"Perfect the Shred"
The Importance of Having a Repertoire
By Jamie Andreas
(www.guitarprinciples.com)
Over the years, I have met many guitar students who could not actually play
anything, even
though they had taken lessons, perhaps for years. If they were asked to play
something, the
best they could do would be offer you some isolated "pieces" of songs or solos
they had worked on.
They are missing certain pieces of knowledge about the Art & Science of
practicing that would
enable them to get past a hurdle that stops the progress of many guitar
students: how to actually finish
something you are learning, and bring it up to what is called "performance
level", which is another way of
saying "I can get through this without it falling apart so badly I can't keep it
going", or "I play it all the way
through well enough to not cause me major embarrassment, or the listener major
discomfort, or pain".
Do you have a repertoire? (pronounced rep-eh-twah)
Answer these questions:
-Do you have a group of songs or pieces that you feel comfortable with, feel
confident with, and that you enjoy playing?
-If someone asks you to play something, do you have things you can sit down (or
stand up) and play?
-Do you have a group of songs or pieces that you can play all the way through,
not just "pieces of"?
-Have you tested and refined your repertoire by playing in front of people?
Here is a letter I recently received, expressing this problem from someone who
made the wise decision
to educate themselves out of this situation.
Jamie,
"Your book arrived
today. I am really hoping that your book can help me. I'm getting tired of
"trying" to play.
I want to be able to play for myself and others, i.e., have a repertoire of at
least 10 songs under my fingers
that I can play without embarrassing myself. At the moment I can't seem to
struggle through a simple song,
Devil's Dream, without fumbling even though I know, or at least think I know,
it. I have been looking for
the correct way to practice for some time. When I saw your article at
Wholenote.com and the name of your
book, I had to check it out. I'll let you know what happens." -
Steve
This letter was good timing, since I had just decided to write about this very
important subject of why
you need a repertoire, and how to develop and maintain one.
There are many reasons why having a repertoire is vital to developing properly
as a guitarist, and I will go
through them. But first, let me tell you that the reason many "players" don't
have a repertoire is: #1) Nobody
told them how important it is, and #2) Nobody told them how to GET one, #3) it
is EASIER to leave things
half finished, in pieces, than to put it together. In fact, putting something
together, in tempo, and bringing
it up to performance level, is often the hardest part of the whole process of
learning a piece.
Play For Yourself First...
Some people always practice, and never play. Others always play, and never
practice. Each is bad, but the
first is worse. One day, in the early part of my development, I happened to just
grab the guitar, and start playing this
piece I was working on in lessons. I realized then, as I started to notice how
much I enjoyed playing this little Baroque
Sarabande, that I rarely allowed myself this pleasure of "playing", I was too
busy "practicing". It is times like this that
I say to myself, "Jamey, you are an idiot. Now, stop being like that!".
And I did! I began to sit every night, after practicing all day, light a candle,
and just PLAY. No obsessing
about mistakes, or self flagellation about how well I "should" be playing this
piece; just playing, and enjoying.
For me, that was the beginning of developing a repertoire; responding to the
simple need of
feeding myself emotionally by playing music. I was getting back to the
original point of it all, the thing that
made me pick up the guitar in the first place, before I complicated the whole
issue with "my concerns".
...Then Play for
Others
As time went on, I realized that if I didn't start performing, offering and
sharing the results of my "work" with others,
I would not get any better. I was starting to feel my motivation for practicing
getting weaker, and I knew it had
something to do with not having a REASON enough for practicing. Playing for
myself the rest of my life was only going
to take me so far. I realized that if I did not learn HOW to give a finished
form to the many things I was practicing every day,
(a finished form that would hold together in front of others) I would simply not
break through to the next level as a player.
So I realized that, like it or not, I had to start performing (and there were
many parts of it I didn't like). I had to accept the
fact that it would be a shaky start, I would often play with mistakes and
various imperfections, but if I did not
subject myself to this, I would not learn how to make it all better. So at
first, I started to "create"
performance situations" for myself.
I started grabbing family members, and made them sit down and listen to me play
a piece or two, just so I could
experience the pressure and nerves, and see where I would fall apart, so I could
focus on that spot in the next day's practice.
Then, I started planning a piece to perform for my teacher at the beginning of
every lesson. He didn't ask me to do that,
I just would go in and say "before we start, just let me play this piece for
you". After every lesson, I would plan
the piece I would play next.
As I continued to do this, I got better and better. By setting these informal
"performance goals" for myself, I began to
see that my practicing was taking on more "structure" and organization, I now
had more of a reason for practicing.
The payoff of course, was the satisfaction of having achieved the ability to
play something for someone else, and receiving
their gratitude (applause). For those of you suffering from "lack of
motivation" to practice, let me tell you that there is
nothing like that experience for acting as an instant shot of "motivation
medicine"! As Beethoven said after
playing for a group of people who were too moved emotionally to applaud "what's
the matter with you people,
a performer wants APPLAUSE!"
From there I went to giving public concerts, and the fun of seeing my picture in
the paper!
How to Get a Repertoire: Write it Down!
I'I have often
written of the need for developing your Power of Intention, the ability to feel
a desire consciously, and put your actions
behind it to bring it to reality in your life. One of the important tools for
doing this is to WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN,
AND LOOK AT THEM OFTEN (many people write them down in a fit of resolve one
day, and avoid looking at them later,
because it is too depressing to face how they are avoiding working toward
them!)
Putting your desires in writing helps to marshal the inner resolve to put forth
the effort to accomplish them. As you begin
to discover your own power for doing what you say (have written down) you will
do, it gets easier, and in fact, becomes fun.
As a first step, write down 3 songs or pieces that you like, and that you feel
are within your present level of playing ability.
It doesn't matter what they are, it is just important to start somewhere, and it
will develop from there.
After practicing them each day, record them, (use a cheap little hand held
cassette player). Listen back, don't wince at the mistakes,
but resolve to practice those parts the next day as correctly as you know
how!
You will see these pieces or songs getting better and better.
When you are getting through things reasonably well, plan on who your first
victim will be, the first person you will try playing your
developing repertoire for. I usually try to pick someone who really likes me!
Record that too. Later as you listen back, you can have the reassurance of
knowing you are now hearing yourself at your worst.
It won't get any worse than that! You will have undoubtedly fallen under the
power of Murphy's Law, which was invented specifically
for performing musicians: everything that could possibly go wrong, will have
gone wrong!
Now that you have hit bottom, and faced your worst fears, there is no where to
go but up! You will take that tape, and little by little,
every day, you will improve it. In a month, you will have significantly raised
your level as a guitar player, in fact, you may begin
for the first time to feel like a guitar player, instead of a guitar student!
The next time you "perform" those pieces, they will be better, and the next time
and the next time.
As time goes by, you will have a SOLID repertoire.
Personally, I have things I can pull out and depend on no matter how many beers
I have had, or how tired I am. That's because
these pieces have been tested, refined, and tested again over the years. All
longtime players develop these "trusted friends".
Ask yourself how you measure up when it comes to having a repertoire (I'll bet
you already have). Try out the ideas presented here, and
you will have increased power to realize your goals as a guitar player.
click here for
other players reactions to this essay!
Copyright © 2000 by Jamie Andreas, Guitarprinciples.com.
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