Playing through mistakes

[jlosee]

Just a question on playing chords. When I am playing chord progressions and I mess up a chord, should I stop and correct the fingering, or play through it and move along?  I am at the point in my BBG course where I am playing the blues chords of C7, G7 and D7. G7 and D7 are going fine, C7 is a bear, much the same as B7 was earlier. (By the way, B7 has come along nicely).  My fingers just seem so much slower getting to C7, unlike D7 and G7 where they fall right into place.  Thanks for any input.

 

[gpower]

I'm sure there'll be varied opinions on this subject but, mine is play through and move on. You can always come back and work out things you're havin' trouble with.

 

[IrishRover]

I've heard this phrase on the forum and it bears repeating.  Don't practice your mistakes - they will become bad habits.  Just slow down until you can do it right then work on speeding things up.  It won't happen over night ( how well I know THAT) but it's better in the long run.

 

[Chuck]

I'm with IR, practicing mistakes makes for Bad Habits.  Slow it down,Way down if necessary and practice it until you get it, then pick up the pace.

Now once you know it and can play it right but make a mistake, play through the mistakes. I have to or I'd never get through the song ;D

 

[jlosee]

Thanks folks!

 

[560sdl]

I usually use that sort of thing as a cue that I need to work on a chord transition.  I will just go back and forth between the chords that give me the problems for a while.

 

[jhagan421]

Echo echo

-I am in the same spot  James.  With C7 (dont tell the teacher) I find myself, due to earlier practice before BBG - getting my fingers qucky into Gmaj,  C7 w/o the pinky, and eventually around mid measure I find it.  I would, and do, continue to play through it so that you proactice the strumming pattern, the timing and the progression even if it's not perfect.
If you are close and play through, its hard to hear it, if you stop, well...

 

[jlosee]

jhagen, thats pretty much how it goes. The fingers get there eventually.  Im not really even concentrating on muting the #1 and 6 string at this point. I will as I get more comfortable.

 

[560sdl]

Well there are different kinds of mistakes, arn't there?  Fingering/Fretting and timing, plus a few more.  Griff says many times that timing is more important than notes.  You are never going to be able to do both mistake free at the beginning, so playing through and working on timing is as important as playing proper notes, IMHO.

 

[Emilio]

Practicing the chord progression until all the notes ring clear is key.

I try to avoid keeping time etc until I am comfortable with the chord changes, and I firmly believe that practicing mistakes is a bad idea

Someone the forum pointed out to me that learning guitar is not a race. So I am all in on the DONT practice your mistakes option. For me personally, taking this approach seems to get me where I need to be faster, and sounding better overall

Again...This is only my personal opinion as a nube guitarist

 

[560sdl]

I agree that practicing mistakes is not a great idea at all.  But I also know that fingering chords is a skill that always gets better over time.  Barre Chords, for example;  If I stopped playing until I could get barre chords perfect, I would still be on lesson 2.  Is it really a mistake if every string does not ring out perfectly?  Working on any barre chord makes all of them better at some point.  

I am a firm believer in the saying "practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect", but I still also believe that the rhythm and timing are the more difficult things to master.  If you stop every time you make a mistake fingering something, not only are you making a mistake fingering, but you are adding a mistake in maintaining the rhythm.  To me this is twice as bad.  It is easy to stop.  It is hard to keep going and get back on track.

This might be where I am coming from the most.  If I screw up while running through a song with my band, I cannot expect everyone to stop and wait for me!  I have to recover and catch back up.  Hopefully I will discover the difficult points and work them out in my own time and be better next time.  But otherwise we would never practice a whole song ever

 

[Emilio]

Point taken 560

I definitely agree that you should not stop if you make a mistake in a band situation, and I also agree with your other comments, which is why I tried to articulate that my suggestion was only my personal opinion.

I guess as time goes by your approach would be beneficial, but I am a nube , and I find that getting the technique down works better for me INMO

 

[560sdl]

Emi,

My comment was not directed at you specifically :-[  Sorry if I made it seem that way.

