Although practice makes perfect, it is possible to over-practice. If speed is the prime motive then practising a lot is essential, however if you want to be able to improvise you must make sure that you don’t over practice.

When you over practice, you develop “muscle memory” and when playing a fast solo the next note can tend to be the next note on scale rather than the best melodic choice.

When you learn a scale, just learn it enough to know where all the notes are, then improvise over it using the scale to construct melodies. You may accidentally hit some wrong notes but this is fine - actually encouraged. It not only strengthens your knowledge of the scale plus the occasional wrong note can lead to new melodic discoveries.

When I hear some players playing a fast solo sometimes I think “this guy knows his scales” but that’s all. Some people have facility but lack in emotion or melody, better to strive for “feel” and melodic content even when playing aggressively or at speed rather than impress with a show of pure technical bravura. There are other musicians who make up for their lack of technical ability by laying back and playing how they feel.

What do you think? Do you tend to over practice? Or do you like to experiment with “wrong” notes?

---
Related Articles at Guitar2020.com:

No related posts

Hello,

This is the first post for guitar2020.com. My name is April Kerr and I’m an ex-student of Duncan’s. We’re working together to bring all of Duncan’s vast guitar knowledge to you all free of charge.

However in order to keep all the info free I’ve been looking for ways to make money online

John Chow has detailed many ways of doing this including Pay per Post, text link ads, google adsense etc. Although money will be earnt from this site please understand that this will not affect the way Duncan reviews any product.

The main reason for reviewing John’s site is that he will link back to this blog which will help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and improve Technorati rankings. This will in turn bring more visitors to the site which will allow Duncan to keep producing free guitar tutorials.

If you are looking to earn money from your own hobbies or knowledge I recommend you have a look at John Chow’s site.

Thanks

April

---
Related Articles at Guitar2020.com:

No related posts