The joy of a fullfilling slow practice session

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As I’m recently enjoying so much my guitar practice I thought it could be worth to write down something about what I’m experiencing, so that I have a chance to “tidy my thoughts up” and make them clearer and meaningful to my own self.

Justin teaches us that “Perfectly starts slowly”…I just rewatched this lesson…so much goodness in it!

And while writing this I’m also working on one of his precious advices!
All the technical reasons for why we should slow down are well explained…but there’s one aspect that might be missing, one that is more likely to be prompt to the student’s eyes and that is the phycological impact that slow learning has on us. So when you follow the Teacher when he says to practice something as much slow so that you can practice it perfectly without mistakes, you find yourself bursting out like:

“OH WOW! I DID IT SO…WELL! :)))))” …what a great happy emotion!

Now, I guess we all want to learn to play the guitar because it makes us happy…and it’s such a pity to end up complaining how much frustrating an experience this can be…ok it’s a human feeling and happens to me too… the point is… it’s not this overwhelming frustration that keeps us going but this thought “I’ve done well today and I’ll keep on doing well tomorrow! :)))))”

It’s this well being that is happening to me while re-working my strumming foundations, and make my technique better than I could do in the first place. At the same time I don’t allow myself to strum many songs on my acoustic, as I’d get easily discouraged at all the bad habits that I just couldn’t avoid to develop with my fretting hand…so I tell myself “slow slow slow!!!”. And also slow is my studying step by step the classical guitar working and indulging on easy materials…it’s today’s practice on legato and staccato that has been so fulfilling to make me feel like I should write all about this!

As simple as that - anyone of us can experience this - and for those who want the science behind this…it had been asserted by philosophers in the past how well being is crucial in learning processes, now Neurosciences have proved that, while we learn, with every bit of information we store in our brain there’s an attached emotional content that is stored too and that will make it more or less available for us to use when needed. Emotional Intelligence is such a fascinating aspect of how we function…

So…go slow…enjoy every single bit of it and be happy! :wink::blush::star_struck:

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Thanks for the share on the video Silva, it was a really interesting watch and I’ve taken quite a bit from it.

I found it interesting about the 1 week, 2 week, 1 month part and that how by doing that you’ll never forget it.

The brain is so fasinating.

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Thanks for sharing Silvia. Your positivity is a really good quality to have and a very important one when learning to play guitar, as there will be good practice days and not so good ones. I wish you lots of good practice days ahead!

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Timing of this post was perfect for me - literally reset me for future practices.

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Hello Silvia, thanks so much for your positive and inspiring words :hugs:. I’m definitely going slow (sometimes I even think, I’m maybe too slow :thinking:). I don’t want to rush, as this journey is no race. But to be honest, even at my snail’s pace, there are still frustrating moments. But probably not as many as I would encounter, if I speeded up :wink:. Therefore, I will continue with my baby steps and hope for many satisfying moments :innocent::blush:.

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@SgtColon
Hi Stefan, I’m glad you checked the video as it’s such a valuable one!

@Eddie_09
Hi Eddie, I think that “not so good days” might be fine, it just happens sometimes for whatever reason…in those days I practice less, I dicrease the bpm on the metronome and I do only the easiest exercises…but really bad days I try to avoid…when I see it’s going to be like that I put the guitar down and do something else…but usually slowing the practice helps not to get in a real bad day.

@Karende
Hello, I’m very happy this helped! Enjoy the beauty of a tiny accurate bit of playing and it’ll be so inspiring to drive you in the right direction with your practices! :blush:

@NicoleKKB
Hello Nicole, I’m glad you enjoyed my thoughts on going slow :blush: I think that it wouldn’t be possible to learn without any frustration at all…sometimes I happen to think that something is just too challengimg and get a bit discouraged. But we can reduce frustration by doing less and do it as much accurate as we can, as you say it would be more if we speeded the process. Less is more…this is my motto this year :blush::innocent::wink:

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