 

[Emilio]

No worries 560

 

[jhagan421]

Emi, you probalbly scared 560 because your sylvester stares endlessly at the previous post
-Guitar playing like any other hobby (as this is for just about all of us) should never be a race, but we have to keep reminding ourselves of it, especially with Emi calling himself a nube, with all the real nubes envying his recordings

I watched a movie the other night "the curious case of Benjamin Button" (pretty good though long)  there was a great quote.
"Music is not about how well you play, it's about how you feel about what you play"

 

[RichC]

Learning chords can be frustrating and time consuming. Ill tell you what I do, mabey it will help.Look at what you want to learn and have available the fingerplacement of the chords you have to learn in the order you will use them (if possible). Then with no time practice (very slowly)finger chord number one lightley dont press down yet, just touch the strings in the appropriate position for the chord. Visually concentreate on your finger placement Then slowly pick all of your fingers off of the strings about a quarter of an inch leaving them in the chord shape. Slowly touch them down on the strings again (again no pressure yet). This is called posing.Once you can do this with no mistakes do the same proceess lifting you fingers an inch from the strings this time etc untill you can lift your hand up a coupla inches and reform the chord prior to puttting your fingers back on the guitar. Once you can do that, place your fingers down play the chord one note at a time. Once you get a clear notes on all strings. Do above again untill you can play the chord with no plinks. Increase your speed on that chord and then do the above process on chord number two. ONce you can do that Next practice changing from chord one shape to chord two shape (again just touching the strings no time) than compete the above on your chord change from one to two. Then speed that up. The learn chord number three and then practice changing from two to three. Once that works increase speed and then try one two and three. Do this for all of the chords. Once your ok with this go to the song and start slowly learning it first no time then slow time (mabey 60bpm change every four beats) then pick up the speed to 3 beats at 60 then 2 for each change etc. Once you have reached the appropriate bpm for the piece you want to play. Learn it. Whew it takes time but it works form me. Oh I usually will practice something for a month or so and if its not right and I cannot figure what is wrong and neither can anyone else I ask. Move on and come back to it at a later date.  Good Luck

 

[jlosee]

Thanks for the replies folks!

 

[Leigh]

Wow, Rich C.  I really like your method for learning chords. . . so much that I copied and pasted to a word doc so I could print it and keep it for reference.  Thanks

 

[Griff]

I like to chime in on these "practice habits" threads because this is such an important thing.

There's a long standing wisdom that was mentioned before about practicing mistakes. It is true that the first several times you play something are by far the most important. They set the stage for your ability to play it correctly down the road.

You absolutely must practice slowly and carefully many times over. The motions need to be correct and your brain needs to have time to assimilate that and put it all together.

But here is where most posts end and I'm just getting to what I feel is the most important part...

One of my hobbies is bicycling. Before my son was born it was not uncommon for me to go out and ride for several hours at a time. I have attempted one of the 10 hardest mountain bike rides in north america 3 times. I haven't yet finished it because I can't quite do it fast enough. So we're talking serious cycling.

What's that got to do with guitar playing you ask? The best way to build endurance for those long rides is to ride slow, not pushing yourself too hard, for long periods of time. That's basically the same as playing a piece of music slowly. You go slowly and deliberately and don't make any mistakes.

But on the bike, if all you do is ride slow, you get really good at riding slow! And that's NOT the goal of all of those training rides.

If you don't leave your comfort zone and push yourself once or twice a week, only for a few minutes, you don't build that next level. Similarly when you practice, if you play something 20 times slowly, then play it 2 or 3 times at full speed. Are you going to butcher it? Probably. But that's okay, it builds your finger speed, and over time it'll get there.

If all you do is practice slowly, you'll get really good at playing that piece of music slowly. Again, not what we want here. The speed will not quite come all on its own, you have to ask for it... not often, but you have to do that.

I've seen this technique work time and again with my students. Try it for yourself and you'll see.

Griff

 

[MikeS]

Thanks for the tip Griff. I'm struggling with the speed part right now in Solo 4, so I'll give that a try.
Mike