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Vol. 13, No. 6: Dec.-Jan. 2008
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Pulling Up The Slack: Mining Your Potential
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by Jamie Andreas
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Page added in
August, 2004
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About the Author
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Jamie Andreas is a virtuoso classical guitarist from New York.
Free! 10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Become a Better Guitarist! "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar," the Perfect Start for Beginners, the Answer to the Problems of Players. Start to play the guitar without getting bad habits, or get rid of the bad habits you already have, by knowing how to do "perfect practice" with "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar".
Visit www.guitarprinciples.com.
© Jamie Andreas
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The Basic Practice Approach (as found in The Principles) states, as Step #1: "Review
and increase your understanding of what you are about to do, and how you are going
to do it." There is a world of meaning here, and I would like to take a look at a
few of the applications and ways of understanding this directive.
We all need to realize that at any given moment, we are capable of being "more than
we are". If we knew how to have a certain totality of awareness of ourselves, then
we would be able to, in every moment, see more than we saw before, and so, be able
to be more than we have been before. This is true on every level of life, and of
course, my favorite level, playing the guitar!
One of the important things I do with students is to show them how to pull the most
out of themselves by getting closer to that "totality of awareness" I am speaking
of, how to work with this awareness, and how to instantly (or at least in the course
of the lesson) play at a level far beyond what they are used to. With new students
this is done by giving certain critical understandings about the dynamics of guitar
technique, as well as the dynamics of motor learning, and then directing a practice
session in which these dynamics are respected, and worked with correctly. With
experienced students, it is a matter of all of this also, as well as reminding them
of things already "learned", and helping them create a synthesis of all this
material that sheds light on present playing situations.
I think of this as "pulling up the slack" in the student. In other words, the
potential is already there, the student just does not know how to access it.
When we pull up the slack on something, say a rope, we are making it useful by
getting rid of what is making it un-useful: extraneous and/or "un-integrated"
conditions. We get rid of the extra length of rope, tighten and integrate its
material and substance, and make it useful to our purposes by doing so. We can now
transmit our power, and our will, to the rope. Once we have done this, we have
increased our power, because we have made something more useful and available to us.
A person who can do this in all areas of life, is a person of power, and so, can
become a person of great achievement. They will be a person who has the ability to
create change, because power is the ability to create change.
All of this is the forceful process of doing what I have stated in the
aforementioned first step of the Basic Practice Approach; making a conscious and
deliberate attempt to "inventory" all recent experiences and insights based upon
them, and then making sure that those insights are applied to the present moment of
practice. This is a primary characteristic of a player who is going to become as
good as they can be, as fast as possible. This ability, used habitually, is a
primary characteristic of a great student, and ultimately, a great player.
When I pull up the slack on someone, it is always interesting to me that the
potential to do these things was already there in the student, before they came to
see me (it is amazing how much natural talent is out there). But, like most people,
they did not know how to practice, and they did not know the mechanically correct
way to go about doing various techniques on the guitar, and so the practice they
have done up till now has crippled their talent, they cannot fully exploit their
natural coordination, or flexibility, or whatever aspect of physical ability they
may possess. When a dose of proper training is administered, the results are often
instant and dramatic.
Having natural talent in no way exempts us from falling prey to all the potential
pitfalls that lie in wait for anyone on the path of guitar excellence, and there are
many. Many people, when they first pick up a guitar, find they have no trouble
"getting around" on the guitar. Their fingers have an obvious ability to move with
speed and flexibility, their brain has an obvious ability to formulate and execute
complex motor programs with their fingers. In spite of this, somewhere along the
way, and to one degree or another, they will begin to veer off the path of proper
development. They will most likely begin to take one or another of the many "exit
ramps" off the highway that leads to professional levels of guitar playing ability.
And then there is the poor student with modest talent but no lack of fervent desire
to play, who innocently places their guitar playing future in the hands of a
"teacher". So often, they end up like the hundreds of students I have met who never
became able to change simple chords with enough ease to do a song, even after years of trying, and years of so called lessons"! It is scary! If this many patients were
going to doctors and hospitals with no results, the streets would be lined with
bodies!
People take different exits. Some never get back on the road. Some get back on with
loose wheels, and notice they start to "shake" at high speeds. There is only one way
to stay on the highway and move swiftly and safely toward increasing levels of
ability, and that is to have as much instruction as possible from a master teacher.
