From Struggling to Thriving: My Accelerated Approaches to Guitar Mastery
- Vin Leone
- Jan 9
- 4 min read
The Art of Effective Guitar Practise: Insights from a Lifelong Student and Teacher
One of my long-term guitar students once described me as “a scholar and a gentleman.” While I wouldn’t necessarily use those words to define myself, it’s a compliment that reflects my dedication to both teaching and learning the guitar.
I consider myself a scholar in the sense that I’m always learning. Even after years of experience, I continue to seek out new challenges in my guitar journey. It’s the “gentleman” in me that drives my commitment to helping my students become the guitar players they aspire to be - efficiently and effectively.
From Unfocused Practise to Targeted Learning
There was a time when I didn’t fully understand how to practise. As a younger, more confident guitarist, I believed that simply practising more hours would make me a better musician. But over time, I came to realise that improving quickly required something more; a deeper understanding of how the brain learns and how to optimize the technical and musical information for accelerated learning.
The Difference Between Practising and Playing
Early on in my teaching career, I often found myself telling students, “You’re not practising enough,” when they struggled to improve. At that time, I believed the key to progress lay solely in the amount of practise, assuming that my students simply weren’t practising correctly. I would offer exercises and studies but never fully explained how to practise effectively.
Imagine going to a car mechanic who gives you a list of tasks to fix your car but doesn’t show you which tools to use or how to use them. That was how I was teaching guitar thirty years ago - giving students tasks but leaving them to figure out the "how" on their own.
A Scholarly Approach to Guitar Learning
Over the last three decades, I’ve dedicated myself to studying how people learn, how memory functions, and how these principles apply to learning a musical instrument. By understanding the science behind learning, I can now guide my students more effectively. It’s not just about the hours spent with the guitar in hand; it’s about how you practise and how you approach learning.
Becoming a Better Teacher Through Research and Experience
Through years of studying learning techniques and cognitive science, I’ve become a more effective guitar teacher. Today, after several decades of learning about how the brain processes information, I’m in a better position than ever to help my students progress. I now understand how to ensure that each practise session is productive, allowing students to get the most out of every week.
My Accelerated Learning Guitar Practise Methods: A Guide to Effective Progress
Over the years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours practising the guitar - learning from both my successes and mistakes. Through this journey, I’ve developed my own accelerated learning methods, drawing on the techniques that have worked for me and discarding those that haven’t.
These methods are designed to help students avoid common pitfalls in their learning process and make consistent, measurable progress. I apply these strategies in all my face-to-face lessons, ensuring that students don't overwhelm themselves by trying to take on too much at once.
My Five-Step Practise Methods
To make the process of improvement easier and more structured, I’ve condensed complex learning into manageable stages with five-step speed learning methods. These methods guide my students through every aspect of their development, whether they’re overcoming technical obstacles, tackling musical or theoretical challenges, or refining their performance skills.
My exclusive five-step speed learning methods currently include:
The Perfect 5 - five steps for overcoming technical difficulties
Performance Technique Builder - five steps for improving all aspects of performance technique, from tempo to articulation and dynamics
Easy Chord Builder Technique - five steps for learning how to play chords smoothly and easily
Guitar Mechanics - five steps for building essential guitar motor skills with a three-minute, 30-day routine
These methods have reduced the necessary hours of weekly practise time for my students into just minutes - with more progress being made than ever before. And while it's completely understandable when my busy students can't always find the time or headspace to practise between weekly lessons, I'm now able to guarantee progress during every lesson by going through these methods with them.
My students don't need to feel guilty if they haven't managed to squeeze in any at-home guitar practise - I'll restore the path of continuous growth and consistent improvement during every face-to-face guitar lesson.
Introducing Practise Assist Cards
To support my students, I've created Practice Assist Cards that highlight key method principles and goals, helping them stay focused on the areas that will drive the most progress.
Key Takeaways for Effective Guitar Practise
Practise Smart, Not Just Hard: It's not about how many hours you practise, but how you approach your practise. Focused, deliberate practise with structured methods leads to faster improvement.
Understand How You Learn: By understanding how your brain processes information, you can optimize your learning process and make practise more efficient, ensuring that every session brings measurable progress.
Guidance Matters: It’s not enough to just give students tasks - they need clear, structured guidance on how to approach those tasks. With my speed learning methods, my students can follow a proven path to overcome technical, musical, and theoretical challenges.
By applying these principles and following a structured practise routine, you’ll not only improve more quickly, but you'll also build lasting skills that will serve you in all areas of guitar playing.
Comments