To achieve greatness as a guitarist, you must work on integrating musical skills fluently. This means:
*Combine different skills, techniques or concepts together.
* Actively practice the ability to be creative.
Question: “But Tom Hess, how can you practice ‘being creative’ when playing guitar? I’ve always heard that you’re either born creative or you’re not.”
Answer: Anyone can become musically creative through practice and hard work. Creativity comes from mastery of skills and their integration. Integration practice is what you need to become a more creative guitarist.
The following guitar practice circuit helps you integrate musical skills:
Do these steps continuously (don’t stop between them):
Step 1: Choose any phrase, arpeggio, scale run, riff, or lick to work with.
Step 2: Play this idea several times to get your ears used to it.
Step 3: Create four variations of the original idea. For example:
* Alter the rhythms of the notes.
*Use legato technique to emphasize notes instead of picked notes
*Use curves and vibrato on some of the notes.
Step 4: Make four new guitar licks using the original rhythm of the idea. Modify all real tones keeping the rhythm exactly the same.
Step 5: Use the rubato technique. Immediately speed up or slow down, playing off tempo.
Step 6: Modify the first notes of the original idea and leave the rest the same. Do several variations of this.
Step 7: Alter the middle notes of the original idea, leaving the first and last part the same. Do several variations of this.
Step 8: Alter the last three or four notes of the idea, leaving the first and last parts the same. Do several variations of this.
Go through steps 2 through 8 again with new variations on the original idea for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, start over with a new lick.
Tips for completing this guitar practice circuit:
* Choose a guitar practice item that you can easily play correctly. This way, you won’t get distracted trying to play the notes correctly.
*Focus on not stopping between steps. Go from one step to the next as fast as you can. This improves your fluency and musical creativity at a faster pace. Track how long it takes you to go from one step to the next. This is a method to measure your improvement with fluency and integration.
*Create a list of creativity and fluency elements that present the most difficulty to you. For example: You may notice that you find it difficult to change rhythms and keep the same tones or add legato technique to your ideas. This helps you understand what to work on to improve your integration and fluency.
Frequent questions:
Question: “Tom Hess, what if I can’t think of variations to use with arpeggio patterns?”
Answer: Here are a couple of ideas:
1. Use rests (rests) at random points in the middle of an arpeggio instead of using the exact same beat for every note.
2. Use a different number of strings to play each arpeggio. An arpeggio is a chord made up of 3-5 strings with notes that repeat in different octaves. Changing the pitch range of an arpeggio makes it sound more creative.
Question: “Tom Hess, how can I use circuit training with the rest of my guitar practice?”
Answer: Train guitar playing fluency exactly like you would train any other skill by adding it to your schedule. Effective guitar practice scheduling gives you the time you need to improve skills that are weak so you can reach your goals faster.
Use this guitar practice circuit as a test to improve your fluency and integration skills. Work through this circuit a couple of times a week to test yourself. Then spend the rest of the time upgrading these skills so you can get more creative.