and nothing else than that…thoughts would intrude, but we can conciously observe their intruding and block/reject them and take back our focus on the music only. It’s a process as you say; the more we practice this attitude to awareness the more it will engrain as a habit, the more we will be able to get absorbed by the Music we play 