How to Overcome Performance & Technical Difficulties

Something I hear all the time from my guitar students is the familiar lament of making too many mistakes during a performance or guitar recital.

Once you've learned to play something on guitar slowly and accurately, why then do we make mistakes at a faster [performance] tempo?

Playing anything faster than you're used to will invariably produce a slight panic response - as if taken by surprise at the tempo increase. This isn't at all unusual. And there is a way to practise and prepare for the momentum of an allegro piece, or a speed metal lick, or whatever it is you are trying to play 'faster'...

The Guitar Practise Principle

Sometimes, increasing the tempo exposes weaknesses in technique that will have to be worked on separately, more slowly. But sometimes the mistakes occur just because some guitar techniques are not so firmly embedded into your long-term memory as others are. In this case, you can continue to iterate at 'stretch zone' tempo and overcome with a solid practise method.

The practise principle is simple - recreate the pressure of performance during your daily five minutes of guitar practise. Yes, I am advocating just minutes a day of focused guitar practise. After that's done, play what you like and give your brain a rest.

Using my very exclusive Performance Builder Practise Method, you'll be iterating over your technical and musical shortcomings within your 'stretch zone'. This is the tempo at which you begin to make mistakes, or begin to panic that you can't think fast enough.

These mistakes could be when you fail to get your fingers into position for the next chord. Or perhaps just struggling with accuracy in general when the tempo increases toward your ideal performance speed.

Know Your Practise 'Stretch Zone'

Within your 'stretch zone', you could be taking on a new technical challenge and practising very slowly to get it right. Your 'stretch zone' is also active when you are trying to acclimatise your mind to performance momentum - this is the place where you simply accept mistakes and use them to improve even further.

When Progress Seems Impossible

Some technical difficulties just seem impossible at first, and this causes lots of would-be musicians to quit...except for those with the tenacity to succeed at any cost, or those for whom a little pain is always worth the gain.

You really do need a soldier mentality towards learning and improving your abilities. The going will get tough, and just like with any battle, you'll have to dig deep and maintain faith in the way you are handling yourself - the way you are practising guitar. If you are doing it right, you'll improve... no matter what.

The better you get at practising, the quicker you'll be able to overcome all of your technical challenges. However, because practising to play guitar is very complex, learning to practise like a professional isn't mastered overnight.

This is why after over 40 years as a student of guitar, practising diligently with dogged persistence - I've finally collated and condensed everything I've learned about practising guitar into five speed learning methods. The one most relevant to this particular post is the Performance Builder practise method, which deals with overcoming technical difficulties at performance tempos.

As with all my learning methods, I've developed Guitar Practise Assist Cards that help students to remember the processes and principles of each learning method. The method details are explained to my guitar students during their lessons.

I want my students to be the best players they can be. It has taken a lifetime of my own obstacles, failings and successes to put these tried and tested methods to paper. I won't sell these to the world - they are exclusively available to my students. My goal is to help them make the most of their time between lessons, so that they can return each week and learn new things, make real progress, and get ever closer towards the next set of rewarding achievements.

So if you aren't getting enough progress from your practise sessions, I'd say you should get in touch and let me help you accomplish more than you might think you are capable of! At the very least, I'll transform how you practise and give you the tools you need to become a real guitar hero.

Remember, within the toughest challenges lay the biggest rewards. See you soon!