How can a guitarist objectively track his or her progress in playing skill? There are two proven devices for this:1. Practice (and test yourself) with a metronome.
2. Record yourself.
Let's consider the metronome. How do you begin to practice with the metronome? Decide which tune you want to practice and adjust the timing of the metronome until its rhythm is at a pace that is much slower than you would ever play the tune. Yes, that's right--much slower! By forcing yourself to play slower you are really getting in touch with what is actually going on in the piece of music you are playing. You are becoming intimate with it. Plus, you are establishing the pattern by which your fingers will learn to obey your brain, and your brain will learn what to tell your fingers to do.
When you are playing your guitar at an abnormally slow pace you will find out that you didn't really know those licks as well as you thought you did. You were fooling yourself. Now, after this humbling experience, and after you have played the tune many times at that painfully slow cadence, kick it up a notch (as Emeril would say!). Set the metronome one step faster and repeatedly play the piece at the new setting. Then take it up another notch. And another. However, never set the metronome at a speed beyond which you can play the whole piece you are practicing cleanly and with perfect timing.
Before you set the speed too high, listen to the notes you are playing within each measure. Consider the context and richness of each note. Experiment by accenting several notes in each phrase. Then play the same phrases and accent different notes. You are setting the stage to express some great dynamics that you had never considered! Gradually, take the metronome to a higher speed. This is where it gets to be fun! You learn to play the whole piece (including the most difficult licks) perfectly at one pace and you reward yourself by graduating to the level. The test of the metronome is completely objective, because a metronome, at any given level, provides an accurate count of beats per minute.
Don't pay a lot of money for a metronome! You can get the instantly downloadable "Ultimate Metronome" for only $19.95 at:
http://lgriffith.metronome.hop.clickbank.net/
Here is another way to objectively track your playing progress: Record yourself! You don't have to use great recording equipment--any basic pc equipment will do, or even an old portable cassette recorder (remember those?). You're not after a highly polished recording of great audio quality: just a recording by which you can hear the flaws you don't detect when you are playing the song. You will be surprised to find that you have missed notes, your timing has been off and that other kinds of rough spots are evident. Why didn't you recognize those things when you were playing the song? Well, the truth is, you have trained yourself to "hear" the song you're playing in a certain way: a way that so conveniently doesn't include your mistakes! You thought it sounded good when you were playing it because you filtered out some things that will show up on the playback of your recording. When you're not multitasking--that is, you're both paying and trying to listen to the song--but, rather, sitting with your coffee listening to the playback--you'll be much more focused on the listening part and much more objective in your analysis.
Practice with a metronome and record yourself to sharpen your guitar playing skills. You'll be surprised how fast your guitar playing improves!
