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Practice like a pro-focus rotation
Being a great guitar player is an ongoing process which requires close attention and refinement of many different areas of playing. The guitar is an extremely responsible instrument. Anything from the way you angle your pick to how close to the fret you how down a note will affect the sound it produces. Attention to these finer details is what sets professional guitarists in a league of their own.
If you break down all the different areas of practice, you’ll probably come up with a long list of areas which you need to work on, depending on your current skill level. This can be rather overwhelming if you approach it in a linear way. A great way to approach different areas of practice simultaneously is a method called focus rotation.
Focus Rotation
Focus rotation is when you pick a few areas of practice (2 to 5) and keep changing your focus between those areas. The change in focus areas can be done in a couple of ways. First, you can set a fixed time for each area and move on to the next area of focus after the time has passed. Another way is to change your focus after each rep or a fixed number of reps you play.
To illustrate this concept, the following example will be used.
General area of practice
- Alternate picking
Focus areas
- Picking hand efficiency
- Picking hand articulation
- Picking hand relaxation
- Fretting hand efficiency
- Fretting hand relaxation
Phrase
The Practice phrase;
Method 1: Fixed time for each focus area (5 minutes)
The first method involves setting a fixed time for each focus area. Set a timer to go off every 5 minutes. For the first 5 minutes, ONLY focus
on the first area of focus - picking hand efficiency. Once you hear the timer go off, shift your attention to the next focus area and completely forget the previous one. Whichever area you are focusing on should be the only thing you are focusing on. Do not let yourself be distracted with those other areas of focus. Do this until you have gone through all areas of focus at least once.
Method 2: Fixed no. of reps for each focus area (4 reps)
This is similar to method 1, but instead of changing your focus every 5 minutes, change it after 4 reps of the scale pattern. You can cycle through the focus areas a few times using this method since going through one cycle wouldn’t take you that much time.
Practicing using this focus rotation method is great for a number of reasons. First, it allows you to really zero in on each focus area and make corrections as you cycle through the scale pattern without focusing on anything else. Next, it keeps your mind constantly stimulated since you are always changing your area of focus. You eliminate the risk of feeling bored during practice.
You can use this for any general and specific areas of practice you need to work on. Use the example here as a template and create your own focus rotation routine.
Use this approach to take your playing to the next level!!!
Learning to play guitar on your own can be frustrating and challenging, especially if you don’t know what to do. Having a great teacher makes the whole process more fun, enjoyable and gets you real results fast.
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