Practice Makes Perfect. Or Does it?

Does Practice Actually Make Perfect?

I've been thinking about the phrase "Practice makes perfect" for a while. I hear my students and others say it all the time. I have to disagree. Here's why.

I want you to change your perspective on the idea of practice.  What happens if you practice a skill perfectly every time? You get better and faster at that skill. What happens if you practice a skill incorrectly every time? You learn how to get it wrong, you then get better and faster at doing something wrong. So, practice does not make perfect, practice makes PERMANENT. Therefore, we need to refocus our intentions when we sit down to practice.  Here are a couple of thoughts I have about my practice time and how to get the most out of that time.

1. Intentional practice.  I used to just sit down and play the guitar. For hours. Then I'd be super excited that I got so many hours of practice in. By the end of the week I couldn't understand why my teacher was not impressed with what I'd done. So, what I had to learn to do was to go into each session with something specific to focus on.  I would play through whatever the assignment was from beginning to end. Then make notes about what parts needed to be worked on. I would number them and then organize the rest of the time into knocking out my numbered sections.  So, if I had a problem in bar 4 I would focus on bar 4 in my practice. DO NOT PLAY EVERYTHING FROM THE START! Focus on the trouble spot! The second part of intentional practice is choosing a technique or exercise that you're not good at and working it up. So in the end, don't go into your practice time blindly. Choose things to work on.

2. Slow Practice. Okay, this is an important one and one that is majorly overlooked. When we practice we are literally teaching our muscles what to do and how to do it. It's very important that we teach our muscles properly, from the start. This means attacking our music and technique intentionally slow. My guitar teacher in California was Martha Masters, she won one of the biggest solo competitions in the world, the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition. One of the key lessons she taught me was this,

"Never play faster that you can see the details of what you're playing", the other was "Never play faster than your guardian angels can fly". This means being able to see where you are and where you're going so you can do it clean.

She would have me play my music at about 1/3 of the tempo I wanted. This forced me to visualize what was coming up and how to prepare for it. I was also able to see every move I had to make and had plenty of time to adjust if something happened. So, play slow, for the majority of your practice.

3. Consistent practice.  Alright, last one, for now. Being consistent is the best practice. It's not a history test, you can not cram the night before for like 10 hours and expect to learn anything. Because we are teaching muscles and developing muscle memory, we need to be consistent in our practice. It's better to work for 15-20 minutes every day than it is to go for 8 hours two days before your lesson. Best practice is to choose a time of day that works for you where you can be undisturbed. Set a session for at least 30 mins. Here is an example of what my session looks like,

5-10 minutes of warm up. Scales, arpeggios, right hand technique, left hand technique.

New tunes, here I start mapping out how to learn new pieces, then I start working on them in sections

Old tunes, so that I don't lose what I've worked so hard to gain, I keep all my old music fresh. I choose to do this at the end of the session to keep my energy and focus solid for the new stuff.

Make a recoding of something. This is a chance to practice performing a piece of music, especially useful when concerts are coming up.

My time frame flexes wildly as I have 2 kids and students that I'm working with. 

Okay, just to recap. keep your practice intentional, not blindly playing whatever comes to mind. Be deliberately slow in what you practice. Don't rush things, be careful and make beautiful sounds. Lastly, be consistent in your schedule.   We'll be talking more about thoughts on practice as we go! For now, go make something beautiful.

What guitar should I get!!

What Kind of Guitar Should I get?

As a teacher of mostly beginning students I get this question a lot!

What the heck guitar should I get!!! There are so many styles and options I just don’t know where to start.

I’ve been teaching in Clarksburg and Germantown, Maryland for over 15 years and one truth has always guided my advice and my decisions on buying gear. What do you want to play? What do you see yourself playing and accomplishing with this guitar? My job as a teacher is to help achieve those goals and get you playing your favorite songs as quickly and painlessly as I can. So here are my thoughts on how to select a guitar.

1. What kind of music do you want to play? This is the first thing to think about. If you want to shred like Satriani or Van Halen, that 12 string acoustic is going to make your journey impossible.