When the teacher sees the student start to veer off the road, the teacher reaches
out and guides the vehicle back safely to the center of the fast lane.
Whichever exit they take, it will involve a few common elements. Some technique or
the other (it may be scales, picking, hammers, bars, etc.) will cause the student to
do things with a lack of skill. Even if the student can do it, they will be doing it
badly, with bad sound or rhythm, and/or they will be using 10 to 100 times the
effort and energy to "do it". Or maybe the student can do chords, but has a problem
with scales, or bars. Sooner or later, it is going to be something. Most deadly of
all, they will be locking tensions into the body which will limit, perhaps severely,
their ability to create further growth in their playing abilities.
These students, if they stay on the highway and continue to play, will be like cars
that have their noses jammed against a side rail. They keep generating a lot of
effort, but wonder why they don't go anywhere! A good teacher will take hold and
point there nose in the right direction by showing them what they are doing wrong,
and how to do it right, and they will begin to experience forward progress once
again.
Once I have revealed to a student what their true potential is, once they see what
can occur if certain laws of body/mind learning are respected, it is their
responsibility to make these changes to their usual approach a permanent part of
their practice approach. They must learn how to pull up their own slack, and prevent
future slack from developing. In this way, we can develop talent, because talent is
simply the tendency to do things the right way.
And that is where the wisdom of the 1st Step of the Basic Practice Approach comes
in. This is the reason we do this step, the reason we bother to review and increase
our understanding. We do this because we want to make sure that we apply all our
recent insights, everything we have learned in recent times. If someone is taking
lessons with me, they are getting a very heavy dose of new understandings, as well
as a deeper exploration and application of previous knowledge, in every lesson. It
is their responsibility to make the greatest effort to retain every drop of it, and
to use it as well. It is my responsibility to make sure they are doing this. When
this is done, powerful and consistent growth is inevitable.
It is no easy task, but everyone can make a beginning, and everyone will find that
it is worth doing.
Probably the most powerful way of doing this is to use a practice journal, as many
people are learning to do. In fact, our forum is a place where many people are
"journaling", as they post their progress, problems, and just about every facet of
the guitar learning process. Doing this, and reading what other people are doing, is
one of the best ways of positioning yourself to pull up your own slack.
Also, constant review of old material, done with the awareness and application of
all knowledge gained since the last time that material was played is vital. For
instance, it is very common that I will make a new fundamental discovery about
guitar technique, some new approach to doing something I have been doing for years, that is obviously superior and worthy of adopting into my technique. When playing previously learned material (and when you have been playing for 34 years, there is a lot of previously learned material!) I will constantly discover that new technical insights are not being used in my playing simply because I happened to become aware of them; they must be consciously and deliberately trained into the old music, the old movements. It is a constant process of pulling up the slack, integrating
non-integrated elements and resources.
It takes a constant focus and effort during practice, but it must be done in order
to know that I am playing up to my highest potential. It is true for me, you, and
everyone. If we are serious about ourselves as guitarists, we will make sure we are
always pulling up our slack, by making this first step of The Basic Practice
Approach a constant background theme to all our music making efforts.
Copyright 2003 Jamie Andreas.
Introducing "The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar: Part One" DVD!
Principled Players have been clamoring for this visual guide to all the Foundation
Exercises contained in "The Principles" since the publication of that landmark book
for guitarists, often referred to as "The International Bible of Guitar."
It has been two years in the making, writing and refining the script, and making
sure it gives complete instructions on how to properly practice all the techniques
covered in "The Principles" book, and adding many new things along the way, insights
and approaches that facilitate the learning process.
The entire DVD has one central purpose: to establish the proper bottom of your
practice. It will settle any questions you may have as to exactly how things are to
be done, and many of you will be quite surprised how slow "slow" really is! Jamie
guides you through each exercise, speaking out loud what is going on in his head,
and what should be going on in yours!
The DVD is not a substitute for the book, but a very powerful means of fully
absorbing what is in the book. It does not go into the detailed explanations of key
concepts contained in "The Principles" book; rather, the focus is to illustrate the
use of these concepts for the performance of the Foundation Exercises as they should
be done.
Click here to learn more!
Read reviews of the DVD from the Guitar Principles Forum!
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Additional Columns by Jamie Andreas
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- And 22 more in the Guest Columnists series, view the index
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