{"id":102834,"date":"2020-04-07T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/?p=102834"},"modified":"2020-10-22T03:05:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T10:05:15","slug":"tq-jrr-tolkien-hasty-stroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/tq-jrr-tolkien-hasty-stroke\/","title":{"rendered":"J.R.R. Tolkien on Precision, Accuracy and Consistency in Guitar Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tuesday Quotes are short explorations of music, life, and the daily endeavor of practicing classical guitar. Find more here<\/a>. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hasty stroke goes oft astray.\u201d <\/em><\/p> J.R.R. Tolkien<\/em> <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Playing\ntoo fast – this is the bane of most of our guitar practices. It\u2019s\neasy to do. It takes discipline and awareness to avoid. It feels good\nin the moment, but yields poor results over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nhow do we slow down in practice? While it sounds simple, it\u2019s not\nnecessarily so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nkey to high-quality slow practice is specificity. When we focus on\nspecific things, we change the level of our listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nwe play fast, we listen to the gestalt of our music. And as such,\nsmall mistakes slip by unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\ninstead we can slow down and focus on specific goals. And when we do,\nwe slow time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nwhat should we focus? Anything. Everything. Just one at a time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nconnection of each note to the next<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe volume\nof each note in relation to the one before<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nplacement of our left-hand fingers behind the frets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nmovement of our right-hand fingers through the strings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\ndifference in volume between the melody and bass notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nfeeling of the string under our finger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything\nspecific will do. When we get curious about a single element, we are\npulled to slow down. Otherwise, we can\u2019t focus on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthis is the way to better guitar technique. It\u2019s the way to more\nexpressive playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ncannot play a piece of music – we can only play one note, then\nanother. And after the sequence is done, what happened happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nquality of our playing is determined by the level of awareness we\nhave of each moment in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nwe slow down and put the microscope of awareness onto our playing, we\nimprove. We find challenging opportunities for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis timeless knowledge, shared in many ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u201cSlow is\nsmooth, and smooth is fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u201cHaste\nmakes waste\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u201cMind\nthe pennies and pounds take care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\ncommon knowledge is not common practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each\nday, when we sit down to play, we have to manage our own attention\nand energy. We can be mindful and inquisitive, or we can be hasty and\ncareless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which\nwill it be today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday Quotes are short explorations of music, life, and the daily endeavor of practicing classical guitar. Find more here. Enjoy! \u201cThe hasty stroke goes oft astray.\u201d J.R.R. Tolkien Playing too fast – this is the bane of most of our guitar practices. It\u2019s easy to do. It takes discipline and awareness to avoid. It feels good in the moment, but … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2973,"featured_media":102835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tuesday-quotes"],"yoast_head":"\nJ.R.R. Tolkien on Precision, Accuracy and Consistency in Guitar Practice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"J.R.R. Tolkien on Precision, Accuracy and Consistency in Guitar Practice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tuesday Quotes are short explorations of music, life, and the daily endeavor of practicing classical guitar. Find more here. Enjoy! \u201cThe hasty stroke goes oft astray.\u201d J.R.R. 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