   If you see yourself playing folk music, singing and strumming your favorite covers an acoustic steel string would be the way to go. These are great as you don’t need an amplifier, cables, effects and pedals. You can, but you don’t have to. Yamaha 700 and 800 series are my go to picks for starting students. These are fairly inexpensive guitars and you get a ton of guitar for the money. Both are under $200.

   If Classical is your thing like it is mine then a nylon string classical is your choice. You can find guitars here at every price point from

   If you see yourself as more of the hard rock, metal kind of player, you need to go electric. You can play some of that stuff on an acoustic, but, the electric is designed to do all that kind of work. Now we’re talking about a lot of options. There are so many different makes, models, styles, shapes and features. My advice is to plan on a price range and then hit the shop to see what falls in that range. Play everything you can get your hands on! This leads to my next point.

2. Body shape and size. This is important for two reasons. One, you need to love your instrument. I love the way my Telecasters look and feel so I love holding them and playing them. If you don’t love your guitar, you’re not going to play much.

   The next consideration is that it should be comfortable to play. Gibson Les Pauls are crazy heavy, and, the majority of that heft is in the back. I find playing these while sitting to be a pain in the back, literally. For me, this is a strap guitar. Some dreadnaught acoustics are super wide in the back end and can push your right arm and should up really high. Some love this, I don’t so I prefer a lower profile acoustic guitar.

   Now, there are as many shapes and styles as you can imagine. My advice for starting out is to try a few basic models out, this can help narrow down your preferences. Try out a Fender Strat, the classic strat is super comfy to play and a really versatile guitar. You can play, blues, rock, jazz, fingerstyle and heavy metal on this guy. Check out the Fender Telecaster, touted as mostly a country guitar, this guitar has been used by so many rock players it’s not even funny. Prince, David Gilmoure, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Brad Paisley, just to name a few. Try out a Gibson SG and Les Paul, and an Ibanez. These are a few of the more common guitars that you’ll see hanging on every guitar shop wall.

3. Price point. Go in to any shop with a price point in mind. Tell who ever is working that you’d like to stay withing $xxx amount of dollars, otherwise they’re trying to convince you that the $4000 1977 Vintage Fender Strat is what you need. I’d say you can get into a great guitar acoustic or electric for around $200. This should afford you a guitar that will last for years. I still have and play my first guitar that I got when I was 14! I Paid $120 for it and it’s till going.

These are some simple basic things to think about when choosing your first guitar. There are a lot more that we can go into for sure. These are some great topics to bring up with your guitar teacher. If you don’t yet have a teacher I’d love to be your teacher.

All my lessons are online at this point due to the Covid-19 issue. I do teach out of my house in Clarksburg, Maryland under safer conditions. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have about guitars, music in general or lessons. You can reach out with the contact link below! I’d be happy to offer and guidance on your guitar choices that I can.

Guitar lessons during the Covid-19 quarantine.

Hello and welcome to John Armato music! I’m a local Clarksburg, Maryland based guitar teacher. I have over 15 years experience teaching classical and rock guitar to students of all ages and levels. I teach at my home in Clarksburg, Music and Arts in Germantown and Olney Classical in Olney, Maryland.

I’ve had the pleasure of helping 100s of students learn to play their favorite songs on guitar. I’ve had students as young as 5 and as seasoned as 85! So, no excuse if you think “nah, I’m too old for that”.

I understand that most people are locked down right and probably getting really bored! This is a great time to get that guitar out of the closet and start learning how to play your favorite tunes. This is definitely a time when we could use more music to keep us grounded.

I wanted to just say that during this time I have stopped teaching face to face in my home and at school and have moved entirely to on-line lessons. I’ve been using Zoom and FaceTime and have finally gotten used to the latency issues that are inherent with online lessons. We’re still covering the same cool songs and learning out notes. I’ve been busy creating backing tracks for my students to play along with and have been creating a library of videos to help you all out.

Once things have calmed down and we get back to our normal lives, I’ll get back to jamming with you all face to face in my house.

Until then, don’t hesitate to reach out and get some lessons scheduled!

410-746-9446

jfarmato@gmail.com

or use the contact page here on this site!